American Graffiti review

American Graffiti Rewatched again this classic film that I haven’t watch like in 25 years or more that launched the careers of practically the whole cast of the film. After finishing it I was just plain amazed how wonderful is this nostalgic film that inspired the creation of 'Happy Days’ tv series and paved the way to 'Grease’. And what is great about it is that its strongest point is that is a character driven film from none less than writer/director George Lucas! I mean, the same George Lucas that is now vilified as incapable of fleshing out characters and writes horrendous dialogue, used to be a prodigious young filmmaker in the early 70‘s who seemed incapable of doing anything wrong. ‘Star Wars’ was both a blessing and a curse for Lucas, as it was never his intention to become a big corporate mogul, but his creation became such a gigantic phenomenom that he had no choice, but to shelve his directorial career to take control of this thing. Lucas always stated that his first film ‘THX 1138‘ he made it with his head, his second film (American Graffiti) with his heart and his third film (Star Wars) with his hands. At that time Lucas hoping to get done with ‘Star Wars’ and resume his directorial passion toward more experimental, low budget films like ‘Graffiti’. Unfortunately that never materialized as he never got ‘done’ with Star Wars until just recently when he quit his career for good after the avalanche of hate he received from the same fans that claim to adore his first films. In retrospect, ‘American Graffiti’ reveals more about what could have been George Lucas career if his little ‘Flash Gordon tribute’ film didn’t have become such a cultural icon. In that light, destiny has deny us maybe two dozen unmade gems. 8.5/10

 

Do you know that American Graffiti was made with less than $1 million budget ($777,000), but ended grossing $200 million? Also the film was nominated as "Best Movie of The Year" during the 1973 Academy Awards.