American Graffiti
| American Graffiti | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster | |
| Directed by | George Lucas |
| Written by | George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck |
| Produced by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Starring | Richard Dreyfuss Ronny Howard Paul Le Mat Charles Martin Smith Candy Clark Mackenzie Phillips Cindy Williams Wolfman Jack |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
Release dates | August 11, 1973 |
Running time | 110 min., 112 min. (1978 re-release) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | USD$750,000 |
American Graffiti is a 1973 film directed by George Lucas. It tells the story of a group of middle-class American teenagers in small-town California, on the last night of the summer vacation after their graduation from high school. It is set in 1962 against the backdrop of commentary and music spun by disc jockey Wolfman Jack This film is number 48 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".This movie ranked number 6 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)
More American Graffiti, a sequel, was released in 1979 to lukewarm critical and commercial reception. George Lucas has also stated that the Roger and Penny Henderson characters in his 1994 film Radioland Murders are intended to be Kurt's mother and father.
Production
The script was written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. Although the movie was based upon the memories of George Lucas regarding his teenage years in Modesto, California it was shot on location around San Rafael and Petaluma in the Bay Area of Northern California. It features Mel's Drive-In formerly located at 140 S. Van Ness in San Francisco. The low-budget movie was mostly filmed at night over the course of less than a month.
Storyline
Template:Spoiler The film focuses on vignettes about the four young men: Curt, Steve, Terry, and John. Curt is not sure if he wants to go off to college, despite receiving a lodge scholarship, much to Steve's consternation. Steve, on the other hand, is not sure about his relationship with steady girlfriend Laurie, Curt's sister. Curt spends the whole night riding around in other people's cars obsessing about a mysterious blonde driving a white Ford Thunderbird.
John splits his time between trying to pick up girls, "baby-sitting" a precocious 14-year old girl, and defending his reputation as the fastest drag racer in town. Terry uses Steve's car to pick up a girl.
By the end of the night, only one character goes off to college, while the other decides to be less adventurous and remain in town. As the film closes, a series of onscreen title cards reveal the characters' ultimate fates: one is killed by a drunk driver two years later, another is reported as missing in action in Vietnam, one of the protagonists becomes an insurance salesman, while another avoids the draft by moving to Canada and becoming a writer. At the time it was released, this type of epilogue was unique to American film. However, since then it has been copied by other filmakers many times. Template:Endspoiler
Cast
American Graffiti starred Richard Dreyfuss (Curt Henderson), Ron Howard (Steve Bolander), Paul Le Mat (John Milner), Charles Martin Smith (Terry Fields), Candy Clark, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford. It also featured one of the first major public appearances by disc jockey Wolfman Jack. Suzanne Somers had a small but notable part as a blonde in the Ford Thunderbird, and Kathleen Quinlan appears briefly (as a friend of Cindy Williams' character) at the school dance.
Historical Accuracy
The movie gained some of its popularity through its accurate reflection of period music that is broadcast on The Wolfman Jack Show. Every car radio in town is tuned to the same radio station and each listener feels they have their own personal relationship with the hip DJ. Many times the characters seem to feel even closer to Wolfman Jack than to the person sitting next to them in the car. The mysterious radio personality causes each listener to imagine what the Wolfman really looks like and where he is. Some speculate that he is a "Negro" who broadcasts from a plane that flies in circles. Others believe he broadcasts out of Mexico using a local transmitter, just outside of town, as a clearing station in order to fool the cops. However, the depiction of Wolfman Jack broadcasting live from a local studio in California via a transmitter in Mexico is not accurate, since provisions of the Brinkley Act forbade cross-border broadcasting.
In reality, Wolfman taped his daily XERB show onto several 10" reel-to-reel tapes in his Los Angeles studio. Each tape held about an hour's worth of specific recorded material on it. For example, one tape would have music only on it, while another had phone calls, and still others contained introductions or local LA commercials. Then the tapes, (along with instructions on how to put the show together), were transported into Rosarita, Mexico to be broadcast from XERB's 50,000 watt transmitter site on the following day. On any given night the radio waves would reflect off the ionosphere carrying the signal into California Valley towns like Fresno and Modesto and even further up into Canada and Alaska.
Academy Awards
The film is included in the National Film Registry.
