Well, this particular
Golden Oldie turned out to be a bit of a
disappointment for me. It was directed
and probably totally hatched by George Lucas, who later attained fame and huge fortune by means of the Star Wars series.
It appears that Lucas grew up Modesto, California in the 60s. Modesto is a modest sized city in what is
known to Californians as the Central Valley.
At the time portrayed in this movie, Modesto must have been fully invested
in extreme teen-age car–culture: Mel’s
Drive-in, car hops on roller skates, “dragging the main”, serious and dangerous
races between souped-up hot rods, and many other examples of irrational adolescent
behavior. If you like this movie it
probably will be for the flashy cars (now they would be worth a fortune!),
early classical rock music, references to Wolf Man Jack, and for glimpses of
the beginnings of such latter day film stars such as Richard Dreyfuss, Ron
Howard, Harrison Ford - and even a tiny sighting of Suzanne Somers. Several others of the cast went on to have
movie careers, whereas other important cast members seem to have flamed out
entirely.
The
plot? Really, there isn’t one as far as
I can tell. Just kids having fun, experiencing joy and heartache, and getting
into a lot of trouble.
So, if you like this movie, it probably will
be for the cars, the kids, and the music.
It came out in 1973, nearly fifty years ago. I think I liked it then; maybe in the ensuing
50 years I became an old grouch. But
maybe it’s simple jealousy. After all, I
grew up in Beaumont, California. We didn’t
have a drive-in, there was no “main” to drag, and I drove a battered 1936
Hudson that was zero to sixty in about ten minutes! C+
No comments:
Post a Comment