Review of American Graffiti (1973) by Alex R — 02 Jul 2011

Set over an evening in Modesto of 1962, American Graffiti follows the adventures and misadventures of four friends in the advent of one of the friends deciding whether he wants to go to college or not.

This coming of age tale trades on it being very much a love letter to Americana.

The script interweaves the four storylines pretty seamlessly as you get John Milner's drive around with the annoyingly adolescent Carol, the problem with Steve and Laurie's relationship stemming from whether they should relax and date other people, Terry the Toad's misadventures with dating the flirty Debbie and Curt's struggle to decide whether he wants to leave Modesto to go to college whilst being coerced by a local greaser gang into taking part in gang initiation pranks and looking for a mysterious woman in a T-Bird car.

The four lead actors - Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul LeMat and Charles Martin Smith -take their respective roles and have a ball with them - particularly Charles Martin Smith in the role of Terry The Toad who gets some of the funnier scenes whether it be trying to get booze without an ID, trying to impress Debbie or finding out that the car that Steve has lent him has been stolen whilst making out.

There are some great supporting cast members notably Harrison Ford in what was probably his first attempt at a big break out role as the drag racing Bob Falfa, Mackenzie Phillips as Carol, Cindy Williams as Laurie, Candy Clark adding some great comic timing alongside Martin Smith as Debbie and a cameo from Wolfman Jack.

It's a film that uses music and cars as supporting characters to add to the feeling of the 1962 backdrop and act as the dominant location for the film.

George Lucas' direction is straightforward, but uses the night setting around the various locations which double as Modesto to beautiful effect.

If you haven't seen this film, please give it a go for a story which evokes a more innocent age than the one that we currently live in.