AMERICAN GRAFFITI turns 50!! Is it ANY good? * FIRST TIME WATCHING * reaction & commentary
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Wolfman Jack was a real DJ, primarily on Mexican radio. Mexican radio stations weren't subject to FCC regulations regarding signal strength, and were extremely overpowered. On a clear night, their signal could be heard as far away as New York. As a result, Wolfman Jack became one of the best known DJs in North America.
He had a song named after him "Clap for the Wolfman" and an animated tv show!
I remember him guest starring in an episode of Galactica 1980 as himself, which even at seven years old I thought was so random.
@@AutoPilate Conquest of the earth!
An interesting side note. Reports from those on the set was that Wolfman could not act to save his life and the editors struggled to find enough useable footage from the hours they spent with him that day to create the scene we see him in with Richard Dreyfus.
XERB was Wolfman Jack's "border blaster" radio station in the 1960s, a 300,000 watt station.
The movie actually takes place in 1962, and as such, is a coming of age story for America. The transition from the Eisenhower post-WWII years to the Kennedy years was an important step in America, and the transition from Rock'n'Roll to the Beatles and Beach Boys was on the horizon. Viet Nam was less of a political and generational conflict (which is why Terry's death in the epilogue is important; soldiers then were not the soldiers of WWII). America was on the threshold of a very turbulent decade, and this one night and the changes the main characters go through is a reflection of it.
Spot on.
The movie's tag line was "Where were you in '62?"
not completely, it was the end of innocence, jfk was killed the next year, and johnson his vp within a month sent hundred of thousands of kids right out of highschool to vietnam... hence the ending where one of the main characters was killed there in 64
The epilogue says he was missing in action...
Absolutely spot on! I always saw American Graffiti as more of a documentary on the last era of innocence right before Vietnam, LSD, riots, the draft, the Manson murders, assassinations, Watergate, etc... Basically a transitional time when unselfconscious innocence and idealism gave way to bitterness, disillusionment, and cynicism that unfortunately is still rampant today.
I think the reason this movie was so popular back in the mid-seventies is that we as teenagers at the time were still enjoying many of these same things. At the same time we also sensed that this era was coming to an end for a number of reasons. I grew up in Northern CA (where the movie was filmed) and we would often cruise the main drag downtown on Friday and Saturday nights to meet up with friends and hopefully find out where any parties might be happening. Cars and music were still such an important part of the time. It was so much fun, I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. BTW - that device you noticed on the table in the dinner was the remote tabletop jukebox player. You'd insert your quarters and then select the songs you wanted to hear. The music would play throughout the restaurant. Mel's Dinners (shown in the movie) are still in business to this day and these devices are still on the tables.
pualarietta: There was a huge cruising culture in Los Angeles until the mid-80s or so. This gen is also into drag racing, aka street racing or street takeovers, so they're extremely annoying to regular drivers.
Love this movie. Simple slice of life flick done well
I went into the army in 1983 so not sure after that, but up until then cruising and street racing were going strong in Texas and Oklahoma. Those were great times.
I think the kids today romanticize the 80's the way we romanticized the 50's.
One time I went cruising trying to find some chicks and I came home with a new boyfriend, turns out the word cruising can mean something else.
so did i ,well close, Santa Rosa.
Scenes were longer back in the day because we had much longer attention spans. We read books, played outside, walked for miles everyday, no music devices, very little distractions. So a slow movie was actually fairly fast paced. Plus it gave you time to snack and talk. Peace and love to y'all
Wait until she sees a movie where they sing an entire song just for the purpose of padding the run time.
Lucas basically created the film as a musical without musical numbers. Before American Graffiti, extensive needle drops weren’t really a thing in movies. There’s a direct line to the soundtrack cultivation of filmmakers like Tarantino and James Gunn.
Watch Hollywood Knights. It’s every bit as good as American Graffiti in my opinion. And a lot funnier.
@kentoholle2166 true! I love how Lucas always thought outside the box as an experimental independent filmmaker.
Well Stanley Kubrick did that to most parts since at least "2001 - a space odyssey", even though a full soundtrack had already been written but Kubrick felt the use of already existing classical pieces suited him better. And this is what he basically did from then on, since the late 1960s. You can see glimpses of that already in "Dr. Strangelove".
he also locked in the music rights to the movie so the music is always going to be there
I just wish that it had almost started and ended with this film. I like it in this film, but I hate it a whole lot of the time.
5:30, the blonde in the Thunderbird was Suzanne Sommers.
One big name you missed was Ron Howard. Director of such movies as Apollo 13, Devinci Code, and Beautiful Mind. He also played Richie on Happy Days. No coincidence that his character was similar to his character in American Graffiti. Also, Cindy Williams played Shirley in Laverne & Shirley, a Happy Days spinoff. She played an older girl Richie went on a date with on Happy Days once. Her character was more forward, sassy, and street-wise as the older girl Richie went out with. On Laverne & Shirley they reigned her character in a bit and she was a nice girl. (I watched both of these shows as a kid)
Richie yes but I'll still always think of him as lil Opie on the Andy Griffith show
He also directed one of my favorite star studded type family movie called Parent Hood.
He's also brother to Clint Howard who voiced Hathi Jr. in Disney's The Jungle Book and appears in every movie Ron directs, including How the Grinch stole Christmas.
I remember him fondly as Winthrop in "The Music Man" with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. He was adorable 😊
He also was a child actor, Opie Taylor in the Andy Griffith show.
I really wasn't sure how you'd feel about this one, but I'm so happy you loved it.
When Steve was in the diner and the waitress was inviting him over, the "thing" on the wall at the end of the booth they were sitting in was a jukebox. Growing up in the 70s there was a fabulous steakhouse/pizza joint that my mom and I would go to and each booth had a small jukebox in it, just like in this movie. There were pages, mounted in metal frames with song titles, artists and selection numbers, inside of the case. Little metal tabs stuck out of the top of the case and you could flip through the pages to choose your songs. There were little buttons on the front of the case with letters and numbers. You'd put your quarter in the slot on the side or top of the case, punch your desired song number in (like B6) and your song would play over the ceiling speakers. For a 12-year old kid, it was the most magical experience. I would save up quarters to use every time we went.
Yes, back in the day, long before 9-11, you could drive out onto the airfield at small private airports. They had big rolling staircases, there was absolutely zero security screening, and your people would do exactly what you saw here...drive you to the airstrip, say goodbye and stand on the tarmac and wave as your plane took off.
Girls back then had a LOT less agency. This was pre-feminism, pre-Equal Rights Amendment, pre-women's liberation. What you see in this movie is a lot of what used to be called "using your feminine wiles". Hot and cold, playing coy, reverse psychology. Really just a bunch of nonsense, but women who spoke their minds and were direct were considered difficult, hard and unpleasant. Women, like children, weren't expected to have opinions unless a man gave them one. I feel a lot of nostalgia with this movie, but also a lot of relief that we've progressed.
❤
Yes, places like drive-ins had small jukeboxes at each table, or one big one for the whole place like they had in bars and cafes, and still do in some places.
Progressed? We’re headed right back to the ‘50s now.
@@bonya4585 Well, yes. 60 years of progress, currently endangered. That is what can be great about having these kinds of movies and our ability to talk about them. Windows to all sorts of past eras, keeps the awareness up.
