American Graffiti: A Screenplay by George Lucas

American Graffiti: A Screenplay Reviews

• 
  Jeff Mayo

  This is the screenplay for the legendary movie. What makes it such an interesting read is that it is the original screenplay, meaning that all the film that ended up on the cutting room floor, or scenes that were never filmed due to time and budget, are still here. This adds a layer of depth to the characters for fans of the film. Each character has several scenes and quite a bit of dialog that never appeared in any version of the finished film.
• 
  Craig

  I was born in Stockton and raised in Modesto (where this movie takes place - George Lucas was from Modesto). I entered the freshman class of Thomas Downey High School (Dewey High? - the names are pretty similar) in September, 1962, so figuratively speaking I was at the Hop where Steve and Laurie led out with the first dance. When I first saw the movie in 1973, it had tremendous sentimental significance for he. Having just read the screen play, my recollection of those teenage years all comes back. Lucas changed some of the names, but others I remember: G Street, 10th Street, Paradise Road, Pharoahs, etc. Though I didn't buy into the language, antics and night-time "cruising" or "dragging" scene, many of my friends did, and Lucas' portrayal is true to life. A slice of Americana particularly nostalgic to me.
• 
  Ivy

  This is a great book to have around for impromptu recording parties, as it contains the entire screenplay for this iconic film along with inspiring pictures. Get two copies if you can swing it. Beyond that, you just need four people of passable acting talent, two bottles of wine to warm the vocal chords, and a tape recorder to document it all. If you're feeling ambitious, get out your record player and your AmGraf soundtrack and synchronize the songs to the scenes as you perform them. It's like movie karaoke!
• 
  TrumanCoyote

  A marvelous job of conveying the unconveyable: all that excitement with the Wolfman as the de facto host of the party. A book (and movie) which somehow wraps up all the loose ends and individual characters into a perfect whole. Much like the similarly manic Fast Times at Ridgemont High would do a decade later.
• 
  Wendy

  American Graffiti is about my hometown of Modesto, Ca. I love the movie and what it represents, so I really enjoyed reading this book.
• 
  Amy

  I remember watching this movie multiple times growing up. I loved all the cars and music (my parents had the soundtrack) and seeing all the young actors who were by now grown and famous. My favorite part of this book was the short bios of the director, producer, and top cast of characters at the end. George Lucas was the director, but this was written well before he became famous for Star Wars, so the strongest praise they have for him at this point is that he was an assistant to Coppola on a few films and made THX-1138 (which is really interesting if you haven’t watched it!). Harrison Ford was not even high enough on the list of actors to be given a bio! It was really interesting to see where a lot of young people got their big break.
• 
  G. Salter

  Scripts may never be quite as good the films made from them, bit this is an unusually readable one, and shows that with the right collaborators, Lucas could make stories with the human touch that his later movies lacked.
• 
  Susan

  This was an okay story.