FILM 2181: AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

TRIVIA: Harrison Ford was asked to cut his hair for the film. He refused, stating that his role was too short, and offered to wear a hat instead.

Due to the low budget, George Lucas was unable to pay all of the crew members. He offered to give many of them a screen credit in lieu of payment, and they accepted. Traditionally, only department heads received screen credit. Giving screen credit to so many crew members has now become a tradition, which is why closing credits last so long now.

When Wolfman Jack makes an on-air prank call to Pinky's Pizza, the voice on the other end belongs to George Lucas.

The film was shot in sequence, so as filming went on and the actors grew tired from the shooting schedule, the characters they played would also look more and more tired as the night went on.

When Steve and Laurie are introduced at the hop, the MC says "The next dance will be a Snowball, and leading it off are.." A Snowball Dance means the lead off couple (Steve and Laurie in this case) are supposed to dance with each other for only a short period, then split and dance with two others, then they split and dance with four others until everyone is dancing. But Steve and Laurie are so engrossed in their conversation and memories they are oblivious to the others. When you watch the film, notice the other kids in the background looking expectantly for them to split off.

There is a rumor that while George Lucas and a co-worker were editing the film, the co-worker asked Lucas for "reel two, dialogue two", which abbreviated to R2-D2, a name which surfaced in Lucas' later film, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #62 Greatest Movie of All Time.

The playing of "oldies" in the soundtrack became part of a 1970s trend where various recordings by the original artists were used to score a film.

Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz found the ending depressing and were incredulous that George Lucas planned to include only the male characters in the epilogue. Lucas argued that mentioning the girls meant adding another title card, which he felt would prolong the ending. Because of this, Pauline Kael later accused Lucas of chauvinism.

The Fonzie character was added to Happy Days because Paul Le Mat's John Milner Greaser character was such a hit in American Grafitti; Michael Eisner and Gary Marshall; who created the series; felt they needed a Greaser character as well. So Fonzie was based on and inspired by John Milner in American Graffiti.

There is a Mel's Diner at Universal Studios Orlando where you can stop in and eat. Parked out front are Milner's yellow hot-rod, Falfa's black Chevy and the white T-Bird.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

I’m making my way through the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. See my blog post about my copy of the book here…

You can buy an updated version (which I will get after I’ve made my way through this edition) here…

I really hope you can come on this journey with me – if you do I’d love to know which films you’ve enjoyed the most!

Watch this here…

This is featured on the podcast Unspooled Episode #75
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/american-graffiti/