American Graffiti

American Graffiti, 1973
American Graffiti (Collector's Edition) (High School Reunion Collection)



I've tried watching this movie on a couple of occasions and for one reason or another I've just never seemed to make it beyond the fifteen minute mark. I guess the third time is the charm, because with the 365 Movie Challenge - I will finally see the entire movie! Hooray.

After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)

Oh George Lucas and your coming of age stories! But Oh George Lucas am I certain you had to have driven your crew a little crazy. The movie was shot in as little as twenty-nine days, and faced its own share of complications. I wouldn't necessarily say that I've worked on a lot of movies, but I've worked on enough to realize that shooting a movie in twenty-nine days is tough and each project will face it's own individual hurdles. Prior to shooting one of the lead actors had been arrested for growing marijuana, the car mounts (pictures below) had taken nearly half a day to assemble creating what I can only imagine to be a big headache for the AD who is responsible for scheduling the shoot. Locations problems, including a fire and losing locations during production. Yikes! These are the things an AD's nightmares are made of.

Another note worthy thing about the movie though was how it was shot mostly at night and how the movie had been shot in sequence, which is typically avoided to save time and money for production. Reportedly the movie was shot in sequence as a way to help actors progressively look tired as production went on. While this makes sense to a degree, I almost wonder if it was one of those things that Lucas realized after the fact and has just pretended it was always intended. I like to imagine it was the later of the two and Lucas is a big pretender. (I realize pretender sounds funny, but is it better to say pretender than faker? I think maybe.)

The meat of the story is how a group of teenagers and young adults spend their last night at home before going off to college. It's not bad, the movie is actually highly regarded as one of the best movies made. I just think it's a coming of age story from more of a guys point of view.

Final thoughts? I don't know. At the risk of stepping on a few toes and ruffling a few feathers, I guess after watching the movie I'm a little let down. I really wanted to love the movie the way I loved Fried Green Tomatoes, but at best I only just kind of like the movie the way I just kind of liked The Last Picture Show. I had a hard time following and staying interested in some aspects of the story line - and names well those I can never keep those straight.

I'm sure this movie is close to a lot of hearts, but it seems to have fallen short of mine.

OFFICIAL COUNT 110 DOWN 255 TO GO

Next up: Driving Miss Daisy

Disclaimer: These are the particular car mounts that were responsible for holding up production, but they're pretty standard. And let me beat you to the punch Nay Sayers, it isn't directly related to the movie, but it gives people an idea of what goes on behind the camera.