American Graffiti

Jugend, Spaß, Hormone, Autos, das ganze Leben vor sich. Ein niedlicher Einblick in die US-amerikanische Jugend der 70er Jahre. Ein paar Jungs und Mädel fahren in Autos durch eine kleine Stadt. Nostalgisch naiv, kultiviert, angenehm. Und mit einem historischen Wert. In wie vielen Filmen kann man in einer der Hauptrollen den heute großen Regisseur Ron Howard oder den jungen Harrison Ford als angeberischen Redneck sehen? (21.05.2005)

A time period I don't particularly like and films that tell its stories don't resonate well with me either. However, there was a filmmaker, from whom I least expected it, who presented it to me in an absolutely unique way, and I wanted to immerse myself in that vision for the entire 110 minutes to witness the extraordinary events that were unfolding. George Lucas uniquely captured a generational testimony, narrated with the lightness of a young enthusiast, skillfully intertwining various characters - from the nerdy geek to partners in crisis, to all-around cool dudes - without flowers and marijuana smoke. Of course, occasionally, one needs to overlook the credibility of certain dialogues and situations, just as one may overlook the fact that the night during which the story unfolds sometimes appears to be the early dawn in one shot and a few minutes after midnight in the next. One might then suspect that it's not just an unexpected surge in moonlight. Of course, sometimes it's easy to overlook these shortcomings, and when even I - an absolute musical illiterate - found myself humming half of the songs during the film, there must be something to it, both in the film itself and in the representation of the 1970s as a whole. (15.07.2005)

The best film by George Lucas. It's a great shame that he forever devoted himself to a galaxy far away and a certain adventurer with a hat, because here he was able to perfectly create a small-town atmosphere in the intimate genre and tell a story with all aspects of a socially-existential drama, while also being a sufficiently light-hearted teenage comedy. The key is that until the very end, it's not clear which level the script will lean towards. Whether it will let the heroes mature definitively over the course of a single night or give them a painful lesson. And perhaps, it can do both completely effortlessly. (04.07.2007)

To fully enjoy Lucas's film, I would have to be a few years younger, or a few years older. It is a film about American teenagers for American teenagers. There is no sensitive exploration into their lives. Fast cars, aimless wandering, first love experiences, and boys' rivalry - in short, the usual offer for this age category. This piece from overseas really doesn't have a lot of depth. If I give it 3 stars, it's only because of the enjoyable soundtrack, which features quite famous tracks, some of which can be considered part of the golden age of pop music. Overall impression: 60%. (18.11.2014)

Wenn ich raten müsste, ob das Debüt von George Lucas THX 1138 oder American Graffiti war, würde ich mich wahrscheinlich für diesen Film entscheiden, weil er einen unabhängigeren Eindruck macht, nicht so ehrgeizig ist und nicht so viele merkbare Regie-Ideen enthält (z. B. der Autounfall wurde völlig schlampig gemacht). Es geht aber nicht darum, wie der Film aussieht, sondern darum, worüber er handelt. Und als eine Aussage über die Jugend am Anfang der 60er Jahre ist er wirklich ausgezeichnet. Fast so wie von Forman. Die Stimmung der heißen Sommernacht, in der es zu verschiedenen Abschieden sowie Begegnungen kommt, ist wirklich gelungen. Eigentlich möchte ich von all den Geschichten keine auswählen, die mir am meisten gefallen hat. Wenn ich es aber machen müsste, würde ich mich für die mit Richard Dreyfuss entschieden, der die bezaubernde Schöne sucht. (09.12.2018)

Lucas is awesome. A film that encapsulates exactly the wonderful atmospheric feeling I imagine when talking about the American sixties. Of course, the incredibly packed soundtrack, which can be heard almost continuously from the radio or during live performances, plays an important role, but the depiction of the youthful mood of the time, the haphazard search for oneself, the hesitation between the unbound enjoyment of life and the movement towards adult responsibility, between superficial foolishness and real experience, is also palpably real. I can't think of any other film I've seen that has left me depressed at not being able to experience the era it describes – endless evenings in drive-ins, on lively big-city streets with a James Dean-like hairdo (more like Yul Brynner in my case :), or on arid country roads, toting my father's old Trabant with a cowboy hat. A work much more nostalgic and naive than progressive, but nevertheless ageless and beautiful. And it's interesting to see that Richard Dreyfuss looked fifteen years younger in 1973 than he did two years later on the set of Jaws… (28.01.2017)

Or how George Lucas introduced himself so that regular audience could bear it. It must be said that I didn't really expect much from the movie, it's still essentially just a film about American youth, but it's a surprisingly good film that shows how the youth lived and what they wanted or didn't want. It's human, it's very well tolerable, and you wouldn't even think that this person will later direct "Star Wars". (03.09.2015)