American Graffiti is a movie that takes us ultimately into the future, but by way of revisiting the nostalgic past as seen through the eyes of writer and director George Lucas. This movie of a teens on the verge of passing into adulthood and at once eager and fearful of that transition picks up some of the themes evident in the earlier Lucas film THX 1138 in the sense that it's lead character is confronted with the dilemma of staying fixed in his reasonably comfortable but constricting life or trekking out to find something different, perhaps even something better.
Of course Lucas takes the naive position that if one has the courage to move into the new sphere they will necessarily find success and that doing otherwise is utter foolishness. A more nuanced understanding of life might have given this film a deeper meaning, but as it is it does direct our feelings to want to root for the life beyond the winding streets filled with endlessly meandering cars. Success might be beyond the horizon or it might not be and happiness can be found in the local, but for all symbolically at least the transition into the sometimes cold world of adulthood is unavoidable.
As a comic book and movie fan, nostalgia is an enormous part of what makes my life enjoyable, but being stranded on the rocks of the past is different than wanting to preserve and nurture warm memories of that time. But it's rather ironic to listen to George Lucas talks much about the necessity of moving on with life in the commentary to this film, to leave behind the things of the past. But a quick look reveals that pretty much his whole movie career after THX 1138 is memorializing a romanticized view of the past in movies such as the swashbuckling Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark which hearkens back to the serials of Buster Crabbe and adventures of Errol Flynn, and this movie which is a milestone marker for a time when "innocence" was possible in a dark dim world.
It seems that Lucas is also a collector of Norman Rockwell paintings, works that themselves point backwards to a shining idealized past. While Lucas as been enormously successful as a director and even more so as a producer, his advice to go forth and conquer new realms tends to thud on the sharp stones of reality a bit.
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As a comic book and movie fan, nostalgia is an enormous part of what makes my life enjoyable, but being stranded on the rocks of the past is different than wanting to preserve and nurture warm memories of that time. But it's rather ironic to listen to George Lucas talks much about the necessity of moving on with life in the commentary to this film, to leave behind the things of the past. But a quick look reveals that pretty much his whole movie career after THX 1138 is memorializing a romanticized view of the past in movies such as the swashbuckling Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark which hearkens back to the serials of Buster Crabbe and adventures of Errol Flynn, and this movie which is a milestone marker for a time when "innocence" was possible in a dark dim world.
It seems that Lucas is also a collector of Norman Rockwell paintings, works that themselves point backwards to a shining idealized past. While Lucas as been enormously successful as a director and even more so as a producer, his advice to go forth and conquer new realms tends to thud on the sharp stones of reality a bit.
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It's been said that the period from 1945-63 is "America's Golden Age" (and then the Golden Age was destroyed by JFK's assassination, Vietnam, Watergate etc). Is that how Americans see the post-war period? Is that the mythical time when America was "great" - the time that Trump intends to restore (or already has restored if you believe his rhetoric)?
ReplyDeleteMost likely. Generally speaking any individual's "Golden Age" is that lovely time of childhood when one is ten or eleven or so, before the tensions of adolescence and the rigors of adulthood take hold. Baby Boomers were going through that in the middle 50's including Donald Trump and that's the "Great Again" time I think exists in his imagination. The '50's were indeed a time of economic growth inside the country and aside from the Soviets, the U.S. had no serious rival. I think Kennedy's murder and later that of his brother and of MLK did break the spell for the twenty-somethings who had grown up in that "golden" time.
DeleteMy golden age was around 1968 and that was a year of turmoil in the country and sadly I fear we have returned to that. During the time of Trump the world has been encouraged to do it themselves and I doubt even a return to regular order in the White House will ever put those alliances back into the same state, and maybe, just maybe that will end up being a good thing overall. (Trying to be hopeful there.)