American Graffiti

A long time ago, in a screenplay far, far away, George Lucas made a movie that wasn't called "Star Wars". And yet, it was still good enough to make the AFI list at #77. American Graffiti comes to us from 1973, the same year that brought us The Sting, The Exorcist, and another movie currently in my Netflix queue, Day of the Jackal.

Actors you'll know: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams (assuming you ever saw "Laverne and Shirley")

Actors you may recognize but not know: Charles Martin Smith, Bo Hopkins, Wolfman Jack (actually, it's sort of the other way around with Wolfman). My favorite listing in the credits is for Johnny Weissmuller, Jr. His father was an Olympic swimmer and went on to star as Tarzan in a dozen movies and Jungle Jim in 15 more.

For about the first 30 minutes, I couldn't figure out what the fuss was about. Not really the kind of movie I enjoy, the teen coming-of-age drama type thing. Then it started to grow on me. The scenes are well-constructed. It manages to get funnier and more meaningful as it goes along. I mostly enjoyed the misadventures of Terry "The Toad" and the girl he said looks like Connie Stevens. Milner having to hang around with the bratty Carol was good, too.

I'd give it a recommendation, but mostly to see the main characters interacting with the lesser ones. The main storylines don't really do it for me.

Up next: Laugh In, and I can't tell you how excited I am.