American Graffiti rewatch (Netflix)

[iamwhatiseem]

Not sure the last time I watched it, likely with the kids when they were teens, so 15 years or so.
Pretty much exactly as I remember it. The script/plot is extremely simple so easy to remember.
I can identify with it because as a teenager in the late 70s-early 80s, we were the last of teens where "cruising" was a main source of socializing and meeting girls. The male bravado and girls teasing boys all a part of the experiences. So it definitely resonates.
It is certainly a movie that is fading with the past and unlikely to surpass my generation. Cruising is long dead, so younger audiences will not find a connection to that culture, and deep connections with cars.

Wiki nuggets:
It was originally slated as a made for TV movie. Francis Coppola did not want his name credited, and without it - Universal refused to put in the money for theater release. Coppola agreed, so it made it to theater.

It is one of the highest profitable movies in history. Cost $770,000 to film, and as of 2021 total revenue surpassed $200 million.

Original name was "Another slow night in Modesto". That was hated, so it was changed to "Quiet Night in Modesto". Universal said the title still sucks, no one cares about Modesto California - so the name American Graffiti was coined for a broader audience.

George Lucas was a huge fan of Wolfman Jack, could not get any interest or money in his idea to make a documentary about his radio success - which is why his character is woven into the story as much as he is.

 

[pknopp]

I met Paul LeMat once at a car show. He had one of the best remarks to a statement.

A guy said to him "I wish you would do another movie like American Graffiti"

He was signing pics and without missing a beat or even looking up, in a dry manner he responds "So do I".

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I met Paul LeMat once at a car show. He had one of the best remarks to a statement.

A guy said to him "I wish you would do another movie like American Graffiti"

He was signing pics and without missing a beat or even looking up, in a dry manner he responds "So do I".

No one will again.
Like I said, the cruising culture is dead. Has been for a long time.
It was dying when I was a teenager, I am 60 now.
You wanna make a movie about modern teen culture? What would that look like?
A group of cuts with kids sitting alone in their bedroom playing video games?
Along with the glow of their faces in a dark room while looking at their phone?
With the only romance/sex scenes are boys making jerking motions while looking at porn?

What would it look like?

 

[The Duke]

No one will again.
Like I said, the cruising culture is dead. Has been for a long time.
It was dying when I was a teenager, I am 60 now.
You wanna make a movie about modern teen culture? What would that look like?
A group of cuts with kids sitting alone in their bedroom playing video games?
Along with the glow of their faces in a dark room while looking at their phone?
With the only romance/sex scenes are boys making jerking motions while looking at porn?

What would it look like?

Buncha kids sitting around looking at their phones.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Buncha kids sitting around looking at their phones.

I never cease to be amazed whenever I am out anywhere, in virtually any town/city on a weekend night and the streets are dead.
All the kids are home alone whining about their lives and watching TikTok. Meanwhile we are in a true epidemic of teens diagnosed with depression and uncanny numbers taking anti depressants.
And no one talks about it.

 

[g5000]

No one will again.
Like I said, the cruising culture is dead. Has been for a long time.
It was dying when I was a teenager, I am 60 now.
You wanna make a movie about modern teen culture? What would that look like?
A group of cuts with kids sitting alone in their bedroom playing video games?
Along with the glow of their faces in a dark room while looking at their phone?
With the only romance/sex scenes are boys making jerking motions while looking at porn?

What would it look like?

I found my daughter years ago Facetiming with her best friend. They had been talking for literally hours.

The thing was, I could see her best friend's house from our driveway. You could almost hit it with a rock.

It astonished me to see them talking through an app.

Well, once a year, I had instituted a no-electronics policy for an entire month. No internet, no video games, nothing. Not even TV.

By the end of that month, every year, my kids' attention spans and conversational skills improved dramatically.

So this particular year, I come home from work on the first day of the no-electronics month, and guess who is sitting at our dining room table with my daughter.

Her best friend.

*******. Awesome.

Today, my daughter is a voracious reader. She has a full-time job, a boyfriend, and still manages to wolf down two or three books a week.


As for car culture, none of my kids, nor any of their friends, were in any hurry to get a driver's license.

AREYOUKIDDINGME!?!?

 

[The Duke]

I never cease to be amazed whenever I am out anywhere, in virtually any town/city on a weekend night and the streets are dead.
All the kids are home alone whining about their lives and watching TikTok. Meanwhile we are in a true epidemic of teens diagnosed with depression and uncanny numbers taking anti depressants.
And no one talks about it.

I was an instigator of rounding up the hood for weekend baseball. I did that. Everybody was in on it, and it was fun. Some kids are dickheads.
It is what it is.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I found my daughter years ago Facetiming with her best friend. They had been talking for literally hours.

The thing was, I could see her best friend's house from our driveway. You could almost hit it with a rock.

It astonished me to see them talking through an app.

Well, once a year, I had instituted a no-electronics policy for an entire month. No internet, no video games, nothing. Not even TV.

By the end of that month, every year, my kids' attention spans and conversational skills improved dramatically.

So this particular year, I come home from work on the first day of the no-electronics month, and guess who is sitting at our dining room table with my daughter.

Her best friend.

