Open Mike: Shut In and Locked Down? That's What Old Movies Are For (OT)

["Open Mike" is the often off-topic, anything-goes Editorial Page of TOP. It appears on Wednesdays.]

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Cars and music both play big roles in American Graffiti. Mel's drive-in, which was in San Francisco, was demolished not long after the movie was filmed.

This isn't a movie review. It's a review of one guy watching one movie.

I read that people are watching old movies because they're penned in the house by the pandemic, so, on a whim, I decided to get with the program. Clicked on Amazon Prime and American Graffiti popped up. So I watched again a movie that I first saw when I was 16.

It has always been one of my favorite movie memories. Just as an aside, most peoples' favorite movies come from the ones they saw during their formative years. It's a sign of a real movie buff when that's not the case. I have a few older movies on my favorites list, but that's only because of the Dartmouth Film Society, where I saw lots of old classic movies...during, yup, my formative years.

Unlike some old movies that I cherish in memory, this one was just as good from the perspective of late middle age as it was when I was a kid. I thought it was hilarious when I was a teenager—I laughed out loud in the theater when the cop car pops its axle (a scene which was much more subversive and transgressive then)—and now the jokes no longer strike home with nearly the same force. But if anything, the movie is even richer to me now as a period piece, a character study, and a masterpiece of pacing, editing, storyline, casting, and dialogue.

Here's where you stop reading if you don't like spoilers
It's a story of four young men who've graduated from high school and whom life is about to take in separate directions. There's John Milner, the greaser mechanic and hot rodder who plays the tough guy but has a soft side; persecuted but still game and friendly Terry the Toad; and best friends Steve and Curt (Steve dates Curt's sister), who discover they're on opposite sides of their longtime plan to leave their hometown and take their lives higher and farther. In one epic all-nighter, John gradually becomes a tragic figure, a personification of the old Shakespearian line "uneasy is the head that wears a crown," even as he is gradually revealed to be tender-hearted and gallant; and (as the movie's clown figure), luckless, ugly-duckling Terry magically gets everything he ever wanted—great car, beautiful girl—and has the worst night of his life. Steve and Curt start out as opposites—they've worked for months to leave their little California town for college "in the East," but Steve is eager to escape and Curt is having second thoughts. Over the course of the evening, Curt has to confront his desire for something more, something "exciting and dazzling," in form of a fleeting connection with an elusive blonde in a white Thunderbird who he chases for the rest of the evening, and he gets dragged into various crimes and associations that could make remaining in town uncomfortable for him. Meanwhile, it turns out that Steve had probably been gung-ho about escaping because he'd seen his likely future all too clearly: he'd been feeling the tractor-beam pull of marriage and a humdrum small-town life. The appeal of which becomes clear to him when he almost loses it, in the fiery penultimate scene. By morning, the two friends have both accepted their destinies and have switched places—Curt leaves, Steve stays.

And as Curt's plane disappears in the sky (the movie's version of riding off into the sunset), we learn the fate of our four protagonists.

Harrison Ford, who interrupted his chosen career as a carpenter to play John Milner's hot-rod challenger, refused to cut his hair for the part and got drunk on set every night

What I didn't know about the movie is how hard the then-little-known George Lucas had to fight to realize the vision he had for the film. He realized that much of the culture he took for granted in his own teen years had been a candle in the wind, a brief moment between the complacent 1950s and the Kennedy assassination, the "British Invasion," and the counterculture of the tumultuous '60s. He wanted to commemorate it accurately, if also lovingly, and the movie has been widely praised for being a sociological record of what that brief era felt like to live in. His intention was to direct; but the first script he commissioned was cynical and conventional, so he fired the screenwriter he had hired and began to craft the story line himself—the partners he wanted to work with were off toiling on other projects. In the final draft those partners returned, and the trio worked especially hard to rewrite the storyline between Steve and his sweetheart Laurie. It shows. We learn a great deal about those two characters and their relationship through the most economical of means, and as the movie progresses it becomes a romance that's all the more beautiful for being so true to life.

The aging, popsicle-eating disc jockey (Wolfman Jack playing himself) knows he can't live up to his on-air persona, so he stays in the shadows. As with everyone else, Curt has his number.

The film was one of the first to use a series of real pop songs in place of a soundtrack—a commonplace technique since then—and clearing the rights to the many songs was a significant impediment to bringing the project to life. One holdout was Elvis Presley, so there are no Elvis songs in American Graffiti. Matching songs to scenes is also believed to have been an important part of the way George Lucas went about organizing his material.

