I like this movie but mostly for reasons different than many critics. Most say it's a film about "loss of innocence" - as a viewer I am more startled by how MUCH could happen on a single Summer night in southern California.

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I like this movie but mostly for reasons different than many critics. Most say it's a film about "loss of innocence" - as a viewer I am more startled by how MUCH could happen on a single Summer night in southern California.

The vignette style is highly developed here and Lucas probably deserves major credit for it, along with lots of music, this film helped promote a new trend for the industry - even such teen oriented junk as dominated the 80s. Nostalgia is also important, and certainly the success of this movie probably helped the TV "Happy Days" craze. Still, it should be remembered that "American Graffiti" is set only ten years before it was made.

The quality of the stories vary, Howard and Williams are embroiled in middle-class soap opera (who throws sock hops in the gym in the Summer?), Dreyfuss's "mystical quest" is overblown for me, but the intersections with the better threads are still there. Charles Martin Smith and Candy Clark are charming and Mackenzie Phillips is at the height of her career at age 13.

I'm not so impressed with the postscripts at the conclusion, for me this movie already has a pervasive bittersweet connotation of "one last night" throughout.

I really enjoyed this movie. I felt like i could really smell it. Does that sound right? Well, thats how I felt. It was youthful and charming. Not to mention, music was great! 3.5/5

I really enjoyed this movie. I felt like i could really smell it. Does that sound right? Well, thats how I felt. It was youthful and charming. Not to mention, music was great! 3.5/5

"American Graffiti" is one of those classic films that everyone is supposed to love. Well, I would quite say that. I thought it was a decent coming of age film, but I really couldn't appreciate the time and place that the movie was set.