American Graffiti

GREAT MOVIE. MUST BUY.

Featuring a great cast of mostly unknown yet soon to be famous actors and starting a whole movement of nostalgia for the world of the 50's sock hops, cool cars and music, a young George Lucas films a semi-biographical remembrance documentary of sorts of his young teenager years in Modesto California in the late 50's and early 60's. Shot in a single nighttime span of various vignettes featuring the above-mentioned cast as well as many other characters we either knew in school or had heard stories about, American Graffiti became a very successful coming of age time capsule for that era. Even if you didn't do any cruising down the main street in your small town, you'll appreciate all the fantastic vintage cars and be reminded of all the various typical high school hijinks of these young people. And most of us can relate to at least one of not several of these young kids' situations on the precipice of adulthood facing a very uncertain future. Lucas manages to capture this feeling quite well. More than likely the nostalgia of our memories is much more pleasant than the reality! Lots of humor and great classic rock n roll keeps the film rolling along. And we see in the space of one night some who do step forward into adulthood and some who postpone it.The Blu-ray does a reasonable job putting up a remastered picture supervised by George Lucas himself. This movie has always been a difficult transfer to home video as it was filmed somewhat on the cheap and of course essentially shot completely at night. Some scenes have great fine grain, natural detail, good color pop and nice contrast. The gleaming, smooth paint jobs and chrome on the vintage cars shine just right. But there are some instances of black crush, disappearing grain into a sort of a digitally processed picture with some edge enhancements. None of this is fatal and for the most part you'll be pleased watching this disc. The 2.0 DTS-HD Master audio sound has very good fidelity. Dialog is sometimes drowned out a little by the music but there's no distortion or tinniness to the overall sound environment. Extras include a great "The Making of American Graffiti" documentary and some fantastic sometimes hilarious screen tests of the young cast. If you are of a certain age, you'll need this in your video collection to remember what it was like at a moment in America for high school kids before the rest of the 1960's and its terrible events began to crush all the innocence out of society for good. So, where were you in '62?

Outstanding Movie From The Past

More American Graffiti is the follow-up to the wildly successful film American Graffiti. While it may seem to be a sequel in many ways, it is a very different story and type of film. The first film American Graffiti reflects America more of the 1950s than the late 1960s, and this film provides a transition to that very different place. Many historians see the first part of the 1960s as closer to the post-World War II period and 1966 as a sea-change year. All was different after that time. So it is with this movie.It tells four 60s’ New Year’s Eve stories:1. John Milner’s last day racing - a 1950s-era story that ends with his death in 1964.2. Terry “The Toad” Field’s time in Vietnam ends with his missing in action in 1965.The first two outcomes were told at the end of American Graffiti3. Debby Dunham’s story of flower children and the San Francisco scene in 19664. Laurie Henderson Bolander and Steve Bolander’s transition to a new America as they deal with the anti-war protests of the later 1960s and the emergence of new feminism in 1967.Stories 3 and 4 are more open ended with an uncertainty of what was to come, just as it was in reality as the 1960s ended.Visually the first and last stories are told in a reasonably straightforward manner. Terry’s Vietnam story seems ripped off the TV screen as it shows the impact of the war and how it changed the men who fought it. Debby’s story is more psychedelic with split-screen and experimental photography as befits the summer of love era.In addition to the principlesRon Howard as StevePaul Le Matt as JohnCharles Martin Smith as TerryCindy Williams as LaurieCandy Clark as DebbieSome the first cast appear in cameo roles:Mackenzie Phillips as CarolWolfman Jack’s voiceas Disc JockeyBo Hopkins as JoeManuel Padilla Jr.as CarlosHarrison Ford as Bob FalfaCurt Henderson – Richard Dreyfus-- is missing as he fled the draft and moved to Canada.The 1960s held two very different times. The early 1960s of a traditional post-war America and the later period of war, protest, and the emergence of women’s rights.America was still too close to the war era when the movie was released to appreciate this treatment. From 40 years out, it presents a darker tale than the first movie. If there is any criticism that applies to the film, it seems to jump around too much between the four stories. Visually the print in blu ray is crisp and vibrant, and the sound is excellent. Since both graffiti movies feature music, this is important.For those who loved the first movie, I highly recommend this film. Not all stories end in a happy manner. So it was in the 1960s.

Watching the movie on Blu-ray is better then when I first saw the movie many years ago. The sound and picture quality are both great!

Classic movie enjoyed watching

Just as we remembered it to be!

I love this movie, it has a great soundtrack.