Great explanations, great comments.
" What you see in this movie is a lot of what used to be called "using your feminine wiles". Hot and cold, playing coy, reverse psychology. Really just a bunch of nonsense"
When did that vanish--or even diminish?
This was George Lucas' second film. It was made for a cost of $777,777 and held the record for biggest return on a film investment until THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999).
George has a life-long fascination with anthropology, and he wanted to capture the act of "Cruising" a ritual he saw slipping away by the time he started to make this movie. With no cell phones, this was how teen interacted in the 50's and 60's, and even into the early 70's. By the 80's the gathering place had become the mall.
The movie takes place in one night in 1962. What George believed to be the last year of innocence for America. I the year that followed you would have the assassination of Kennedy, the escalation of the Vietnam Conflict, Ohio State, the death of Martin Luther and Malcom X and so on.
The three separate story tracks was an invention of Lucas. It had not been used in film before this and studio execs thought is was too confusing and wanted to relegate the film to a TV movie. But then George's producer Francis Ford Coppola won all the Oscars for THE GODFATHER (1972), threatened to buy the film back and forced them to release it.
But there was one studio head who had to exercise his power and arbitrarily cut several scenes just to prove he had the bigger dick. This soured George on "the studio system" and from then on he swore he would become full independent.
The studio head's name was Ned Tannen, and he was the inspiration for Biff Tannen in BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985). There is a happy ending to this. After the success of STAR WARS (1977) George was the hottest thing in town (unless you count his buddy Steve Spielberg). And as luck would have it, they had a project that they wanted to do together, and Michael Eisner at Paramount wanted this project. But guess who was also working at Paramount by this time? Ned Tannen, and George made as one of the contractual condition for producing RAIDER OF THE LOST ARK (1982) w/ Paramount, was that Ned Tannen had to get up before the board and admit that he was wrong about making the cuts to AMERICAN GRAFFITTI (1973) and apologize to Lucas.
I was not aware of this whatsoever. Thank you it was very well written. 👍
George Lucas was also a big car guy when he was young. He had a little yellow car that he suped up and would race at sports car rallies. He was planning to race professionally. He was in a terrible accident (unrelated to racing) that put him in the hospital. The experience made him rethink his priorities and that lead to him enrolling in film school. When Star Wars was a hit, one of the first things he bought was a Ferrari...used.
You mean Kent State, not Ohio State.
@@libertyresearch-iu4fy I was just about to say that.
Firstly, while we may know who you're talking about, it's odd to just say 'Martin Luther' for Dr. King. Martin Luther was someone else entirely. Plus, he was assassinated in '68, not '63 (unless you were just alluding to his rise in prominence). Similarly, Malcolm X was assassinated in February of '65. And not sure what you meant by "Ohio State". If you meant the Kent State shootings, that was in '70, not '63.
You DID get the year of the escalation of the Vietnam War correct, though.
I love how much you like Richard Dreyfus! One of my favorite films of his is “The Goodbye Girl”. The dialogue in that is just extraordinary. Put it on your list if you haven’t seen it. So underrated.
I wouldn’t exactly describe The Goodbye Girl as underrated. It was critically well received and did well at the Box Office. It was the first romantic comedy to earn more than a hundred million dollars. Nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. It also snagged Richard Dreyfuss's only Oscar.
But it has seemingly been forgotten. I guarantee Ashleigh would love it. I've been waiting for a young reactor to watch it.
I can't tell you how much it's killin' me, lol, waiting for the day Ashleigh gets to The Goodby Girl. He was no where near the type they wanted to cast, but during tests, there was some magic that happened between Marsha Mason and Dreyfuss that was headscratchingly bonkers and they had to cast him.
The Goodbye Girl came out a week apart from Close Encounters. They were both huge Hits! Dreyfuss was on fire! I don't know why it has become forgotten the movie was a massive hit! First Rom-com to make over 100 million. Everyone saw it, it was the movie to see for Christmas 1977. The song was a huge hit and a classic now. I've rewatched it and it holds up big time. Maybe the best child performance of all time.
I concede. It was indeed critically acclaimed at the time. I mean, it is not recommended enough, and not enough new viewers, even know about it. That is all I meant. I think Ashleigh would love it so much.
@@jndaley She would, like you and me, watch it many times! And listen to the song many times! You can't think of this movie without that song playing in my head.
ASHLEIGH: The "thing at the end of the table" is called a wallbox. It's an extension of the jukebox. You can select songs remotely!
I was 12 years old when this came out in 1973, and at the time 1962 (the year the film is set in) seemed so long ago. Now it's 50 years later and 11 years pass by with frightening speed. It's amazing how universal that feeling is that time goes by more quickly as you get older. Living in snowy Michigan, I'd be happy if I could make summers seem to last forever like they did when I was a kid.
The way I thought about it is If you are 4 years old, then 1 year is equal to 25% of you life or .25. When you hit 40, the same Year is now equal to 2.5% or .025. Time sure does fly!
I was 19 when this came out. It makes me think of that time between high school and college, and how close I felt with my friends at that time. Everything was about to change.
But it's slow, bland & dull; not much happens. How is this more popular & highly-regarded than Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which is fun, fast-moving, lively & hilarious?
@@davidz3879 I completely disagree with your critique.
When this movie came out it was as groundbreaking as Pulp Fiction was in the 90s.
It generated a colossal amount of buzz and word of mouth advertising. No one had ever seen a movie quite like this. "Oldies music" and nostalgia for the recent past was not yet a thing in the early 70s but would take the country by storm soon after this movie came out.
Lucas once said that American Graffiti was meant to convey the feeling one gets when you look through your old high school year book remembering the good times you had and wondering what became of everyone.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a film I also love, is about the present time it was made in. Similar subject matter but a different kind of movie.
@@davidz3879 You are an idiot!
@@Lethgar_Smith AG is often described as a comedy, but it's much more of a drama. I can't see how this can compare - in terms of laughs or all-round entertainment value - to Fast Times, Risky Business, American Pie or Superbad.
@@davidz3879 Different times, different vibes. This movie has much more realism and i love the old school style. Ridgemont High is just a stupid comedy for kids.
The movie poster was made by Mort Drucker. He was really good at caricatures and spoofed movies for Mad Magazine. As for the carhops on roller skates, that was really rare in the hey day of drive-ins but somehow all movies featuring a drive-in had them 😄
Mort Drucker was AMAZING. I had no idea when I was buying Mad Magazines, how blessed I was so see his art. I wish I had kept them all.
One of the local Sonics has a roller skating car hop.
The biggest name in the movie at that time that you missed was actor, director & producer, Ron Howard, who played Steve. Not only was he Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show", but he was also Ritchie Cunningham on "Happy Days". Plus, he's directed such huge films like "Cacoon", "Backdraft", "Apollo 13", "Willow", "Far & Away", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "A Beautiful Mind" & so, so, so many more. Plus, he's produced a number of huge films too.
Also, the blond in the T-bird that Richard Dreyfus was chasing after was Suzanne Somers. She portrayed Chrissy on "Three's Company"
One last thing, this film was supposed to be in the summer of '62.
facts
And Kathleen Quinlan had a small role during the dance.
