One of the best coming-of-age films ever made, and it was surprisingly written by one of the worst dialogue masters of the world, Mr. George Lucas. Literally his only reputable source of entertainment that doesn't begin with the words "Star Wars".
The movie takes place in in a Southern California town. Five teenage friends spend their last night together in town before they break up and move onto the rest of their lives. Steve Bolander (Ron Howard) is prepared to split for college. His best friend Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) is not as ready, and spends the night reminiscing about his teenage life. Their friend Terry "The Toad" Fields (Charles Martin Smith) spends the night driving Steve's car around and trying to woo the interest of a random streetwalker he picked up, Debbie Dunham (Candy Clark). John Milner (Paul Le Mat) is a revered street racer in a yellow 1930's Deuce Coupe that is the envy of all the other street racers in the state, including one Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) who spends the movie looking for Milner, demanding a race. Laurie Henderson (Cindy Williams), Steve's girlfriend, is struggling to deal with Steve departing for college and the fact that he spoke to her about taking their relationship to a new level by "seeing other people".The movie progresses throughout the course of one night. Each of the teens have their own adventures and learning experiences in their "last night in town" together. Milner befriends a young girl named Carol when he asks a car-full of girls if any of them want a ride, but gets punked when 12-year-old Carol hitches a ride. Steve and Laurie attend their final high school dance together that night, and grow to learn that Steve's request to "see other people" won't help their relationship and he even decides that he doesn't want to go to college and instead wants to hang around town. Curt, on the opposite end, decides during his trip down memory lane that he should go forward to college and move on with his life. Even Toad befriends Debbie and together throughout the night grow close.
The movie ends with Bob Falfa finally finding Milner and demanding the race, which Milner agrees to. The race at Paradise Road ends with Falfa beginning to beat Milner, but he spins out and crashes. Milner laments to Toad that he knew Falfa was beating him but Toad works to convince Milner otherwise. He tries to convince Milner that he'll be the fastest thing in the valley even for years to come. Then the group of friends the following afternoon take Curt to the airport and see him off to school. The end of the film details the fates of each of the characters: "John is killed by a drunk driver in December 1964, Toad is reported missing in action near An Lộc in December 1965, Steve is an insurance agent in Modesto, California, and Curt is a writer living in Canada."The movie had a sequel in 1979 called More American Graffiti, but I haven't seen it.
It's a phenomenal coming-of-age teen film from a period long ago. It shows what life was like when being a teenager in 1962. The tagline of the film is even "where were you in '62". Before smartphones, Facebook, texting, or YouTube. Basically even before the internet. Where all you needed was a "ten cent Coke, no ice" and a "take full of gas just to make one circuit". Stay out all night and cruise with your friends in big, steel American cars and meet new and interesting people. Street race, meet the real Wolfman Jack, dance to 50's rock and roll, and drink milkshakes at a drive-in. When life was cool to be alive. I definitely recommend it. It moves at kind of a slow pace, but what a story. What. A. Story. Watch it.
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