American Graffiti (1973)

So this is what George Lucas was doing before he got into sci-fi. And I don’t strictly mean this film, either. Lucas’ first-ever film was a sci-fi dystopia which flopped, but he was already at work on this script – encouraged by his film’s producer, Francis Ford Coppola, who advised him to maybe write something with a bit more mainstream appeal. Lucas went nostalgic – paying homage to his teenage years in Modesto, California. He’d also long been fascinated with the deejay Wolfman Jack and had even been toying with a documentary about him, but blended him into this tale instead. So yes, this literally was what George Lucas was doing before he got into sci-fi – back when he was a hot-rod obsessed nerdy kid in Modesto in the 1960s. He even base three of the characters on himself – each at a different phase of his life – and sets the whole story on a single night in Modesto, the night before two friends, “Curt Henderson” (Richard Dreyfuss) and “Steve Bolander” (Ron Howard), are due to fly…

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