What I think is fascinating about this movie is that it inspired an episode of "Love American Style" which became "Happy Days" starring Ron Howard and had a few guest appearances of Cindy Williams which became the spin-off "Laverne & Shirley." "Mork & Mindy" which was Robin Williams' first big role also spun-off from "Happy Days."
The episode of Love American Style you are thinking of aired in early 72, so it came before American Graffiti which premiered in the summer of 73.
Good reaction. AG is actually set in 1962, but the 50s sensibilities were still around in a small town, like Modesto, California was at that time. This was the movie that put George Lucas on the map. If you want to watch another first effort from a big director, you MUST see "Duel" from Stephen Spielberg. It's a thriller with a small cast and a BIG truck. Bring a blanket or pillow to hang on to while you watch it -- you'll need it. Peace!
_Duel_ is great. An excellent suggestion!
Lucas' first film, "THX-1138" wasn't bad at all, either.
Cruisin 10th Street, Modesto, California.
Sock hop at C Thomas Downey High School.
Web's Drive In.
The car lot, the police lost their rear axle at, was to the back side of Hotel Covell and Theater.
Paradise Road is not straight, it winds along the Tuolumne River.
Yes to THX1138 and Duel.
Both are excellent suggestions
Grease is musical from 1971 , movie 1978 , Sandra Dee (1942 -2005) they talk about in the movie was actress and child model , Ashleigh mistake is OK
Talia Rose Shire , née Coppola , did act in Roger Corman movie with Sandra Dee in 1970 , Francis Ford Coppola hired his sister Talia to Godfather to play Connie .
Just as Roger Corman helped people like Stallone , Francis did help both Lucas and Spielberg , Duel 1971 was done in 2 weeks , it uses all tricks on the book to make a slow moving semi look like its going over 60mph , when it was doing only 30mph .
The advertising tag line for this movie was “Where were you in ‘62?” and that is the year in which it takes place. In the 50s John F Kennedy was not yet a famous name. At the dance, Laurie is wearing a ‘letter sweater’. I don’t know if these exist anymore. You can see the number 62 attached to her sleeve which indicates the year of her graduation class. Many of the cars were 50s models and older because those were older models that teens would have been able to buy on the used car market.
Laurie was wearing Steve's letter sweater as he was class of '62 , she ws class of '63 .
Where was I in '62? Until February, I was just a "sparkle" in my parents' eyes, then from that point until November 21st, "bakin' in my momma's belly. 😉
My dad was a teen in the late 50s and he said this film was pretty darn accurate. Watching this movie always makes me feel close to him (lost him in '01 to cancer) ❤️
I also was a teen in the late 50s and yes so much of this is highly relatable to us teens. In smaller towns in the mid west instead of the main drags , we used to cruise the diners , root beer stands and such cars were such a thing back then and guys liked to show them off. I had a candy apple red 1967 327 chevelle 4 speed chrome shifters and real wire wheel covers. It was such a great time to grow up in , not the crap show of today.
One of the things I love the most about this movie is the soundtrack. Not just the songs themselves but how live and organic it feels. It sounds like all the music is not inserted into the movie but rather blasting out of every surrounding car and nearby radio. Even the band at the dance was recorded live.
I love how the songs match the action -- when they're dancing at the hop, they're dancing to a break-up song, for instance (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes).
@@sourisvoleur4854 That girl in white swingin' away in the line dance!
@sle2470 The last of the three tunes the band Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids played at what appeared to be a "Back To School" type dance event was"Louie, Louie" which was considerably realistic since bands all over the western U.S. region would have obviously performed the tune throughout the latter parts of 1962. Wolfman Jack, on the other hand, was a little too far into the past during the segments that he's spinning discs from before the 1959-to- 1962 song hits time frame. After 4 a.m. in the morning, he starts playing tunes like 1953's "Crying In The Chapel" by the Orioles and 1956's "A Thousand Miles Away" by the Heartbeats, songs that were long since dropped by those major market chain formatted Top Forty radio that stuck with the current music survey while throwing in a few other hits from within the previous one and two years. The movie could have benefitted from a couple more song selections from late Summer 1962 like "You Belong To Me" by the Duprees, "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover" by Bo Diddley and the scene when the Pharaohs gang and Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) go inside the arcade to break open the coin boxes on the pinball machines before the arcade owners belonging to the civic organization that helped Curt get a scholarship to help with the college costs go in to see what the commotion is all about in the arcade, that would have been as good a moment as any to have some radio back in the office at the arcade playing the mellower-style station format as the song "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" by Tony Bennett is heard inside the arcade.....................or not?
I think it helps that it's a radio station with a narrator playing the whole time so it feels like you're hearing what the people driving around are hearing, plus the lower sound quality
American Graffiti was produced by American Zoetrope, which is the production company that directors Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas co-founded together back in the 1960s. That's why Coppola's name appears next to George Lucas in the credits. And yes, Nicholas Cage's real last name is Coppola, since he's the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola.
And Nick almost would have become Superman if Tim Burton would have continued his Batman movie series :)
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 I'm thankful that never happened. 😜
@@44excalibur Amen to that!
It was unscripted when Toad crashes his Vespa into the machine. You can see when he (the actor) was standing there awkwardly waiting for Lucas to call cut .
One of my favorite movies of all time, it came out the year my wife and I got married. I think we saw it six times in the theater. I feel sorry for kids who never got to go cruising. It was our social media. And , honestly 10 times as much fun as sitting at home texting your friends on a cellphone. I think you would have made a great 60’s girl, Ashleigh. Great job on this one.
Ronny Howard (who played Steve) was mainly known at this point for having played Opie, the son of Sheriff Andy Tayler, on The Andy Griffith Show, but went on to play Richie Cunningham in the TV series Happy Days, among many other TV and movie roles, and is now the celebrated movie director Ron Howard, director of Cocoon, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, Solo: A Star Wars Story and many others.
dont forget his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard who has directed multiple episodes of Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, etc.
He also played Marion the librarian’s little brother in Music Man. He had a lisp & was adorable singing Gary, Indiana! 😂
Wolfman Jack is forever my hero. He’s the reason I became a DJ.
Great reaction Ash. This classic has an all star cast of up & coming young actors (at the time)....
Richard Dreyfuss (Curt) - best known for Jaws, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Stand By Me & Mr. Holland's Opus
Ron Howard (Steve) - best known for The Andy Griffith Show, The Music Man, The Shootist & Happy Days (nowdays a great movie director himself)
Paul Le Mat (Milner) - best known for The Burning Bed, Melvin and Howard, Strange Invaders & Puppet Master
Charles Martin Smith (Terry/Toad) - best known for The Untouchables, Disney's Herbie Goes Bananas, Starman & Deep Cover
Cindy Williams (Laurie) - best known for Laverne And Shirley, Bingo, Meet Wally Sparks & The Conversation
Candy Clark (Debbie) - best know for The Man Who Fell To Earth, Blue Thunder, Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Stephen King's Cat's Eye
Mackenzie Phillips (Carol) - best known for One Day At A Time, Melrose Place, Disney's So Weird & Orange Is The New Black
Bo Hopkins (Joe/Pharaoh's Leader) - best known for Midnight Express, A Smoky Mountain Christmas, Tom Clancy's Op Center & From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
Harrison Ford (Falfa) - best known for the Star Wars films, Indiana Jones films, Blade Runner films & The Fugitive
Kathleen Quinlan (Peg) - best known for Apollo 13, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Twilight Zone: The Movie & Breakdown
Joe Spano (Vic) - best known for Hill Street Blues, Frost/Nixon, NCIS and the original voice of Chuck E. Cheese
Lynne Marie Stewart (Bobbie/VW girl) - best known for Pee Wee's Playhouse, The Running Man, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia & Bridesmaids
Susan Richardson (Judy) best know for Eight Is Enough, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island & Soldiers Of Innocence
Kay Lenz (Jane/Mel's Diner Waitress) - best known for Rich Man Poor Man, House, Midnight Caller, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown
Debralee Scott (Falfa's Girl) best known for Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, Welcome Back, Kotter, Police Academy and Police Academy 3: Back In Training
Suzanne Somers (T-bird Blonde) best known for Three's Company, Step By Step, Say It Isn't So and as herself in Serial Mom
Wolfman Jack (as Himself/Radio DJ) - best known for his syndicated radio show, host of The Midnight Special TV variety show & the voice of the chief of the Rama Lama tribe in TV animated special Garfield In Paradise
Amazing Cast!!
