Lucas uses the pursuit of adolescent sex as a device to pace the film and develop his characters. The dolt must separate from his high school sweetheart, the captain of the cheerleaders. He discovers that he can't. The one who is reticent about leaving home spends the night pursuing a boss blond, more dream than dreamy, who is tooling in a white T-bird. Milner, a lonely fellow at heart, wastes half the evening trying to get rid of a junior high school girl he has picked up by mistake, and spends the other half learning to appreciate her company. The jerk is able to pick up a good looking blonde because she thinks he can buy her liquor, and he occupies himself by trying to win the girl with phony stories of wealth and possession.
THE PRESENCE AND IMPORTANCE of the girls makes the story work and is necessary in the development of American Graffiti's theme. None of the boys can see their way to the future alone. Their only vision of what will happen to them, of what they want to happen to them, is the reflection of themselves they see in the girls.
American Graffiti is not a soft soap film like its nostalgia predecessors. The end of the film, which is a mite too fanciful (with the college bound boy flying away on "Magic Carpet Airways"), is sober if not sobering. Everybody does not get his girl. But everyone does make his decision. One way or another, for one reason or another, the boys have taken their cards and Lucas will force each one to play them out.
American Graffiti is not just a sequence of events. It is a nostalgia movie a la mode and its success in reconstructing the early sixties is phenomenal. From the Coke to the burger stands with waitresses on roller-skates, from the souped-up cars to the ducktails and pony-tails, from the gang of hoods to the sock-hop, Lucas is unerring in his eye for detail and in his ability to bring his audience eleven years into the past.
Graffiti's collection of cars makes the movie a must for any greaser or reformed greaser. The driving on the strip raises cruising to the level of ballet.
LUCAS' BEST TOOL for recreating the early sixties is the soundtrack. From beginning to end the film is accompanied by sixties golden oldies. The silly lyrics and uncomplicated melodies put you in the appropriate mood faster than any ten reruns of Leave It To Beaver ever could.
The acting in Graffiti is sufficient. The female leads are exceptional in their ability to remind us what it was like to grow up female in the sexist sixties. Ronny Howard, who played Sheriff Taylor's son on the Andy Griffith Show, gives the film's only unsatisfactory performance as the dolt.
American Graffiti is not a profound film, but it's especially well-done and a lot of fun. It is a memory, perhaps a memoir, of what one goes through on the way to adulthood. If you're one of the freshmen registering today, you're probably wondering if you should ever have come. American Graffiti will comfort you with the knowledge that you are no different than anyone else.