More American Graffiti (1979) – Nostalgia Central

More American Graffiti takes the same characters from 1973’s American Graffiti (the movie which looked affectionately at the pre-turbulent time of 1962) through the era of Vietnam and acid rock.

Unlike 1962, which was still much under the influence of Fifties styles and music in some respects. 1964 — the year in which the sequel begins — is the start of a new time when the characters — and their music — lost their innocence. A time when people began to question “why?” and never again assumed the position of conformity or blind acceptance.

The new film, directed by B.W.L. Norton and with American Graffiti director George Lucas as executive producer, cleverly employs four separate segments to illustrate those years.

Each sequence is set one year apart on New Year’s Eve in 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1967, and each sequence uses a different technique, synonymous with the era or movie trends at the time, to enhance the film’s mood.

1964, using the full Panavision frame, centres on the efforts of drag racer John Milner (Paul Le Mat) – despite the mention of his death in the first movie – to win an important race and a beautiful girl named Eva (Anna Bjorn) whom he has just met.

In 1965, Terry (Charles Martin Smith) is in Vietnam, and his misjudged – and often very funny – efforts to get out of that hell-hole are the basis of the segment. Toad wages a one-man verbal war on his superiors in an effort to be so disruptive and irritating that his bosses have no choice but to send him home.

The story is presented on a small screen and shot in 16mm. The effect is something like watching a television news broadcast.

The third segment is set in 1966 and is the story of flower child Debbie (Candy Clark) and her boyfriend, Lance (John Lansing), whom at one stage, Debbie has to bail out ot jail on a drug charge (after he is arrested by Harrison Ford!).

This sequence is probably the most representative of the period, in its imaginative and impressive use of split screen, and stands for the “psychedelia” influence of those times, recalling the visual style of the quintessential film of that generation’s ideals, Woodstock (1970).

Cindy Williams and Ron Howard play Laurie and Steve Bolander, whose marriage in 1967 is going through a shaky period. Their lives become momentarily entangled in, and somewhat altered by, one of those other phenomena so prevalent in the Sixties, the campus riot.

In these four tableaux, More American Graffiti reveals much of the shifting mood of the times. Rather than tell these stories chronologically, the film cuts from sequence to sequence, each one lasting about two minutes at a time.

Only in the opening 1964 sequence are all the characters briefly gathered together.

One effective and disturbing aspect of the film’s structure is that, through characters in episodes of the later years, we become aware ot what has happened to those featured in the earlier sequences. This makes for some ironic “foresight” on the audience’s part.

Like its predecessor, More American Graffiti makes much use of music, ranging from such diverse items as The Supremes‘ Stop in the Name of Love to Country Joe and the Fish‘s Fixing to Die Rag.

It is an important aspect of the culture of the times, and the stories would not be complete without the music that was part of it all.

More American Graffiti is a feast, both visually and aurally, and is a worthy successor to the record-breaking original.

Debbie Dunham
Candy Clark
Little Joe
Bo Hopkins
Steve Bolander
Ron Howard
Laurie Bolander
Cindy Williams
John Milner
Paul Le Mat
Eva
Anna Bjorn
Carol/Rainbow
Mackenzie Phillips
Terry the Toad
Charles Martin Smith
Major Creech
Richard Bradford
Ralph
John Brent
Newt
Scott Glenn
Sinclair
James Houghton
Lance
John Lansing
Carlos
Manuel Padilla
Beckwith
Ken Place
Teensa
Mary Kay Place
Eric
Tom Ruben
Bobbie
Doug Sahm
Andy Henderson
Will Seltzer
Moonflower
Monica Tenner
Felix
Ralph Wilcox
Vikki
Carol Ann Williams
Wolfman Jack
Himself
Girl in Commune
Rosanna Arquette
Sergeant Dutton
Eric Barnes
The Freak
Buzz Borelli
Perry
Ben Bottoms
Slick Eddie
Tim Burrus
Ed
Gil Christner
Kevin Bolander
Mark Courtney
Teddy Bolander
Michael Courtney
Ron
Jon Gries
Ole
Erik Holland
Congressman
Jay Jacobus
Mr Hunt
Morgan Upton

Director
B.W.L. Norton

Video