It was shot in a low-key, unassuming, vaguely verité style on 35mm film. Like Asphalt Jungle, another favorite of mine, most of the action takes place at night, with the exception of the final scene.

Probably the most moving scene in what was designed as a comedy is the final pane, the epilogue as it were, that shows the fate of each of the four friends. Diverge their lives did...one died in Viet Nam while another (it's implied) dodged the draft in Canada, for instance. (I assumed when I was 16 that Curt was the fictional alter-ego of the writer of the movie. Not true, exactly. But in the context of the fictional world of the movie I'm going to keep thinking so.) In any event, knowing in advance the contents of that last pane makes the brief junkyard scene far more poignant—the king foreshadowing his own downfall—and lends retrospective nobility to the hapless Toad.

What's past was prologue
American Graffiti is that rara avis in Hollywood, a work of artistic integrity and authorial vision, and it's very famous now. Ironically, given that it was rejected by no less than four big studios and criticized by studio bosses as a non-starter because it didn't have any stars, many of its then-unknown actors went on to become big names in movies and on television. Even the woman in the Thunderbird, seen only in glimpses, obliquely, went on to star in a sitcom. Director Lucas, who arguably couldn't have made Star Wars if it weren't for the success of American Graffiti, is now one of the most famous and richest filmmakers in history. And the movie itself earned the distinction of having the largest return for the smallest investment of any American film ever: as a low-budget first effort by an unknown, all-in, including its promotion budget, it cost about one and a quarter million dollars to make, and it has earned hundreds of millions worldwide. There have been bigger blockbusters, but none were ever made on such a shoestring. The list of the honors it's been given is as long as your arm—it's included in numerous top-100 lists. It lost out for Best Picture in 1973 to The Sting, a good film on the level of The Grifters and Blood Simple, but which of the two would you call the better movie now?

I'm sure most of you have seen it. But it's a nice movie to rewatch. Seeing it again reconnected me not only to a vanished America I never knew firsthand, not only to my teen self, but to a style of movie-making I miss. A lovely film to revisit.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

David Hamilton: "Ironically The Sting was one of the first movies I saw growing up. I still haven’t seen American Graffiti. That’ll be rectified this weekend."

Duncan: "What a great review. Makes me want to watch it again after all these years."

fred fowler: "What a pleasant surprise to see your comments today regarding American Graffiti. It remains one of my favorite movies and was one of those rare but wonderful films that when viewed for the first time with neither knowledge or expectation, one is completely smitten. Having just turned 74 I very much lived many of the automotive and cultural aspects of the movie. Those also being my formative years, many of those same elements remain in essence part of what I value and am entertained by. I have also felt the movie in many ways was a metaphor for the country with the epic all-nighter being the fleeting innocence and rebellious good time of the '50s all too harshly supplanted forever by the dawn of the of the '60s. I agree it has more than aged well and is a touchstone I periodically revisit."

Bruno Gonzalez: "I saw American Graffiti for the first time in the summer of 1976 during my first visit to the U.S.from France (a cross-country Greyhound adventure). The cinema was a small room in an abandoned building in Cannery Row, Monterey; no seats, you had to sit on cushions right on the concrete floor and try to keep for a while some kind of not-too-back-breaking position. I loved the movie, I was 19 and a hot rod enthusiast.

"The abandoned building where the cinema was located was in fact part of the Hovden Cannery, the site of what became eight years later the world-class Monterey Aquarium; that part of the old cannery still exists, just near the entrance to the Aquarium. I had been attracted to Monterey and Cannery Row in the first place because of my interest for John Steinbeck. I had already read all his novels and wanted to experience the places he rendered so vividly in some of his best writings. The yellow Deuce coupe, the old cannery on the waterfront, everything came together—what a cultural shock.

"Serendipitously, many years later, my son Paul moved to Monterey to do his PhD in biology at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, just next door to the Aquarium.... Every time I visited him there, I passed by this building forever culturally linked to so many things that have mattered a lot to me, and still do. Like Curt, I now live in Canada."

David Comdico: "Great film. It was shot in chronological order to which, I think, Ron Howard responded along the lines of: 'George we're actors, we know how to act to a script.' But Lucas wanted the actors to look more tired as the film ran on. It's almost a shame that he got lost in the Star Wars franchise. The use of widescreen along with the cinema verité style create a very unique look that still feels current.

