Chalk up another victory for laserdisc fanatics. George Lucas’ 'American Graffiti' was heretofore one of the worst pan-and-scan jobs in laser history, with a blurry image, over-saturated fleshtones and a clumsy sound mix that was an insult to the vintage rock ‘n’ roll tunes playing throughout the film.
One of the most requested titles in the please-remaster-and-letterbox file, the new widescreen disc of 'American Graffiti' is a glorious sight. Lucas’ anamorphic compositions (courtesy of not one, not two, but THREE contributing cinematographers, including the legendary Haskell Wexler) are finally presented here unmarred by careless cropping and scanning. True, unlike a special-effects-laden film (like Lucas’ subsequent movie, a tiny little space adventure he’d call 'Star Wars'), not much about "American Graffiti" would seem to beg to be viewed in widescreen. But letterboxing restores the visual dynamic to the narrative—multiple characters once again occupy the same frame and react to each other without the interference of artificial cutaways. And you can see both cars peel out in an important drag race.
Given the higher quality of the THX-approved laserdisc transfer, the day-for-night shots are even less convincing than on the previous release, but the colors are fantastic and the image is as sharp and detailed as any current day film-to-disc transfer. You’d never guess that 'American Graffiti' is 23 years old—there’s not one speckle of dirt nor one scratch or splice in the entire film.
The stereo surround mix does justice to the ubiquitous rockin’ soundtrack, the low-frequency rumbling of car engines and the high-pitch screeching of dragsters peeling out. But the dialogue level occasionally fluctuates. Sometimes, the dialogue level decreases and other times it looses its sharpness and sounds a bit muffled. This is slightly distracting but it’s only periodic, and I only noticed it during the first third of the movie.
The side break is a bit abrupt but necessary—side 2 is just about filled to capacity with the second hour of the film, so the theatrical trailer MCA’s included has been placed at the beginning of side 1, before the movie.
'American Graffiti' was often imitated—indeed, many of today’s "Generation X" relationship movies owe a huge debt to Lucas’ film—yet it’s remarkable how well the film stands the test of time. The young cast is terrific (the film made Richard Dreyfuss a star and launched the careers of Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, and Harrison Ford. Look sharp for Suzanne Somers and Kathleen Quinlan) and Lucas’ semi-autobiographical, free-wheeling storyline about growing up and breaking away stands up to infinite repeat viewings.
Of all the pretenders to 'American Graffiti’s' throne, one of the most disappointing was its official sequel, 1979’s 'More American Graffiti'. Though all but one of the principal characters returned (even Harrison Ford showed up for a terrific cameo), the hectic, leap-frog style of the multiple-timeline story and the general psychedelia of the mid-to-late sixties setting was too sharp a contrast with the style and appeal of the original film. The characters we loved so much from the first film were harder to connect with this time around. Still, there’s a lot to admire in 'More American Graffiti', most notably another carefully-compiled wall-to-wall rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack and some inventive split-and-multiple screen photography, utilizing several widescreen aspect ratios and using different film stocks throughout. Oliver Stone and the soundtrack coordinators of movies like 'Forrest Gump' probably owe a lot more to 'More American Graffiti' than even they’re aware of.
I only dwell on 'More American Graffiti' because the only disc available is a poorly-cropped version, with an alternate musical soundtrack (not all of the copyrights were approved, so some music was re-scored for the 1991 video release). What’s so frustrating is that 'More American Graffiti' was released on tape and disc months after MCA/Universal proudly announced that they would henceforth be letterboxing EVERY widescreen movie on disc. MCA neglected to letterbox 'More American Graffiti', and even though the film doesn’t hold a candle to its predecessor, it has its fans and, given the long-in-the-waiting reissue of 'American Graffiti' in widescreen, the time is ripe for a remastering of the sequel, too.
Vital statistics: MCA/Universal; 2 sides; CLV; Anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1); Dolby Stereo Surround; THX; Chapter stops; Closed captioned; $39.95.
S. Damien Segal.
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