Stars: Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie Phillips, Candy Clark, Harrison Ford, Bo Hopkins, Suzanne Somers, Wolfman Jack

Director: George Lucas

Summary: A Californian night in 1962 finds four young men leaving college and beginning to party.

A series of touching and effective vignettes, AMERICAN GRAFFITI presents a powerful collage of youth on the brink of maturity during the innocence of pre-Kennedy-assassination America. The film, set in 1962, follows one night in the lives of several recently graduated high school students. The genial Steve (Ron Howard) prepares to leave for college the next day, and Laurie (Cindy Williams), his girlfriend, is upset by his departure. Laurie's brother, Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), the class intellectual, is also slated for college, but he has serious doubts about his future. Also featured are the hopeless nerd (Charles Martin Smith) and the eternally cool drag racer, John (Paul LeMat), who feels pressure to live up to his reputation. In one of the many subtle, funny scenes, John, after the school dance, picks up chatty 13-year-old Carol (Mackenzie Phillips), thinking she's older than she is. Cruising in their hot rods, eating at Mel's Diner, and listening to Wolfman Jack spin the latest hits, the teenagers draw the audience into a nostalgic web in which the camera jumps from character to character as they each enjoy--or stress over--their last moments of summer freedom. Based on George Lucas's own teenage hot-rodding days in Modesto, California, this brilliant, bittersweet comedy inspired numerous other productions including the long-running TV series HAPPY DAYS. Lucas's second feature, AMERICAN GRAFFITI features an early screen appearance by Harrison Ford, who would figure heavily into the director's next movie, the sci-fi epic STAR WARS.

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Here's how American critic Roger Ebert described the unique and lasting value of George Lucas' 1973 box-office hit, American Graffiti: "[It's] not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant." The time to which Ebert and the film refers is the summer of 1962, and American Graffiticaptures the look, feel, and sound of that era by chronicling one memorable night in the lives of several young Californians on the cusp of adulthood. (In essence, Lucas was making a semi-autobiographical tribute to his own days as a hot-rod cruiser, and the film's phenomenal success paved the way for Star Wars.) The action is propelled by the music of DJ Wolfman Jack's rock &roll radio show--a soundtrack of pop hits that would become as popular as the film itself. As Lucas develops several character subplots, American Graffitibecomes a flawless time capsule of meticulously re-created memory, as authentic as a documentary and vividly realised through innovative use of cinematography and sound. The once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast members inhabit their roles so fully that they don't seem like actors at all, comprising a who's who of performers--some of whom went on to stellar careers--including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, and Paul Le Mat. A true American classic. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	The Making Of, Weblink, Trailer, Production Notes, Cast And Filmmakers Notes
Subtitles:	Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1973
Release Date:	August 11, 2003
Runtime:	107 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	820 559 8
Keywords:	American, Comedy, General, Graffiti
Genre:	Comedy