Part of the experience of moviegoing is private dreaming in the dark; but the best movies create a fragile community of dreamers.

That is why movie houses are still on occasion the true churches of the twentieth century. On the streets everyone is isolated, but sometimes when the lights go down in the theater, the current that races through the house overwhelms all differences, dissolves all barriers. “American Graffiti” connects with an audience in a way that few movies ever have.
—Stephen Farber, The New York Times.

American Graffiti (1973) is a coming-of-age film directed by George Lucas, and one of the most profitable blockbusters of the twentieth century.¹ Set in Modesto, California in 1962 and shot entirely at night, the movie has been described as creating “a dream landscape; the cars glide through the darkness in a strange, hallucinatory parade” (Farber, 1973).

It contains four story lines of teenage angst and comedy. Can you imagine what the movie is about based on its title? Continue reading Finding Meaning in American Graffiti: To Write or Rite of Passage? →