Funny, I never realized that was Kay Lenz! Only thing I remember seeing her in, is "White Line Fever". She's spend most of her career doing voiceover work on cartoons, most notably the character of American Maid, in "The Tick".
The smallest Pharaoh was Manuel Padilla, Jr. who was Tarzan's sidekick Jai in the 60's TV series
Dreyfuss was acting so adult in this movie.
Fun fact: at the end, the "jesus, what a night" is genuine exhaustion. They shot the whole film in only 28 days, working from 9pm to sunrise, as well as chronologically so the actors would look and feel more tired as the night went on.
Fun reaction, Ashleigh! 👍 By the way, the Blonde in the white Thunderbird was played by Suzanne Somers. That small part would later land her the role of Chrissy Snow on the 1970s TV sitcom, “Three’s Company.”
Fun fact, this movie was the first film with a stereo soundtrack as rock music of the period running constantly throughout 95% of the film. Before this film, all films had a mono soundtrack. Many theaters had to agree to do an audio upgrade to accommodate this film. Just another way George Lucas was forward thinking.
George a decade later he would have His company create surround sound and digital sound for theatres.
@@reesebn38Appropriately named THX after his film THX1138
Fantasia from 1940 was the first film in stereo. Also were lots of stereo soundtracks in the 50’s.
There were 4 and 6 track stereo films in the 1950s - and the first was in 1935 (demo short). American Graffiti was filmed and originally released in mono, but Lucas remixed it for stereo with a rear channel for some sound effects a couple of years after the first release. That was about the time Dolby Stereo debuted so it might have been the first Dolby Stereo film as a rerelease.
@@williamivey5296 Lisztomania from 1975 was the first Dolby Stereo film.
Also, the cinematography in this thing is IMMACULATE. Definitely a world I'd wanna be part of.
You'd rather be in this film than Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
@@davidz3879 F--- Yes! I'd rather be cursing in those Cars than cursing the foodcourt.
It feels like a documentary! So beautiful! The sound design as well. Perfection.
@@reesebn38 Even though you'd much more likely get action in Fast Times? In AG, you'd just be driving around.
Initially, Lucas didn't even want a cinematographer, just two good camera operators and shoot the whole thing in available light. When the first dailies came back looking horrendous and the operators were complaining about not being able to hold focus due to the wide open T-stop, Lucas determined that the movie needed a little more light, so he recruited fellow USC alumnus Haskell Wexler, who was shooting commercials during the day, to come in and ghost DP Graffiti as "Visual Consultant".
I'm so glad you enjoyed this. This is one of my top ten movies, I just love it. As others have mentioned, this take places in 1962, which is the same year Animal House takes place. I always found it interesting how, with two movies taking place at the same time with characters about the same age, one shows a relatively wholesome side and the other a raunchy side, but both be very entertaining. Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the Godfather movies, produced this and made sure he got every classic car he could find for use in the film.
She hated Animal House. She's annoying. Why do I watch her?
Almost everyone in this move was a young up-and-comer at the time. Every scene is just chock full of actors that those of us who were around at the time saw on countless TV series and films over the years. At the time it was a film about nostalgia for the ‘50s, and now it’s nostalgia for our day in the ‘70s. Thanks, Ashleigh.
The film takes place in 1962. Not the 50s.
This actually took place in 1962 (hence the mention of President Kennedy). The movie is all about Change. Moving on to adulthood and the necessary changes life brings. It is also about the change from the ideal of the 50's (good and bad) into the tumult of the later 60's. The Vietnam war was still mostly an abstract thing at the time, but in just a few years One dies there and another dodges the draft and goes to Canada. The Battle of An Loc occurred in '72 just before the big breakthrough in the peace talks so most people would have heard the name. Dying in '65 means he was one of the first to die there. A writer in Canada just screams draft dodger. Those who were drafted and did not want to go, really only had two choices; Go to jail or go to Canada. Canada opposed the war and gave sanctuary to those escaping military duty.
I worked with a guy who was a draft dodger. He couldn't go home to visit until Jimmy Carter gave them all amnesty as one of his first acts as president in 1977.
Yeah, “Canada” definitely meant something that is totally lost on people watching the film today. Even first watching the film a few years after its release on tv, I understood what that meant.
Could they go to Mexico too?
True, but culturally it's the 50s and most of the music is from the 50s.....and although you are absolutely right, it's 1962 and things from that year definitely are referenced (Kennedy, Beach Boys) the movie is the thing that kicked off the 50s craze throughout the 70s, and is still the most vivid and accurate representation of 50's-early 60s teen culture on film. Kennedy gets shot in November 1963, Beatlemania hits two months later in January of ' 64 and the Sixties become the sixties! Fashion changed overnight, music changed overnight, troops start going to Vietnam a year later and the Hayes Code finally falls in '66 with Blow Up! Now THERE'S a movie to react to!
The trouble with the 1962 projected timeliness, is that Wolfman jack was a country music station DJ until 1963.
Some of the outfits scream 1950's, which kids in 1960, let alone 1962, kids would not have died in. Some automotive modifications used for this movie were more common in the late 1960's.
Not saying your fact checking is wrong, and Lucas might have actually intended to set it in '62, but some of it just looks like hobbled, mish-mash, Hollywood style (like showing a scene of 1940's pearl harbor in Final Conflict, which patently shows nuclear submarines).
Nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture! It became a box office hit, $140 million dollars against a $777,000 budget.
Wow! That literally is close to a billion dollars in today's money!😮
And just over $5million to make
@@rothed16 It's like that for Grease too. Made for 3 million and grossed over 200 million.
@reesebn38 wow! Didn't think to look that one up! Grease is even more popular and definitely one I need to go research about sales wise. Thanks for that!
By George's own admission, this film is what made Star Wars possible. The profits from American Graffiti were such that he could start his real pet projects, Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound. These 2 companies went on to be part of so many fantastic movies and ILM also launched the careers of several on the MythBusters TV show as well.
@@rothed16 Mad Max was made for $350,000 and made over a $100 Million. That broke a record at the time.
Fun fact: Kathleen Quinlan, who plays Laurie's friend at the dance, played Marilyn Lovell (Tom Hanks wife) in Apollo 13, which was directed by Ron Howard.
