Review

Had heard the name of the movie a lot, but had no idea what it was about. Just that it was Lucas' big break before Star Wars. And the thing that allowed him to do Star Wars. Very fun, so different to Star Wars. I don't like the 50s at all. The roaming bands of Mongols are terrifying. Go in either direction to the 40s or 60s and I'm happier. It was really interesting seeing Lucas do what amounts to a period piece. I wasn't expecting to see that from him at all. It's a strange period for me, because obviously it's not one that I have any connection to. So it was in some ways like looking into a zoo and seeing the strange and exotic creatures within. The central conceit, that the movie takes place just prior to period of cultural upheaval, starting with JFK's assassination and continuing thereon isn't lost on me. But of course time has long since moved on and what effect it may have had has been diluted. Similar in some ways to Cabaret (1972) in that respect, though in that case, we could clearly see what lied on the horizon. In Graffiti, none of the characters have a clue what lay ahead for them.

Can we talk about that ending postscript? It was so sudden. Lucas fully has us spend 2 hours befriending these people and then out of nowhere drunkenly runs one over and sends the other to Nam. Did we need that? I got what he was going for before it, the last time some of these people saw each other. They're all going off to their own lives. The definitiveness of the postscript felt unnecessary to me. And also, why specifically those 4? I get that they were kind of the main characters, but were they the only ones?