I've mentioned in the past that there's another movie blogger out there -- I don't remember which one -- who started something called the "Blind Spot" series, in which bloggers come up with 12 well-known movies they haven't seen yet, and watch one a month over the course of a year. I've never participated in it, mostly because I don't have my movie viewing planned out that far in advance. But if I did participate in it, the sort of movie that would be liable to show up on the list is American Graffiti. TCM ran it over the summer, and it's also in the Flix (part of the Showtime family of channels if memory serves) rotation, including an airing tomorrow (October 20) at 8:00 PM. So with that in mind, I sat down to watch it.
I knew going in that American Graffiti isn't a movie with a traditional straightforward plot, but instead something that looks at one night in a bunch of people's lives, much the way Dazed and Confused does, only with a different time and place. In the case of American Graffiti, that time is August, 1962. So instead of the start of the summer, or even the 4th of July as in Ah, Wilderness!, we have a much bigger time of transition, as some of the graduating class of 1962 is about to go off to college.
The two are Steve (Ron Howard), who has a girlfriend in the form of Laurie (Cindy Williams); and Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), who got a scholarship from the local lodge and is under much more pressure to go to college and make something of his life. Both are part of a circle of friends in Modesto, CA, but both have been accepted to school in the east, with flying all the way across the country a somewhat bigger deal than it is nowadays. Curt is having second thoughts about flying to coop, feeling as though he's living the life other people want for him, and not the one he wants for himself. It's going to be up to Steve to convince Curt to go to college.
The third friend in the group is Terry (Charles Martin Smith). He doesn't have a car, which is a source of frustration, as cars are increasingly becoming a status symbol among the teens, who like to cruise up and down the main streets listening to the music of the day (well, actually, some of the songs are from the late 1950s) played by disc jockey Wolfman Jack. Rounding out the main crew is John (Paul Le Mat), who does have a car, an old hot rod that has given him a reputation for being the fastest man around, and someone that Terry really looks up to. But John's life isn't all it's cracked up to be, not least because he gets stuck with a bratty kid in the form of Carol (Mackenzie Phillips before the drugs).
Along the way, the various teens have a bunch of different adventures, such as trying to find places where they can be alone in order to make out, or trying to score alcohol even if they're underage. Curt gets waylaid by the "tough" gang headed by Joe (Bo Hopkins), while Terry borrows Steve's car, only for it to be briefly stolen. But soon enough the morning is going to come, and what future is each of these people going to have?
American Graffiti was an early film from director George Lucas, before Star Wars typecast him as the director of big budget effects films. The movie was in many ways personal for Lucas, he himself having grown up in Modesto, and it shows that he really could have been a lot more than the typecasting turned him into. There's something for pretty much everyone to look back on, even if most of us didn't have that specific experience.
If you haven't seen American Graffiti before, do yourself a favor and watch it.
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