American Graffiti

Sorry: "Why would," not "what would"

Sheesh!

The rich bitch liked to toy with the horny little nerd.

It was a HUGE hit back in the day--one of the top moneymaking films of the decade. (Adjusted for inflation, its take is still in the top 50 box office film takes of all time.) Most young people back then could really identify with being a teenager in a nowhere town or suburb and wanting to kill time having adventures along the town's drag strip before they make the big decisions in their life--I guess most young people would really identify with that now.

It's funny how big most of the then-unknown stars became in the 70s: Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Suzanne Somers, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips. Ron Howard was the only one who was really famous beforehand, but he played a very similar role at the time on "Happy Days" and was never able to escape typecasting because of the two roles, and wisely became a director.

What am I, r3, chopped liver?

She was a hot cocktease having fun on the strip. Curt is horny and at a confusing turning point in his life, so he becomes fixated on that moment and is desperate to meet her... but by the end, as he flies off to college, his perspective has been changed by the events later in the night, and from the plane he sees her car driving away into the distance, his adolescent fantasy fading away.

[quote] It's funny how big most of the then-unknown stars became in the 70s: Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Suzanne Somers, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips. Ron Howard was the only one who was really famous beforehand, but he played a very similar role at the time on "Happy Days" and was never able to escape typecasting because of the two roles, and wisely became a director.

It’s not clear if you know this or not, but American Graffiti was before Happy Days

Also, you forgot to mention the director, who became just a little famous himself

[quote]It’s not clear if you know this or not, but American Graffiti was before Happy Days

Actually, the pilot for "Happy Days," which was a segment of "Love, American Style" aired in 1972-- a year BEFORE "American Graffiti." And Ron (then still billed as Ronny) Howard played Richie Cunningham.

I remember seeing "AG" in the theater on its original run around the time of my 21st birthday. It made me VERY depressed for some reason.

I've seen it three times at different stages in my life, and have always found it depressing too. The tone really shifts in the last 20 minutes, and it's like Peggy Lee at the circus: Is that all there is? Great movie.

[quote] Also, you forgot to mention the director, who became just a little famous himself

He's not a star of the movie. He's the director.

Has there ever been a shift in culture that has been so dramatic in so short of time as this time? It was only 11 years between the time the movie was set and when the movie was released. The cars, the music, the politics. It feels like it should be 20+ years between the two.

R3 Pam Dawber and Susan Richardson also were in the movie. Very small roles.

I remember a writer in the early 70s saying the 1950s felt as far away as the 1850s.

One of my favorite movies. My parents took us to see it at the drive in. We wore our PJs.

I have to agree that watching it now I find the ending depressing as well. Maybe it has something to do with us saying goodbye to our youth.

Maybe it's...

Late at night a big old house gets lonely I guess every form of refuge has its price And it breaks her heart to think her love is only Given to a man with hands as cold as ice

So she tells him she must go out for the evening To comfort an old friend who's feelin' down But he knows where she's goin' as she's leavin' She is headed for the cheatin' side of town

There was a sequel made "More American Graffiti." I think another sequel should be made ("Still More American Graffiti") given that all the stars of the film, with the exception of Wolfman Jack, are still alive.

For reasons I never understood, my mother did not want us to see ‘American Graffiti’. My dad learned this and took us to see it just to piss get off.

I really wanted to wear my signature pigtails, but Mr. Lucas said they weren't authentic to the period or character!

Out of the large cast of soon-to-be stars in the movie, only Candy Clark got singled out for an Academy Award nomination. Why didn't her career flourish as well?

OP, did you watch the movie? She was a prostitute looking for her next john.

No, that's just what the Pharaohs said. Bobbi Tucker said she was the wife of Mr Beeman (the jeweler). The idea was that she was a phantasm...a will o' the wisp.

It's so weird to me how pretty Suzanne Somers is in this movie. Even just a few years later ,when she did "Three's Company," her face had become permanently puffy. She kept her great body for years, but her face was only truly beautiful this early.

Why does everyone always forget me? I was in this movie. I WAS the 1970s.

[quote] What would the blonde in the Thunderbird mouth "I love you" at Richard Dreyfuss when she didn't even know him and he looks like Richard Dreyfuss?

She was a whore, darlin'.

What’s funny is not so much that they all became famous but that so many did so thru 70s sitcom land - from a movie. Back when there was very little cross over between the two.

SAD how at the end, we learn that the one dragster cool guy was killed, the nerdy with glasses guy missing presumed dead in vietnam and so on....

not sure why (even if it's reality) any of the characters had to have a sad ending.. as sad of a ending as "the summer of 44"....

Well, what's also sad is the filmmaker seems to have no concern at all as to what might have happened to the female characters. Right?

R18 That's Debralee Scott, not Susan Richardson.

Thanks for the correction. Sorry Susan (and Debralee)!

I can't find a pic of Susan as "Judy", so I offer Miss Kay Lenz (billed as Kay Ann Kemper) as "Jane" instead.

I was in it too!

TV's Sweetheart as Judy. Great barrette!

And you were great as Carol, Mackenzie.