American Graffiti

1973 Directed by George Lucas

Where were you in '62?

A couple of high school graduates spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

Richard Dreyfuss Ron Howard Paul Le Mat Charles Martin Smith Candy Clark Mackenzie Phillips Cindy Williams Wolfman Jack Bo Hopkins Harrison Ford Manuel Padilla Jr. Beau Gentry Jim Bohan Jana Bellan Deby Celiz Lynne Marie Stewart Terence McGovern Kathleen Quinlan Timothy F. Crowley Scott Beach John Brent Gordon Analla John Bracci Jody Carlson Del Close Chuck Dorsett Stephen Knox Joe Miksak George Meyer Show All…

Alternative Titles

American Graffiti – Loucuras de Verão, Американські ґрафіті, Sista natten med gänget

drama comedy

110 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★½ 28

I love Star Wars but it's a tragedy that it prevented us from ever getting more movies from the George Lucas who made American Graffiti
Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★ 44

The Summer of '62. Before JFK went to Dallas. Before Vietnam. Before the Watts riots. The last summer of innocence for the first group of Baby Boomers. Our main characters in American Graffiti are these kids. They have no clue what's ahead of them.
The music. The lack of a musical score is replaced by an almost constant soundtrack. The songs for the most part, follow the plot. This is something we will later see in two of my favorite movies: Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some. I feel a slight disconnect with the song selections. I didn't grow up with this music. You could say some of it is "square". One of our characters reflects on how the…
Review by Mike Ginn ★★★

Pretty good for a movie about teenagers driving around saying hello to each other
Review by Larry ★★★★★ 8

You're the most beautiful, exciting thing I've ever seen in my life and I don't know anything about you.
Films that sweep you away into a time long gone, and make you feel like you've always been there are a rarity. Theyre even more antiquated today, which makes the existence of films like American Graffiti worthy of being put in special little time capsules. (Or a certain Library of Congress.)
This film may take place in the very early 60's but the laid back, nocturnal, real time hangout vibe of the film is the story of every American youth's summer years. This is your fathers story. This is your grandfathers story and his father before him. This is our story.…
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★ 2

Very very very good monologue in here near the end that I loved.
Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★

The illusions of freedom before the collapse of a culture. Lucas is more relevant than ever.
Review by Cinemonster ★★★★ 4

George Lucas' observational Altmanesque film remains far and away his best work with actors as well as his best all around film. A likable and talented cast keeps the lulls to a minimum and the soundtrack as score is outstanding. It is hard to believe that after showing an ear for dialogue in this film that Lucas went deaf so quickly.
Editor Verna Fields and sound designer Walter Murch should get equal credit with the cast for elevating the film high above the AIP film it could have been. Their work here is as impactful as any they did for Spielberg or Coppola at this time. You can have Star Wars, I'll take American Graffiti.
Review by kayla ★★★★ 2

Cars and music were so much cooler in the 60s
Review by matt lynch ★★★½

"This was the most perfect, dazzling creature I've ever seen!"
"She's gone. Forget it."
Review by Sam Meltzer🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★ 11

It all revolves around one town and a few people in it. Those being older teens who just graduated high school and are about to go to college. They are growing up, saying goodbye to their home, saying goodbye to their childhood, becoming more mature human beings. It resembles a bittersweet feeling in which you are happy to grow up and get to experience new things, but at the same time feel very sad because you are leaving something you know very well and love quite a bit. While there isn’t much of a cohesive story here, there really doesn’t need to be. American Graffiti one of the most realistic and natural feeling movies ever made. However, the situation being…
Review by Griffin ★★½ 3

Although a pleasant 60’s coming-of-age story, it was difficult for me to connect with any of the characters or plot lines presented. The ending describing the main four’s fates also left a bad taste in my mouth, felt pretty unnecessary and out of place.
Review by Tylot Lantern ★★★½ 1

Possibly the greatest movie soundtrack ever.

Recent reviews

Review by J.J. Gittes ★★★★½

Jeez, what a night
Review by Joe ★★★★½

This is my favourite coming-of-age film of the 20th century. I loved every second. It hits different because Covid robbed me of those last days of school and summer before college/Uni but almost 50 years on this is still a magnificent movie that proves George Lucas is actually a good filmmaker.
Review by Rossatr0n ★★★★

Kick back and relax with muscle cars and rock n roll. Aimless in plot but full of coming of age struggles that don’t go too deep.
Review by vrnshrm ★★★★

87/100
Review by SashaPrice ★★★★½

Rip John
Review by GortexParrot ★★★★★

You know what’s sort of amazing about American Graffiti? The way its central theme parallels the place it ended up occupying in cinema history. American Graffiti is a film about the characters’ thoroughly enjoyable youth drawing to a close, replaced by the looming, unpleasant shadow of adulthood. And it just so happens to be George Lucas’s final film before he made Star Wars and had to go be a billionaire franchise mogul, putting his true directorial ambitions permanently on the back burner. Seriously, the guy was smart and talented and could’ve had a career to rival Scorsese or Coppola or any one of his New Hollywood compatriots. But just as we find the characters in American Graffiti on the verge…
Review by coleswad ★★½

I’m sure it captures a moment that was important, just not to me.
Review by Steph ★★★

AFI 27/100
Review by SamMarghinotti ★★★★

Damn, I wish I lived in the 60s...
Review by ilikemovies7 ★★★★

So much better than dazed and confused
Review by michaels_movies ★★★

I adore the production design but god, I could not giver a single shit about the characters or their situations
17/30
Review by WilliamPaterno ★★★★½

Classic