In a cool roundabout nod, Howard also directed the movie Solo (which of course was the Han Solo movie).
George Lucas is the 3 main characters, Toad/George was a nerd, John/George built and raced cars and almost died doing it. Kurt/George left his small town and became a successful writer(Empire). I saw American Graffiti 50 years ago, I was 9. It was the first movie to have a massive effect on me! When I saw this movie in the theatre it felt like time stood still and I was living it. They felt like my friends and we were hanging out. When the credits roll and we find out what happened to them. It felt like my first glimpse into real life. Where Childhood ends and Adult life begins, and some of us don't last long.
The thing at the end of the table was a table jukebox. It wasn't the actual jukebox but was a song selector at each table and the table jukeboxes at all the tables were connected to the actual large jukebox that played the records.
American Graffiti was a big influence on the 50's-themed classic 1970s sitcom Happy Days, and both Ron Howard and Cindy Williams would go on to star in Happy Days and its spin-off show, Laverne & Shirley.
Then, Ron Howard went on to become an Oscar winning Director. Richard Dreyfus also won an Oscar. Harrison Ford became Harrison Ford- and basically got Han Solo from this movie to catapult his career to the stratosphere. The hot blonde girl was Suzanne Somers who went on to Three's Company fame and still quite well known in a cancer battle. Mackenzie Phillips went on to a hit sitcom with Bonnie Franklin and Valerie Bertinelli in One Day at a Time (also some major drug problems that she got through).
They actually had Richie Cunningham date Shirley in one episode!
@@dsscamRon Howard’s daughter Dallas Bryce Howard got to know George Lucas through her dad, which is how she ended up directing some really good episodes of “The Mandalorian.”
@@misterprickly She was initially presented to be sassy and just as tough-talking, and tomboyish as friend Laverne and seemed to speak with a more streetwise, Brooklyn tinged accent too. In their intro in Happy Days, Shirley accidently socked blind date Richie (whom Fonzie, who was already good friends of the girls, had set up to go out on a date with him with the girls) when they stopped by his home, he came out of the kitchen with popcorn and refreshments, knocking him to the living room floor, this after still being upset after she and Laverne had a big argument (an almost knock-down, drag-out fight!) over who was going to stay with Richie at the Cunningham's and who was going up with Fonzie to his place for a nightcap! So, in effect, Laurie got even with Steve in the long run.
Laverne and Shirley were actually on Happy Days on 5 different episodes. The characters moved on the Laverne & Shirley spinoff series, gradually during its first season, the writers toned down Shirley's character after several episodes in Season 1 (as they seemingly did with both of them), making her more reserved, and as if she actually was raised in Wisconsin, as they also presented her to be more feminine, considerably more strait-laced than before, and friend Laverne, and, at times, prudish, and as having another childhood "friend", a stuffed toy cat named "Boo-Boo Kitty", which she's slept with in bed at night since she was as small child. Cindy Williams left the series 19 shows before its conclusion leaving Laverne to fend for herself. They almost renamed the show Laverne for an additional season but decided to cancel it. It was #1 even ahead of Happy Days- for a few seasons. Tuesday Nights on ABC has 3 of the top 4 shows in television with Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Three's Company (with Suzanne Somers)- the American Graffiti connection.
Happy Days was greenlighted because of American Graffiti. Studio execs figured nobody was interested in a sitcom set "long ago". Then American Graffiti was a smash hit, and the execs changed their minds
Finally Ashleigh gets to a movie where she would fit right in lol. This movie was in theatres for over a year! I saw it twice as a kid, and have a copy of it. Since Ron Howard was starring in it, it was the movie that spawned the Happy Days TV show. Of course Ron Howard is the famous director with no hair now. The Blonde Girl in the T-Bird is Suzanne Summers who went on to star in the TV show Three's company with John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt. Richard Dreyfuss saved his acting career IMO by doing this part. The 13 year old in the car with Joh n is MacKenzie Phillips, daughters of John Phillips of the group the Mamas and the Papas from the 1960's, and she went on to star in a sitcom "One Day at a Time." Cindy Williams went on to play Shirley in the TV show Lavern and Shirley. Harrison Ford played the bit part of the hot rod guy with t he cowboy hat who raced the John Milner character and wiped out. imagine Ashley riding around in the yellow car with John Milner lol..."Stand By for Justice!!!"
"Where were you in 62?" was the movie's tagline. I don't know why I have always remembered that
I know it’s not a huge difference, but this was not set in the 50’s, it was 1962. The movie tagline was “Where
were you in ‘62?”
The line dance the kids were doing at the hop was called "The Stroll", which I think was the name of the song, too. I remember going to Catholic church (I wasn't Catholic but my wife was) and we would have dinners at a big local restaurant and people would eat and dance after. All the ladies who were 10 or so years older than me (I'm 66) would do The Stroll with their husbands. They looked so cool and happy.
I believe it’s still done at classic car club gatherings.
All I know is I always fall for White Top Girl way down the left.
The movie was shot in 28 days almost exclusively at night while George edited it in the daytime. The cast all stayed together in a local hotel. Due to its ‘non-scored’ soundtrack of popular music no studio thought it would make a dime. When it came out the public fell in love with it. Parking next to the runway still exists at many small airports. Those slightly long shots are supposed to represent the decision process of people still maturing, indecision, etc.
At last!! 50 years later someone finally shares my thoughts on high school. Thank you Ashleigh!
Heh! Mine, too!
Another Richard Dreyfuss movie you would love (I think) is called "The Goodbye Girl" Also "The American President" with Richard Dreyfuss and Michael Douglas❤❤
Yes to both of these!
So many Hollywood bigshots got their big starts with this movie it's hard to name them all. The beautiful blonde Richard Dreyfus was "lusting" after was Suszanne Summers who gained famed in the TV show "Three's Company" and 'Carol' was McKinzie Phillips that was in "One Day at a Time". IMHO, the big star of the movie was the soundtrack...classic.
Because of my wife who was from a small town, I recognized FFA as Future Farmers of America. I have to say, Ashleigh, I know we depend on our farmers, but hog judging doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me either. Thanks for the reaction!
As to American Graffiti movie length, in the original theatrical release there were a few scenes that were cut - The car salesman badgering Terry, the uptight teacher chewing out Steve and Laurie slow dancing, Bob Falfa singing Some Enchanted Evening. I think the cuts made a better movie but their restoration is fine. Glad you loved it Ashleigh! I agree 5/5!
The sole restoration worthwhile was the Falfa serenade! The other two are proof that editors are made for a reason.
American Graffiti was actually set in 1962. I was just starting first grade back then. This was the movie that made George Lucas famous. He completed it within budget and on time, and it was largely George reminiscing about his times growing up as a teenager. A lot of the actors in this movie were unknowns at the time who later became big stars. That blond that Curt was fantasizing about was Suzanne Somers. Wolfman Jack was a little before my time, but I know who he was. Clap For The Wolfman!
That device at the end of the table in the restaurant was a music box. This was one that flipped the song selections down and up. Others flipped them sideways like a book. You could put some money in them, make your selection, and listen to some music. I remember seeing them when I was a little kid. By the late 60s they were pretty much gone.
Me Too, same age!
@@thomastimlin1724 Same.
For a Richard Dreyfus fan, The Goodbye Girl is an absolute must.