Inspiration for TV series
- Although it began as an unsold pilot called "Love and the Hasppy Days," the unexpected success of American Graffiti helped to inspire ABC to give the green light for the television series, Happy Days, which also starred Ron Howard. Both shows also featured as their theme song "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, which led to the song returning to the American record charts in 1974, 20 years after it was recorded.
- On Happy Days Laverne De Fazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (American Graffiti-star, Cindy Williams) were two girls who were love interests for Richie Cunningham and Fonzie. Their occasional appearances led to their own series, Laverne and Shirley, which took place in the same city as Happy Days, Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the 1950s. The show debuted in January of 1976 and was an instant success. Ranking number 3 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1975-1976 season, the sit-com lasted 7 years.
Trivia
- George Lucas has stated that the Roger and Penny Henderson characters in his 1994 film Radioland Murders are intended to be Kurt's mother and father.
- The scene in which the rear axle of a police car is pulled completely off was proven unlikely to actually happen in an episode of MythBusters. The hosts of Myth Busters theorized that a ramp was used in American Graffiti to give the car and axle enough of a boost to wrench the axle completely free.
Lucas was able to achieve the awesome spectacle without a ramp as the hosts of Myth Busters had surmised. According to the "PETALUMA CELEBRATES AMERICAN GRAFFITI" web page, the act of damaging the patrol car in the film was meticulously planned. The entire rear axle of the car was cut away from the frame and body and the cable(in the movie a chain was used. The real event involved a heavy cable) was attached. The other end of the metal cable was not attached to a light pole (as in the story) but rather to a winch on a heavy-duty 10-wheel tow truck that was parked in the darkness at the far end of the lot. As the car sped away from its parked location, at the exact moment when it crossed the sidewalk, the winch was activated. The pulling of the cable along with the force of the forward moving car caused the axle to be effectively yanked from beneath the car.[1].
- Additionally, the vandalized patrol car scene is similar to one depicted in a 1963 episode of Leave it to Beaver. In episode # 231, Eddie Haskell and the Cleaver boys fastened one end of a chain around a tree trunk and the other around the rear axle of their friend, Lumpy’s car. When Lumpy tried to move his car it caused unforeseen damage as the entire third member and wheels became detached.
- The 1975 film Cooley High, about several Black high school students in 1960s Chicago, is frequently compared to American Graffiti.
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), also directed by George Lucas, features two references to American Graffiti: The yellow airspeeder that Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi use to pursue the bounty hunter Zam Wesell is based on John Milner's yellow deuce coupe. Also, Dex's Diner is reminiscent of the diner featured in American Graffiti [2].
- David Willardson did the famous (uncredited) air-brush artwork for the cover of the American Graffiti soundtrack. A few years later, he worked for Lucas & crew again by producing the famous Raiders of the Lost Ark movie logo.
- In the movie Swingers (1996) the license plate on Jon Favreau's car reads THX 138. The license plate is identical to the one on John Milner's '32 Ford deuce coupe in American Graffiti. The license plate in Graffiti is an homage to George Lucas' first feature film, THX 1138, while the same license plate in Swingers is tribute to American Graffiti.
- The high school that the characters had just graduated from, is called Dewey High, a reference to the actual high school George Lucas attended. However the real name of the high school is Downey High. According to an article on "KIP PULLMAN'S AMERICAN GRAFFITI PAGE," all the high school Sock Hop scenes were filmed in the boys gym at Mt Tamalpais High School in Marin county while the school bathrooms, the hallway with lockers, and parking lot were filmed at Petaluma High School.[3].
Honorable Mention
- "American Graffiti" is mentioned by Suzanne Somers' husband Alan Hamel (played by David Birney) in the 1991 made-for-TV film "Keeping Secrets", Somers' autobiography in which the actress portrays herself. It is also mentioned by Elizabeth Lymon Waters (played by Vivica A. Fox), one of Lymon's three widowes, the 1998 film "Why Do Fools Fall In Love (film)".
References
- ^ "Behind the Scenes of American Graffiti". PETALUMA CELEBRATES AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
- ^ "Dex's Diner". starwars.com. Retrieved 2006-10-02.
- ^ "On Location". Kip's Best American Graffiti Page. Retrieved 2006-10-25.