Making American Graffiti

We’ve talked about the cars of this film many times over the years, and the culture impact of film on cruising, hot rodding, 50s music, and dare I say American nostalgia? Ask yourself, what filmmaker in their right mind, *in the early 1970s* would have made a full-length motion picture about their own personal high school life just 11 years earlier in the 1962 ? Let’s be clear, 1962 was not considered culturally cool to anyone in 1973. But George Lucas made much more than just a low-budget, high school-era drama with ‘American Grafffiti’, as he used the vehicles and even the diner as major characters in the story. Movie Cars up to that point were typically a main character’s prop and little more- Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 was an accessory as much as the ’68 Mustang was just Buillit’s chase car. Iconic cars no doubt, but not an intrinsic part of the main character’s film personality in the same way as the pass yellow ’32 Coupe is part of Milner’s attitude or the ’58 Impala help’s change Toad’s life. I found a short clip going behind the scenes of American Graffiti, briefly interviewing George and the cast. It helps emphasis how experimental and uncharted making this magical film really was.