American Graffiti

Last night I couldn't sleep so I decided to watch American Graffiti. It's a DVD that I found under a bunch of junk as I was cleaning out the apartment yesterday (yeah, I spent over 8 hours cleaning the apartment; I figure I'm the only one that lives here right now so I might as well make it clean).

I've always heard about this movie but I never knew anything about it other than that it was directed by George Lucas and that Harrison Ford was in it (and I only know this because of a comment Lucas made about casting Ford as Han Solo).

For those who haven't seen it, the movie is basically a film set in the post World War II financial boom; it's about the social scene among young folks (film was supposed to set in 1962).

I know the film was supposed to be nostalgic, but for me it was sort of depressing.

Why was it depressing?

Well, because everyone was so good to each other back then and I wish it was that way now (if this movie is to believed....and this movie was praised for its realism so imagine it's at least somewhat accurate).

Here are the things that stuck out in my mind:

1) The main activity in the movie is picking up girls with nice cars. The film takes place in Modesto, California. What happens is young guys in tricked out cars drive up to girls (who are either in a car or walking along the sidewalk) and say something like "Hey Babe! Wanna go for a ride?"

When I first saw them do this my thought was "Oh no! Don't get into the car! I didn't know this was a slasher film! She's gonna get killed! Don't trust him! Run! Run!"

But, she smiles, gets in the car, and they spend a pleasant evening together.

2) The main tough guy in the film is John Milner. He's got "the fastest car in the valley." He is feared and respected, but he's harmless. He gets tricked into taking care of an early adolescent girl for the evening, and rather than dropping her off anywhere and going on his way, he makes the best of things and tries to give her an enjoyable evening. He puts up with her prattle and even gives her a keepsake to remember him by. He was totally justified in dropping her off the moment she got annoying, but he put up with it.

If I had compare a film from my generation with Graffiti, the best match would probably be The Fast and the Furious. John's character is basically the character Vin Diesel played. Now, imagine a lighthearted trick where a pretty girl doesn't want to spend time with Vin Diesel so she tricks Vin into taking care of her little sister for the night (trusting a strange man). Then imagine Vin trying to make the most out of getting duped. The modern revision would have him throwing the girl out the window, chasing down that previous girl, and shooting her tires or something.

3) Central locations. In Chino Hills people don't hang out (or the cops break them up....groups bring trouble, drugs, and in general, tomfoolery).

Well, in this movie (and many others that depict a similar time) they have a central diner (usually a person's name is the title....like "Stan's" or "Mel's"). People goes to the diner and they see all their friends there because that's where everyone goes to hang out. Then, together, they decide to go see a movie at the drive-in or go drive up to the mountains or something.

I see the diner location hang out in a lot of films and I'm beginning to believe they might have actually existed...and that seems cool. If the movies are to be believed (always a risky proposition) people would gather together and there wasn't much posturing or bickering...just a lot of people looking for a good time.

I think part of why this sort of social networking was possible was that people drew together because they were disconnected. By this I mean that today we have social networking sites and cell phones. We can reach a friend anywhere in the country in seconds and plan something. Back then they had the land line in their homes (which parents might monitor) and that's it....so they had a social gathering spot. This sort of gathering is way better than instant messaging, texting, or writing on someone's Facebook wall. This was people gathering together face to face to have/plan a good time...and they had to do this cause there was no other way. So, now (counter intuitively) , all the technology that connects us in a way divides us. It makes it possible to settle for inferior forms of communication.

Well, I'm tired of typing. These were just some thoughts I had this morning. I realize that the early 60s weren't as wonderful as they were in this film. There were definitely bad things about this time that weren't depicted: i.e. racism, The Cold War, The Vietnam War (3 years into it in 1962), but overall it seems like America was generally optimistic; times were tough but we believed in America and our ability to pull through....nothing like the cynicism rampant today.

Honestly, it seems like the 60s was a big party, and my generation got stuck with the hangover.

But hey, we got the iPhone.