Absolutely. He is the most Richard Dreyfus in that film. So funny.
And for a super young Dreyfuss - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
Yes, Cindy Williams was considered a good actress: She did an amazing performance in Francis Coppola’s “The Conversation”, and, since Coppola and George Lucas always worked together, she was Lucas’s first choice to play Princess Leia (to Kurt Russell’s Han Solo).
I’m only guessing that Ron Howard may have recommended her when Laverne & Shirley were introduced on an episode of Happy Days.
The movie predates happy days but was the inspiration for it
@@papabearlives9995 No Elvis songs because of copyright.
As a gearhead, I basically modeled my high school behavior after John Milner. There was nothing better than cruising the strip in a hot car on a Friday night looking for action. This was the late 90's, so Fast & Furious hadn't ruined the street racing scene yet.
This is one of the final projects Ron Howard acted in before he went into directing. As an actor, he's probably best known for The Andy Griffith Show, but as a director, he's done a TON of great movies that you'd probably enjoy (and some you've already seen). The man is the definition of versatile, and this was a tremendous example of what he was capable of on this side of the camera.
What are you talking about? He still continued to act in films and especially on television, particularly as the lead role Richie Cunningham on ABC’s HAPPY DAYS. He started directing films in the mid-70s but began his directing career in earnest in the early 80s after leaving Happy Days.
apart from the small matter of 255 episodes of Happy days
Pretty sure you meant after Happy Days
I said "one of" for a reason.
I think he played Ritchie Cunningham on Happy Days for years after this.
That is hilarious that you were asking for Harrison Ford and you missed him in his first scene. I can guarantee that you will miss him entirely in the sequel. He plays the motorcycle cop with the shades in the beginning of the movie. I only noticed because he identified himself as officer Falfa which is his name in the first movie.
You could walk with people to the airport gate without a ticket pre-9/11. At smaller regional airports the further back you go you could get close to / out on the airstrip. It really was a different world. Glad you enjoyed the movie.
I just took a flight last week, and saw signs from TSA allowing family w/o tickets past security again. You need to sign-up and get a pass, but looks like they are relaxing on that a bit.
Charles Martin Smith (the little dweeb) didn't have a great career, but in the 1980s he starred in one of my favorite films, "Never Cry Wolf." It's essentially a one-man show. Based on a true story, he plays a biologist researching wolves in Canadian arctic. Everyone who has seen it will back me up that one scene alone would be worth it just for watching your reaction. Also: you get to see him naked. Not just his butt. (In a PG-rated DISNEY movie!) If you want to have a channel that's about our influential movies from the 80s...well, it's no Ladyhawke, but I think it needs to be on your list.
I think it's an awesome movie but I don't know what scene you're talking about.
He also directed the movie The Snow Walker (2003) which is set in the early 1950s in the Canadian Arctic. A hot-shot bush pilot has to make an emergency landing in the tundra wilderness and the only person around to help is a young Inuit woman who doesn't speak English. (The actress really was Inuit, but she was completely bilingual in English and Inuktitut. In an interview, she said Charles Martin Smith was as cute as a teddybear.) Really good movie.
He did a great job in The Untouchables and a brief scene in Deep Impact.
Smith is a great character actor.
Loved ‘Never Cry Wolf’…hilarious and heartbreaking. He was also in Starman…another enjoyable film.
@@PegasusBYU Both movies need to be on her list. I'd like to see this channel go back to the "movies that she needs to know" instead of all the Marvel stuff (especially post-Endgame). Starman, Never Cry Wolf, The Great Escape, The Man Who Would Be King, Zulu, some James Bond films, DELIVERANCE for crying out loud...there's a LOT left for her to do.
I would love to have seen what the 3 hour 30 minute cut of the film had in it,
Also Wolfman Jack wasn't just a character for this film he was a real radio dj that went by that name,
Ron Howard besides this film and Happy Days someone brought up in the chat yesterday. People will also know him as Opie in Andy Griffith Show and directing the following films you've watched for the channel:
Splash and Willow,
Unfortunately he also directed the dredged How the Grinch Stole Christmas,
Also, Ron Howard took over as director of "Solo: A Star Wars Story"
Which is crazy if you think about it.
Yeah that was the REAL Wolfman Jack.
Wolfman Jack even had a Saturday morning cartoon in 1985. It only lasted a couple of months, but I remember it because I recognized him from my dad’s AG soundtrack.
in the 1970s, Wolfman Jack also hosted a popular late night music program called "The Midnight Special"
@@Johnsrage I've seen a couple of those episodes.
The girl in the white T-Bird was Susanne Somers (Three's Company). Harrison Ford was a carpenter but Bob Roos, the casting director took a liking to him and cast him as Bob Falfa. He went back to carpentry after the movie but Lucas remembered him and hired him to rehearse with other actors for their screen tests. He ended up casting him as Han Solo when he saw the chemistry with him, Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher.
He was actually putting together a bookshelf for Lucas at his office when he was asked to read for Star Wars. Lucas was doing auditions ensemble-style and needed a third for one group, so he asked Ford to read with them. The rest is history.
The movie is set in the 1960s, but does have a 50s feel. Kennedy was president in 1962. Car culture is still big in California. Wolfman Jack was a real radio DJ, who united diverse youth cultures of the era. Young George Lucas caught the spirit of an era about to lose its innocence. The cast was tremendous and obviously many of them went on to do great work. All in all, American Graffiti is definitely a true classic. Rock on.
I haven't read all the 1,699 comments prior to mine, but one of the big successes from this already ultra-successful film was the soundtrack album. This was one of the earlier movies (although "Easy Rider" was the same and before AG) that utilized licensed music almost exclusively instead of having a music score. There were 41 50s/60s hit songs on the double album set that became the official soundtrack. They released 2 more follow up albums (both double LP sets), so you better believe the music of that era got a huge boost in knowledge and appreciation. The 50s revival that AG inspired made "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley" and "Grease" so popular.
Great point! You are absolutely right about that! This movie and its soundtrack album, also made it possible for singing groups like Sha-Na-Na to be very popular at that time. So it spawned a 50's revival, jumpstarted many Hollywood careers, and greatly influenced the recording industry at that time. American Graffiti became the formula for similar films with multi-plot lines and characters like "Thank God It's Friday" and "Car Wash."
@@pj9654 No Elvis songs because of copyright.
2:23 Francis Ford Coppola, who is Nicolas Cage’s uncle, was executive producer on this film. He had directed THE GODFATHER (1972) the previous year for Paramount, and because that film was a MONSTER success at the box office, his name being associated with this film helped to ensure that it got greenlit by Universal. Francis and George Lucas had been friends for several years by this point; Francis, who was older, and had gotten into the film industry ahead of George, was a sort of mentor. These men were part of the new breed of American filmmakers, many of them having gone to the first film schools in the country. Many of their contemporaries are well known: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Brian DePalma (who directed CARRIE (1976), as well as many other films), Randal Kleiser (who directed GREASE (1978)), and many others.
If you want to be considered knowledgeable about movies, Ashleigh, you absolutely must familiarize yourself with these directors and their films. They literally helped to shape the film industry into what it is today.
