Watching American Graffiti, a nominee for Best Picture of 1973, is like catching up with an old friend. I've seen this film several times in my life, and getting to see it again is a chance to relive some very fond memories. I wasn't even born yet in 1962, the year in which the movie is set, but the story and the characters are really timeless. Almost everyone has had a night like the one this movie depicts, that night when all of the decisions you have make in life seem to coalesce.
The plot is pretty paper-thin, in many ways. Two recent high school graduates spend their last night in a small town before going off to college. Ron Howard and Richard Dreyfus play the leads, and the bulk of the movie is what happens on a "typical" night to them and their friends. They hang out at the local diner, and they cruise up and down the streets of the town. They meet new people and talk with old friends. Nothing more serious than that happens...well, except that both young men come to realize what they want out of life.
I've always empathized with Charles Martin Smith's Toad. Here's a guy who just can't seem to catch a break, yet he's always upbeat. He usually drives a scooter, but he gets to drive his friend's car for this one night and he makes the most of it, picking up a girl and buying liquor and making out at the lake and getting the car stolen--it's quite a full evening for him. In some ways, Toad is the archetypal "nerd" character that became such a staple of films in the following decades.
Then again, I also feel a kinship with Dreyfuss' Curt. He's the smart kid who's always second-guessing himself. He knows he's destined to go to college; he just has to convince himself of it first. And when an opportunity for love presents itself in the guise of a blonde in a white Thunderbird, he almost throws away his future for it. Perhaps that's why this film has such resonance (no, not blondes in T-birds); we all can see someone like ourselves in it.
Overall, this is a jewel. Not a bad performance or a wrong moment in it. And how can you resist that music? There's a reason why the 1950s made a comeback in the 1970s, and that reason is American Graffiti. I owned the soundtrack for many years on vinyl (yes, I am that old), and I wasn't the only one. Even those of us who didn't grow up during that decade can still feel a nostalgic twinge whenever "Rock Around the Clock" comes on the radio (which, granted, isn't that often unless you're listening to the oldies station anyway, but still...).
I feel intense sadness at the end of the movie when we're told what happened to the key characters later in life. It's almost a cliche in films now to end with this device, but American Graffiti uses it to great effect. Certainly, not all of their stories end unhappily. The opposite is true in several cases. But it's as if someone managed to find out what happened to all of your childhood friends; you can't help feeling a sense of nostalgia and regret. Perhaps that's another reason for why this movie retains its appeal after all these years.
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