By all rights, “American Graffiti” should be one of my favorite movies. It’s about teenagers cruising the streets and coming of age in 1962 Northern California.
The timing is close. I graduated from high school in 1959 about 90 miles from director George Lucas’ home in Modesto. It was filmed mostly In San Rafael, 10 miles from where I lived in El Cerrito. I even went several times to Mel’s Drive-In in Berkeley, part of the local chain shown in the movie.
At the film’s release in 1973, I really enjoyed it. I liked the nostalgia for a bygone era, familiar songs of the time and satisfaction of having moved beyond that silliness.
Watching it again 52 years later, I hated it. How could these stupid kids simply ride up and down the street in cars and agonize over who liked whom and who didn’t? Who cares? I hated the drama of teen-age romance. Maybe because I had struggled through it later as a parent.
And why was the star character really agonizing over whether to stay in town or go to college? Of course he should leave town. His parents needed to give him a talking-to!
What I did like about watching this idiocy is that I must have moved on from the first time I saw it. This movie may have been about my era but not about me. I did not cruise up and down Macdonald Avenue in nearby Richmond (Calif.) on Saturday night. . . I’m not sure who did.
Well, maybe I did once or twice. When I was 17, I took three of my 15-year-old friends to a movie. When we left the show in our car, one kid insisted on going back to the theater to pick up a girl. When I refused, I let him out but the theater manager wouldn’t let him back in, so he walked aimlessly on the streets. The rest of us cruised the street until I picked him up again and we all went home in silence.
This was fun? Not for me. The kid I let out of the car told me several years later: “The only reason we hung out with you was because you could drive a car.” Thanks a lot, buddy! I should have left him on the sidewalk.
Another problem I had with the era: what ever happened to the real-life cruisers and drag racers? Did the boys skip college or vo-tech training and have kids and become “ditch-diggers,” as my parents threatened me? Did the girls get pregnant and have a messed-up life afterward?
I could not identify with any of the characters. I guess I liked Lucas’ “Star Wars” better. Fantasy can be better than reality.
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