True: I was AMAZED that you could not pronounce "Coppola". Back then, his name on a movie was like seeing Spielberg's name on a movie today. It meant "greatness". When we saw his name, we knew it was going to be a fantastic movie. Even if all the actors were unknowns. It was THIS movie that launched them all to stardom.
Ashleigh, you can also get an excellent book called "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood" by Peter Biskind. It covers the late 60s - 70s Hollywood when American directors temporarily wrested control from studios/producers to make movies of a more mature/realistic manner. Most of these movies were against traditional "happy ending"/"evil must be punished" norms and a lot of them had antiheroes instead of your typical good guys as the protagonists. Lucas is in there for "THX 1138", "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars" (naturally).
Fin fact Lucas screened a rough cut of star wars and Coppolla thought it was terrible and it needed a lot of work. So if it wasn't for him star wars would have been not what it was.
FUN FACT: This movie STARTED the trend of having multiple stories going on in a movie. One of the reasons the Studios did not want to bother with this film was BECAUSE of the multiple stories. They thought this would confuse the audience and they would lose interest. Francis Cord Coppala put his name on it in order to get studio approval.
When you said, "What's that at the end of the table?" I felt EVERY ONE of my 53 years. It's for the jukebox. Some diners would have what's ultimately remote control units for the jukebox. Put your coins in and select a song, for your table
Great and important film. Gen X'ers like myself knew this well as we were the last gen to "cruise". It all started to end when the 90s hit. We were the American Graffiti of the 1980s.
I know urban bus and subway people who are afraid of cars.
The thing at the end of the table in the diner is a mini jukebox, basically the controls for a remote player. They had those in a lot of old school diners when I was a kid in the 70s.
A kick ass soundtrack with the one and only Wolfman Jack.
Defiantly one of the best films ever made and one of my favorite comedies. It’s always cool to see films by directors before their absolute favorite films. George Lucas’s 70s films are truly amazing. They’re all masterpieces in my opinion. Great reaction Ashleigh, take care!
The tag line for the movie poster was ‘Where were you, in ‘62?’.
But the music is from before and after 1962. This was a deliberate decision by Lucas as he was looking to evoke the era rather than make it historically accurate. It also allowed him to select some tunes that were personal to him but as they weren’t ‘hits’, they were cheaper to licence for the movie. Elvis is completely absent for that reason. The OST for the movie is one of the best selling of all time, for obvious reasons.
It was going to be filmed in Modesto, where Lucas grew up and cruised around in his own car (till the car crash that changed his life) but the city authorities balked when they realised they had to close down the main road for several nights. It started filming in San Rafael but was denied permission to film a second night so the whole production moved to Petaluma. This likely the beginning of Lucas’s known distain for having to deal with ‘officialdom’.
I lived in Petaluma for a long time after 2000, it was always a big deal with the annual cruising for American Graffiti happened, all of the classic cars would drive around downtown. I miss the way Petaluma used to be, before they built it up and made it more snobby. It's lost a lot of its old character.
American Graffiti was pretty much the precursor to Dazed and Confused. Even though Dazed and Confused was set in 1976, when most Gen Xers were still in Elementary School, it is still considered the American Graffiti of Generation X, since it came out in 1993 at the height of Gen X culture.
How are they similar?
@@davidz3879 Teens out cruising in their cars on a summer night after school has ended.
What American Graffiti was to the '60s Dazed and Confused was to the '70s, Fast Tines at Ridgemont High and The Wild Life were to the '80s.
Great movie! Written and directed by George Lucas and about his childhood growing up in Modesto, California.
I lived in Modesto (birthplace of George Lucas and where the movie takes place) for several years and still am only about 15 minutes away. In 1990, Modesto actually banned cruising, but this year, they ended the ban in time for the 50th anniversary of American Graffiti. There is actually a place called Lucas Plaza in Modesto with a statue dedicated to the movie and George Lucas.
A flathead is a car engine , and I completely agree with you about car styles back then ! Loved them !
So many actors who later went on to fame in TV and movies. Suzanne Somers was the hot blonde woman in the car. And Happy Days took a lot from this movie, down to Mel's Drive In. I love this film, and it was the strength of this movie that helped George Lucas make Star Wars.
Cool, glad to see you watch this at last! I feel it gets overlooked too often.
George Lucas made a student film called THX 1138, and after graduation was able to get a studio to let him remake it as a full-length feature film. THX 1138 got him American Graffiti, which led directly to 20th Century Fox greenlighting Star Wars.
Lucas saw Ron Howard in the unsold 1972 pilot for Happy Days (which aired as a segment on ABC's Love, American Style) and cast him as the lead in this 1973 film set not much later than the show - and the success of the film made ABC executives reconsider and order the series in 1974. CBS exec Fred Silverman then did his best to knock Happy Days out of the top 20 in its second season, endangering the show. The following year, as the new head of ABC, it was his job to make it a hit again, so he had it reformatted from a one-camera shoot with a canned laugh track to a three-camera setup filmed live before a studio audience and had Henry Winkler (Fonzie) promoted to star billing; soon after, Happy Days was the #1 show on television. It later spun off Laverne & Shirley, co-starring Cindy Williams (Ron Howard's girlfriend in American Graffiti), Mork & Mindy starring an unknown standup comic named Robin Williams, and Joannie Loves Chachi, focusing on several Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley secondary characters.
(Incidentally, Silverman was responsible for making ABC the top-rated network for the first time in its history, through not only Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Mork & Mindy, but also Three's Company, Charlie's Angels, Starsky & Hutch, The Bionic Woman, and the miniseries Roots and Rich Man, Poor Man.)
My dad built a crystal radio in high school and he used to listen to Wolf Man Jack in Oregon.
At the time he had a pirate radio Station just across the boarder in Mexico that was crazy powerful.
No one knew what he looked like until this movie, but this movie made him popular again, so I got to hear him too.
He was crazy funny.
This soundtrack is fabulous. And the hot rods are absolute eye candy.
A flathead is an older engine style, where the valves were not above the cylinders. In this case he's referring to the other guy's hit rod.
And the reply suggests that the other guy thought he was being called a "fathead".
The flathead Ford V-8 was produced until the early 1950s, and it was a popular engine for hot-rodders before more powerful overhead valve V-8 engines were produced. In 1962 There would still be flathead engines found in older cars.
They get about 9-12 miles to the gallon of gas.
If you notice when Carol goes home, she walks right in the door. No one locked their doors back then. What a special movie and a testament to an era never to be seen again!
We don’t lock our doors
I grew up in 70's suburban Pennsylvania. We never locked our doors.
I'm in the city and I've left my downstairs door propped open all night for the lake breeze. Once someone left an empty beer bottle on my steps. Other than that, only a couple raccoons wandered in.
I remember watching this in 1973 at age 15. As others have noted, back 1962 seemed like the distant past. I knew little about the movie going into the theater, but for some reason I remember somehow knowing how it should start. And it did… “One two three four five o’clock rock!” boomed over the sound system and I was hooked for the next 2 hours. AG did an outstanding job of capturing the feel of the end of the 50’s. The only other movie I can think of that does that so well is “Almost Famous,” which captures my coming of age decade, the 1970’s.
