AMERICAN GRAFFITI!

Here's a totally unpredictable pick that is pure fun: AMERICAN GRAFFITI ! This is really more of my two older brother's generation in topic, albeit the release date was 1973 and my hormones for women had kicked in three years earlier! Considered one of the "Greatest 500 Films Ever Made", this was filmed by a very young George Lucas on a shoestring of a budget (under $1 million). It is a hallmark film in that it beautifully captures the feel and look and the Rock and Roll of the early 60's in small-town America - before President Kennedy's assassination during the New Frontier. I see it as an innocence that has been lost. A massive advertising campaign coined the slogan for the film, "Where were you in '62?", before the Beatles era began two years later.

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George Lucas, age 28, was an ex-USC film student and intern at Warner Brothers and true to its claim, every studio in Hollywood refused "American Graffiti" except for Universal. The huge financial success of the movie helped usher in a new breed of maverick director/producer who is today what the old moguls were in the 1940's--Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola among them.

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The film was Lucas' homage to the memories of his own teenage years in Modesto, California, where the film was shot. Vintage hot rods, Mel's Drive-In and the non-stop rock soundtrack, centers on the final night of teenage crusin' and makin' out, and characteristic hair and clothing styles. "Another Slow Night in Modesto" and "Rock Around the Block" were originally considered as alternative titles, and discarded ---Thank God! At this time, Director Francis Ford Coppola had tremendous success with 1972's "The Godfather" and joined Lucas in the effort as the film's producer. The film's screenplay was co-authored by Lucas with a USC friend Willard Huyck and his wife Gloria Katz. From this financial success (an estimated $55 million in its first release), Lucas reinvested his money into his next huge epic, "Star Wars" (1977).

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The plot unrolls in a series of vignettes from dusk to the morning of the following day focusing primarily on four characters: a rebel, a nerd, a solid citizen, and the king of the road. All of the major characters in the ensemble cast are recent or soon-to-be Dewey High School graduates ranging in age from 17 to 20 enjoying one last hot, late summer night in 1962. While cruisin' and hanging out at the local Mel's Drive-In, we get four interweaving story lines about lives on the precipice of major life career decisions (attending college or finding a job) and enduring traumas along the way.

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The film's soundtrack is good fun! Over 40 Early Rock hits pour out of cruising car radios, or the school dance's record player as background music to define the emotions, dreams and frustrations of the group, ranging over almost a decade (from 1955-1962). The late, Legendary DJ Wolfman Jack who appears on the radio as himself. What I think you will love the most is the sheer collection of "up and coming actors, such as Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Ron Howard (best known as child actor Opie on TV's The Andy Griffith Show, and currently a bald film director---he had hair in this film!), Harrison Ford, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie Phillips, Kathleen Quinlan, Suzanne Somers, Debralee Scott, Joe Spano, and Bo Hopkins. So many of these stars went on to huge film and television careers, such as TV's Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley (Cindy Williams), One Day at a Time (Mackenzie Phillips), Three's Company (Suzanne Somers), Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Hill Street Blues (Joe Spano), The Lords of Flatbush and The Conversation, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Goodbye Girl (Richard Dreyfuss), the aforementioned Star Wars, Melvin and Howard (Charles Martin Smith) and Apollo 13.

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Amazingly, the film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for 26 year old Candy Clark), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing, but it came away empty-handed!

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The Cast in reverse order of Character first: Steve Bolander '62 (19 year old Ron Howard), a conservative, clean-cut, short-sleeved, All-American type, university-bound high-school graduate who was Class President, and interested in English; Terry Fields '63 (20 year old Charles Martin Smith) a rising senior interested in business; a nerdy, bespectacled, duck-tailed kid known as "The Toad," with a pink and black shirt and white bucks. [Yup, this was how director, George Lucas saw himself]; Curtis Henderson '62(26 year old Richard Dreyfuss) another recent graduate interested in Science - an intelligent, plaid-shirted character. Curt is the recipient of the first scholarship, two thousand dollars, ever given out by the Moose Lodge to the top student. Restless and uncertain about leaving for college; Laurie Henderson '63 (26 year old hottie Cindy Williams); Curt's slightly-younger sister and Steve's pretty, steady girlfriend with a short-bobbed do. Another rising senior and the Head Cheer Leader, she wears Steve's oversized letterman sweater. Very hot! Oh yeah, we also have the slightly older guy who tools around in a yellow, '32 Ford deuce coupe - John Milner '60 (21 year old Paul Le Mat), who has been out of high school two years earlier and is an auto mechanic reminiscent of the town's "Marlon Brando" and the undisputed drag-racing idol going nowhere fast. Harrison Ford is the new guy in town to challenge Milner to a drag race. At the time, Ford was a carpenter and roofer who was on the cusp of giving up acting! Well, this is going to be a different film for "Friday Movie Suggestion Night". But why not let the car hop waitresses on roller skates deliver our food as we sit back and enjoy a fun film with great music and a menagerie of what life was like for George Lucas!

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ENJOY THIS ONE !