The Movie: American Graffiti (1973)
What Is It?: After
seeing his buddy’s ice-cold sci-fi experiment THX-1138, Francis Ford Coppola
bet George Lucas that Lucas could not make a goofy, lighthearted, popcorn
flick. No, Georgie didn’t immediately go to work on Star Wars; he made American
Graffiti, a plot-less romp about driving cars, flirting, and listening to
great, pre-British Invasion Rock & Roll right before the Vietnam War fucked
everything up for young people. Lucas went mainstream, had a massive hit, and
never looked back.
Why Today?: In the movie, this
is the date in 1962 on which the kids
go racing and flirting.