*_INNERSPACE!!! (Coming soon) Hell Yes!!! I thought no one would ever react to that one: Can't wait to see the reaction, Ash!_*
6:50 “Was this the reality in the Fifties?” Ron Howard and Henry Winkler were in a sitcom in the 70s called “Happy Days”, which was also set in the 50s. The guys would always talk about going up to Inspiration Point with their girlfriends to “watch the submarine races.” When I was watching the show as a kid I thought “Man, they had the coolest things to do back then!” Watching it again when I was older I said “Oh, OK, I get it now.”
Ron is always Opie.
And, of course, Cindy Williams played Shirley Feeney opposite Penny Marshall's Laverne DeFazio in the spinoff series, Laverne & Shirley
While depicting the end of the '50s era the movie takes place in 1962.
or a pair of kids could go on a "snipe hunt" out in the woods
27:17 The thing at the end of the table is a jukebox control box. It’s one type of jukebox system where you can choose your songs and put coins into the slot right from the table instead of having to get up and go over to the larger jukebox machine and pick your songs and pay there. It was fairly common in diners and hamburger stands like Mel’s (which was and still is a small but very real hamburger chain in California).
Okay, I know others are going to give you shit for not recognizing Harrison Ford when you saw him, but honestly...I've been laughing for 15 minutes, so thank you for one of the most entertaining reactions I've listened to recently. You're great!
This is one of my favorites. One of the greatest movies made. And Fast Times At Ridgemont High is second for me.
A year before this movie came out there was a new TV show called "The Midnight Special". It ran on Friday nights after Johnny Carson and featured mostly musical acts, with some comedians, performing live with an audience (very rare. Most shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train had the musical acts lip sync). Wolfman Jack was the announcer and occasional host. The first episode featured Ike and Tina Turner, George Carlin, Curtis Mayfield, Don McLean, and Rare Earth. It was the "go to" for those of us in HS to see who is currently big in music. I bring this up because Wolfman Jack was huge in the 70's. He was an LA area DJ who became the voice of 70's music. He may have been reading lines in this movie but he is being himself here.
A lot of those Midnight Special clips are on YT, and are definitely worth going down the rabbit hole to watch!
@@kathyastrom1315 Many full episodes are too. Here is the pilot with John Denver as host and Argent, Harry Chapin, David Clayton Thomas, Cass Elliot, The Everly Brothers, The Isley Brothers, Helen Reddy, Linda Ronstadt, and War as guests. czcams.com/video/itkwPhZFAHQ/video.html
@@kathyastrom1315 There are full episodes. I watch them all the time. The Band are live! No lip-syncing! Everyone from the 70s played the Midnight Special. So much talent! OMG!
“Performing live” is a bit of a stretch. Most acts had to lip sync and pretend to play because they wanted the songs to sound like the radio versions. The audiences also look dead because the producers didn’t want their voices drowning out the music.
@@sopdox Lip-syncing on The Midnight Special? I don't think so. You may be right about the audience - never really paid attention to them.
A couple of older age “coming of age” movies that are worth checking out are The Big Chill with Jeff Goldbloom and a ton of others with a notoriously awesome soundtrack. Also, Indian Summer with Bill Paxton, Diane Lane and Alan Arkin who just passed.
The film is a masterpiece and started the nostalgia for the 50s that was all the rage in 70’s…Happy Days, Lords of Flatbush etc. The film takes place in 62 of course and is basically based on Lucas as a young person who liked to cruise. He was involved in a life threatening car crash…. Which put him on a path to film school.
Wolfman Jack was the original host for the midnight special.
9:34, Ashleigh's face! Lol!!
This hit hard knowing the childhood Mackenzie Philips had, being given drugs and being raped by her father.
You didn't freak out over the "destinies" of the characters posted before the credits rolled, and I appreciate that. Most reactors have hated that. And Lucas had to fight hard to insist that that stayed in the film over his collaborators protests. I know it's a downer after the lightness of the film, but it makes sense. Lucas did American Graffiti as a tender homage to the time of his youth, a time which was long gone when he made the film. When we look back with nostalgia, even though we remember so much joy, there is always sadness at the loss. I think he wanted to acknowledge the loss by bringing harsh reality back into play with the fates of those 4 characters.
Loved this movie when it came out. I was about 15. It was a huge movie back then because of the nostalgia of the 50’s, my parents teen age years. We still could relate because things didn’t evolve as quickly as todays times. Honestly miss those slow paced days.
Actually, 'American Graffiti' takes place in the summer of 1962, because if you have noticed, Laurie (Cindy Williams) on her sweater has 62 on it. Yes, the majority of the music is from the 50's as well as the majority of the cars. When John Milner was cruising with Carol and on the radio came on a Beach Boys song, Carol told Milner she liked them. John Milner told her he did not like surf music, and that rock 'n' roll was not the same since Buddy Holly. The Beach Boys started out around 1962. And the DJ in 'American Graffiti' is actually Wolfman Jack, he was a real radio DJ that spun popular rock and soul music from the early 60's to about the mid 70's on the airwaves of the radio station. The radio station that he was at, the transmitter was located down in Baja California, Mexico that had a lot of wattage power, and he was heard all over the US, Canada and some parts of Europe. It was illegal to have that kind of wattage power for radio stations here in the US by FCC regulations, but the FCC could not shut down the radio station because the transmitter was located in Baja California, Mexico. Also George Lucas had a very difficult time for a movie studio to take interest in making 'American Graffiti.' The production company was LucasfilmLtd. the Coppola Company (Francis Ford Coppola director of 'The Godfather' film), and was distributed by Universal Studios. George Lucas loosely based 'American Graffiti' on his experiences when he was in high school in the early 60's.
The movie's tagline was "Where were you in '62?"
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 Yes it was, and I did forget to mention it. I myself was 6 years old growing up in my hometown of Santa Barbara, California (which I still reside here) on the Central West Coast.
This film is set in '62. Realistically/culturally, '62 was still a part of the Fifties. It ended in '63/'64 with the Kennedy assassination, the beginning of Vietnam involvement, and British Invasion music.
At least in this short version, in the opening you didn't mention spotting Ronny Howard. He's kind of a big deal in several ways.
I was a teenager in the late '70s, early '80s and we were still cruising and hanging out at the drive-in every weekend just like in the film. We all had friends who were just like most of these characters. It was a great time, I wish I could go back.
Fun fact - Harrison Ford played Han Solo in “Star Wars”, and although she didn’t get the role, Cindy Williams auditioned for the role of Princess Leia.
The "flat head", especially at that time was in reference to the Ford flat head V8 engine. Most popular engine for hot rodders back then until the advent of the small block Chevy. Also the diner at the very beginning was also used in the opening sequence of the TV show 'Happy Days'. Also starring Ron Howard. 👍🇺🇸
Great review! Just a point or two - The film is set in 1962, in fact one of the tag lines when it came out was "Where were you in '62?" Also the racial word Carol uses in NOT the "N-word" but the polite term of the day. AS the actual word can not be written or spoken you can only find out what it is by listening to Rap Music where if is not only allowed but expected.
The liquor store scene, I work at a drug store and people come in all the time and this scene always plays in my head when they buy a bunch of random items and a bottle of booze. It also plays in my head when they buy random items and condoms or morning after pills.
If you worry about running time, always watch the original theatrical release of movies. Most movies are the classics they are BECAUSE of the expert editing.
Imagine Watching It In '73 When You're 15 Years Old. One Of My Favorite Movies. Thank You.