"Another great movie about California/American car culture is Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop, starring James Taylor."

Mike replies: Re 'It's almost a shame that he got lost in the Star Wars franchise,' couldn't agree more. I would have loved it if he'd gone on to a string of similarly excellent naturalistic movies about real people and real life in the real world. I never would have begrudged him Star Wars, but he got diverted into it (and other popular fantasy) for the rest of his life. And there goes that. You know what they say: Oh well.

Peter: "Although it came out after my first set of 'formative years,' one of my favorites is Animal House, mostly because I spent four malformed years as a member of a college fraternity that was very much like the one in the movie. To this day, I can still put real names to all of the main characters in the movie."

Russell Scheid: "I grew up in Walnut Creek, 75 miles away from Modesto. 'Cruising the Main' was a such a highlight of my high school years. From flirting with the opposite sex at red lights between car windows to dragging between stop lights, the California car culture was unlike any other. Every time I watch American Graffiti I'm transported back to those glory years where instead of Bloods vs. Crips, it was Mustangs vs. Camaros."

Comments

[Andy]

I'll try again to persuade the kids to watch this. I loved it when I saw it during my Uni days.

If we're recommending old movies (and I realise that's not what we're doing) then do watch Leon if you haven't before.

[Jeff]

There are also more ‘fun facts’ associated with the movie than most...
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/trivia

[John Krumm]

I remember really enjoying it when it came out, and also more recently. Another movie, Dazed and Confused, was closer to my personal experience in high school, and also featured some young stars who went on to do big things later.

[Andrew Lamb]

I’m seem to recall reading that the royalties for the music cost more than the production did.

Great film.

[As I read the Wikipedia article, the production cost was $777,000, of which $90,000 was licensing for the music. Most rights holders agreed to a flat fee; the only refusal was from RCA, which owned Elvis's hits.

After the film opened, Universal heard of its enthusiastic initial reception in Los Angeles and New York, where it was in its initial limited release, and decided to invest an additional $500,000 in promotion, making the total cost of the movie $1,277,000. --Mike]

[Stan B.]

Always thought this a piece of fluff, may have to give it a look see now. Still don't see it beating The Last Picture Show though... Also remember Lucas saying (after the phenom success of Star Wars) that he was going to embark on making a series of "small, highly intense, personal films." Somehow, despite my best efforts- I've managed to miss each and every one of those!

Personally, been catching up on Film Noir, from the classics to B plots like the incorrigible Wicked Woman and Guns, Girls and Gangsters..

[KeithB]

A similar movie, with bicycles instead of cars is "Breaking Away"

We have been watching a lot of movies on the Movies! channel over the air.

All of these have been very good comedies:
"Adam's Rib"
"Bringing up Baby"
"The Man who Came to Dinner" (1942)

[Michael Matthews]

While you’re revisiting, it is my firm conviction that everyone should see “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” at least once per decade. Maybe twice. It restoreth the soul.

[GKFroehlich]

You are no doubt also aware that the license plate on John Milner's (Paul LeMat) car is "THX-138'', and that THX 1138, a film from 1971, was George Lucas’s directorial debut.

[Patrick Perez]

George Lucas invented the soundtrack driven movie w/ American Graffiti. I read once he got the clearing rights by making a most-favored-nation clause giving everyone the same fee of $2000. The album continues to be a best seller, I think. I'd even suggest he invented the Summer Blockbuster, predating Jaws by 2 years.

I think the final scene in the dawn hours was 2nd unit directed and shot by the great, late Haskel Wexler, in the true run and gun sense. IMDB doesn't agree. Maybe I'm mistaken.

One fascinating thing about the movie is how it seemed to depict a long lost time, invoking a milleu just ~12 years in the past. Imagine trying to depict a comparable distance time-wise now by setting during the period before Barack Obama's first term. What would look so vastly different from now? What music would seem so long gone? As the saying goes, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Patrick

[Mike Shwarts]

Old movies. All of Mr. Wong, Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan. And yes, I know what is wrong with them. They could not be made like that today. Started on the WWII era Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone. Taking a break with classic Doctor Who, then classic movies.

[Michael Plews]

Wonderful movie. In 2018 American Cinematographer did a piece on the photography.
Worth a look.
Haskell Wexler started as a tv news photographer which I find very cool.

[Doug Vaughn]

I was probably in junior high when this movie came out. I need to go watch it again after 40ish years.