*******. Awesome.

Today, my daughter is a voracious reader. She has a full-time job, a boyfriend, and still manages to wolf down two or three books a week.


As for car culture, none of my kids, nor any of their friends, were in any hurry to get a driver's license.

AREYOUKIDDINGME!?!?

I worry about what kind of fucked up society is my grandchildren going to grow up in. I have three - ages 4,3 and 1.
When they get to be teens - holy hell it will be GenZ's that are in charge!!
We are doing serious-serious harm to our young in this culture. And this isn't some "back in my day...." grumbling from an old man.
Nothing like this has existed before. This is all new

 

[whitehall]

California teen culture is applicable to nowhere else.

 

[Concerned American]

Pretty much exactly as I remember it. The script/plot is extremely simple so easy to remember.

I was in Modesto over Graffiti weekend this year. So glad they brought the cruise back.

 

[Rambunctious]

I was in a MOPAR club in high school and we would cruise on Wednesday nights...

 

[toobfreak]

late 70s-early 80s, we were the last of teens where "cruising" was a main source of socializing and meeting girls.

Wow, what a sad revelation. Almost as sad as the end of drive-in theaters and sunday cruises.

Universal said the title still sucks, no one cares about Modesto California

Modesto fairly sucks anyway.

 

[toobfreak]

I was in a MOPAR club in high school and we would cruise on Wednesday nights...

Mopars were kind of odd critters but they did have their great ideas like those interchangeable pumpkins in the rear axles that allowed you to instantly change gear ratios.

 

[Concerned American]

Wow, what a sad revelation. Almost as sad as the end of drive-in theaters and sunday cruises.


Modesto fairly sucks anyway.

The Graffiti cruise in Modesto was the biggest economic shot in the arm for the city since E & J Gallo. But, you're right, Modesto, like the rest of Californication sucks.

 

[bluzman61]

I watched the movie recently, probably a few months ago. It was entertaining and fun to see so many familiar faces in the film. And the soundtrack was awesome.

 

[toobfreak]

I watched the movie recently, probably a few months ago. It was entertaining and fun to see so many familiar faces in the film. And the soundtrack was awesome.

Dammit, I guess I'm going to have to watch it now myself. It has been so long since I've seen it, I only have fuzzy bits and pieces of memory of it, mostly about the yellow hot rod and I think he takes Mackenzie Phillips for a cruise and she's a bit of a brat.

Plus, I'm a big Richard Dreyfus fan especially from his younger days.

I see I have a copy of it saved in commercial-free HD. Guess I'll have to fire up the video archives one of these nights.

 

[g5000]

I miss drive-ins. Our youngest daughter (Gen Z) heard about them and asked for us to take her to one.

I've found one some distance from home, and it is now on my to-do list.

We have a drive-in diner nearby, just like in American Graffiti. So I'm going to give her the full experience.

Maybe I'll hide her in the trunk when we enter the drive-in so she has the fully authentic experience.

This poor kid was born 60 years too late. She is the world's biggest Beatles fan. She knows all the rock stars of the past and their catalogs. She wears their band shirts.

When I say world's biggest fan, that is no joke. She consistently ranks as number one on Spotify for the biggest listener to the Beatles. She took her mother and I to see both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at tremendous personal expense.

She reads two to three books a week. She works her ass off for a hospice and is going to college to become a nurse.

Her boyfriend is a gearhead and is working on getting his CDL to become a trucker like my oldest son.

All hope is not lost, folks.

 

[whitehall]

California had DJ Wolfman Jack and the East Coast had Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram. East coast kids were too busy trying to make a living than cruise around all night like the Ca. pop sissies.

 

[Concerned American]

California had DJ Wolfman Jack and the East Coast had Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram. East coast kids were too busy trying to make a living than cruise around all night like the Ca. pop sissies.

I started listening to the Wolfman on KOMA from OKC in the early 60s. We lived fifty miles from El Paso, TX. BTW, we had a cruise in Las Cruces, NM at that time.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I miss drive-ins. Our youngest daughter (Gen Z) heard about them and asked for us to take her to one.

I've found one some distance from home, and it is now on my to-do list.

We have a drive-in diner nearby, just like in American Graffiti. So I'm going to give her the full experience.

Maybe I'll hide her in the trunk when we enter the drive-in so she has the fully authentic experience.

This poor kid was born 60 years too late. She is the world's biggest Beatles fan. She knows all the rock stars of the past and their catalogs. She wears their band shirts.

When I say world's biggest fan, that is no joke. She consistently ranks as number one on Spotify for the biggest listener to the Beatles. She took her mother and I to see both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at tremendous personal expense.

She reads two to three books a week. She works her ass off for a hospice and is going to college to become a nurse.

Her boyfriend is a gearhead and is working on getting his CDL to become a trucker like my oldest son.

All hope is not lost, folks.

I have lots of fond memories of drive in theaters - they were awesome.
We use to take the kids, park our pickup truck backwards so the back is facing the screen. Fill up an air mattress, some pillows - snacks and drinks. The kids LOOOVED this.
Here in the midwest a lot of people did this with their pickup trucks.
Of course today - there are no pickup trucks. Only these absurd monstrous behemoths that only the most ignorant people fork out the insane price for them. But I digress.