There are times when I have seen a movie years ago, and then when re-viewing it years later, see it with a new appreciation. American Graffiti is one of those movies. It helped that I recently saw this program on YouTube, The Making of American Graffiti.
It was only director George Lucas’ second movie, and he had a terrible time just convincing the studio to make it. They balked, and only until he got Francis Coppola on board. Coppola had just finished making what would be known as one of the best films in history. And he and producer Albert Ruddy had their own trials in making that movie.
Lucas hired young actors who in time would become famous in their own right, and when he was done after only a month or so of filming, Universal Studios didn’t know what to do with it. As Lucas explained in the documentary it was pioneering in several aspects. I’ll let you watch the documentary for that. And he made that entire movie for the unbelievable sum of $700,000 or so. He said in the documentary that if you had invested in that movie it would have had one of the most profitable returns in movie history.
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