This week Phansi Museum will screen American Graffiti, on June 13, 2019.
American
Graffiti is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy
film directed and co-written by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron
Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy
Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins, and Wolfman Jack.
American
Graffiti depicts multiple characters undergoing the
angst and dilemmas of a coming of age. The 1962 setting represents nearing an
end of an era in American society and pop culture. The musical backdrop also
links between the early years of rock 'n roll in the mid-to-late 1950s,
typified by Bill Haley & his Comets, Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, and the
British Invasion of the early 1960s.
Despite the fact that most of the musical
soundtrack originated from black singers and composers, save for a brief cameo
appearance, there is a total absence of black characters in the film
emphasizing the sanitizing bubble that enveloped mid-American consumer society.
As a result, any anti-social behaviour is depicted as cutesy and the result of
good, clean teenage fun, which is a denial of the often-violent behaviour that
youth gangs were capable of showing at the time.
The movie is also set before the outbreak
of the Vietnam War and President Kennedy’s assassination, and before the peak
years of the counterculture movement. American
Graffiti evokes the American cultural relationship with the motor car and
the hot rod. Another theme is the importance of radio and radio personalities
in the life of teenagers, as personified by DJ Wolfman Jack and his mysterious
and mythological faceless voice.
American
Graffiti rekindled public and entertainment
interest in the 1950s and 1960s and influenced a number of other films and TV
programmes. The film's box office success made George Lucas an instant
millionaire, and his net worth at the time rose to $4 million, $300,000 of
which he set aside in an independent fund for his long-cherished space opera
project. In 1995, American Graffiti
was deemed culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant by the
United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National
Film Registry.
American
Graffiti will be screened at 17h30 on June 13, 2019.
There is no entry fee but a donation is greatly appreciated.
Phansi Museum is situated at 500 Esther
Roberts Road, Glenwood, in Durban. Contact the director, Fran Saunders, on 031
206 2889 or email admin@phansi.com or visit www.phansi.com
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