My first memories of American Graffiti mostly revolve around my love of the film’s soundtrack. I remember watching it as a little kid and not really being able to follow the plot, but absolutely falling in love with the soundtrack. It’s perhaps the best soundtrack of all time. That may be debatable, but I’ll stick with my opinion there. Apparently George Lucas wrote the screenplay after being challenge on the set of THX-1138 by Francis Ford Coppola to write something that mainstream audiences would enjoy. Lucas then set the film in 1962 around the cruising culture he remembered as a teenager in Modesto. The result was a ridiculously successful film full of early-60s, pre-Vietnam-era nostalgia. The film had a $775,000 budget and wound up grossing $118 mil. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress Candy Clark, Best Director and Best Picture. It was up against A Touch of Class, Cries and Whispers, The Exorcist and winner The Sting.

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