The movie is based on Lucas' home town of Modesto, CA, about 10 miles from where I grew up. In my high school days, we all cruised McHenry Avenue, which also inspired the film. Of course my parents were Lucas' contemporaries and no doubt were cruising McHenry about the same time he was.

[MikeR]

In a similar genre, "Diner." There was a line in the voice-over as the credits rolled that for some reason sent me into a paroxysm of laughter. No one else laughed. My wife moved away from me. Same thing happened at the end of "Spinal Tap." Both were totally stupid lines said with sincerity and naivete.

No one for "Animal House?"

[J Wilson]

I love old movies, and I'm a huge Turner Classic Movie fan. The great thing about TCM is that you only need a 'center-channel' speaker: They're all in mono !

[Bill Pearce]

Mike,

If you're interested in old movies, see if you can find a movie from the sixties called "Putney Swope," directed perfectly by Robert Downey, SR! You would enjoy it more than most because it destroys the advertising business. No, it carves the business up and feeds it to cannibals.

If it doesn't put a smile on your face, nothing will.

Bill

[Alexander P. Schorsch]

I am indulging in "Noir" movies. One of the best is "Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. The director was the Frenchman Jacques Tourneur. I really enjoy the black and white medium of these films where the lighting is incredible. Another good one is "Nightmare Alley" with Tyrone Power. Of course there's the classic "Double Indemnity" by Billy Wilder. Next on my list will be the 1962 film "Cape Fear" which I'm not sure if it can be considered "Noir" in a strict sense.

[Tom Burke]

This film plays completely differently to a non-American audience, of course: it's a glimpse into an alien universe. So, yes, it's a good film, possibly a great film, but it doesn't have the emotional/reminiscence power over us that it has over Americans.

I have sometimes wondered if the same isn'y true of Franks' 'The Americans'? I have a copy, and yes I can see the quality, but of course it isn't *my people* that the photos are of, and that lessens their impact (on me). Perhaps it's because I don't feel the identification with either the photos or the film, or maybe I'm just not familiar with the context. As with American Graffiti, so much of the background in The Americans is just alien. What would impact on me would be streets of terraced houses in an old industrial city in the north of England, of course: and I imagine that would be equally alien to Americans. Here's an example: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/sep/17/denis-thorpe-a-view-from-the-north-in-pictures#img-2

[Curious; I dearly love photographers like James Ravilious and one of my favorite movies, to which I'm very loyal, is "Local Hero." --Mike]

[Lenya]

Movies are for sissies, the unwashed masses are waiting for Mike's regular book reviews of his huge photo books collection.

[Dillan]

This has always been one of my favourite movies, even though I was 3 1/2" months old when it was released. It inspired in me a life-long love of hot rods and 50s (and 60's) cars. I did my own cruisin' with friends when I was in my 20s. I can no longer afford the muscle cars, but the movie still has a place in my heart, and my movie collection.

[David Lee]

I am binge watching movies so I am taking notes. This morning I rented “Il Sorpasso” and later on a terrible movie with Charlotte Rampling. I couldn’t finish it. I mentioned this before, so bear with me, check “Seduced and Abandoned”, a 1963 B&W film by Pietro Germi. Very funny and I see some Cartier-Bresson light in there.

[beuler]

For those wishing that Harrison Ford had never gone into the fantasy film genre, "Regarding Henry" is the movie you are looking for.

[Warren Jones]

Holy Cow Mike,
American Graffiti, a long forgotten moment from my misspent youth! Suddenly felling nostalgic, I will have to go find it and watch it.

[Dogman]

My wife and I have been streaming movies on Amazon Prime but what we have really enjoyed has been the almost endless number of British TV series titles available from Brit Box and Acorn through Prime. We particularly like the detective shows which are much better done than those done in the USA. The acting is better, the writing is better, the sets are better and the whole experience enjoyable.

[scott kirkpatrik]

American Graffiti has long been a favorite. I'm almost a contemporary, was car-crazy during high school, but in East Coast suburbia we didn't indulge in Friday night Main Street cruises. I have to disagree with your statement:

I would have loved it if he'd gone on to a string of similarly excellent naturalistic movies about real people and real life in the real world.

because I think that after he put everything together into American Graffiti and moved on to ILM he no longer had a personal life that would be recognized by most of America.

P.S: I also love Local Hero, even though haven't I pent time in that country. Scots blood, I guess.

[Glen]

This was, lucky for me, the America I grew up in. I was raised in the East Bay of SF. Cruising, just like in the movie was a weekly event.

I miss it dearly. We were so innocent.