A Reel 50: AMERICAN GRAFFITI

“It doesn’t make sense to leave home to look for home, to give up a life to find a new life, to say goodbye to friends you love just to find new friends.”

 

This month marks the 50^th anniversary of George Lucas’ AMERICAN GRAFFITI. 

 

The second feature film directed by Lucas, AMERICAN GRAFFITI took place on a summer evening in 1962, with high school graduates ending their summer vacation and suddenly faced with the daunting black hole of what to do with the rest of their lives. The film was inspired by Lucas’ own teenage years, with much of the action, drama, romance, and comedy taking place as teens cruised a main drag in their cars. 

 

In 1969 (real time), Lucas had taken his first feature film, THX-1138, to the Cannes Film Festival. There, he made pitch to United Artists to do a rock n’ roll movie, with cruising, music, and deejays. With the help of his friend and producer Francis Ford Coppola, AMERICAN GRAFFITI would eventually land at Universal with Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck assisting with the screenplay. 

 

The casting would involve a future roster of Hollywood stars and artists: Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Charles Martin Smith, and Cindy Williams…and they would be joined by Paul le Mat, Candy Clark, and Mackenzie Phillips. Famed radio deejay Wolfman Jack would be heard in the film throughout the radios of the many hot rods and classic cars. 

 

Filming began in San Rafael but would eventually relocate to Petaluma, both in California. Famed editor Verna Fields, who still had an Oscar in her future for cutting JAWS (1975), would edit. The initial cut of the film was asked to be made shorter by the studio, but thanks to a famous shouting match led by Coppola, only five minutes were cut. The soundtrack would be packed with 41 songs from 35 groups…including Bill Hailey and the Comets, Buddy Holly, The Beach Boys, and Del Shannon. 

 

Reviews were sensational, and with a budget of only $700K, the box office numbers would be one of the biggest returns in history at the time. At the 46^th Academy Awards, it would be nominated for five Oscars: Best Picture, Director (Lucas), Supporting Actress (Clark), Screenplay, and Editing (Fields). The Golden Globes would name it the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Paul le Mat would win Most Promising Newcomer (male). In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. 

 

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George Lucas not only recreated his teenage years with AMERICAN GRAFFITI, but he had also created a unique style with several different and unrelated stories intertwining. This was a new technique that both cinema and television would latch onto to this day. The film’s use of musical collages to underscore the action and reinforce the time period was also something new. On a technical level, it advanced camerawork and cinematography for filming at night. 

 

AMERICAN GRAFFITI was another signal at the time of the new wave of directors that were about to take over Hollywood and set things on a drag race that continues to this day. Coppola’s THE GODFATHER had come just the year before, and a kid by the name of Spielberg was just two years away from becoming a household name. The film looks at the end of innocence for the characters (unbeknownst to the players, JFK was in his last days…who has an unseen presence), and it stands as a bookmark for when Hollywood would also find its own high school days about to end. 

 

Change was certainly on the way, starting with the cast. Harrison Ford would have Indiana Jones and Han Solo in his future, Ron Howard would move into directing, Richard Dreyfuss found his star in ascension, and Cindy Williams would be on her way to a successful career in TV. As for Lucas, AMERICAN GRAFFITI elevated his name to a top-notch filmmaker, but we would still be unprepared for what he would do next. 

 

“You’re the most beautiful, exciting thing I’ve ever seen in my life and don’t know anything about you.”