American Graffiti - Legacy

Legacy

Internet reviewer MaryAnn Johanson acknowledged that American Graffiti rekindled public and entertainment interest in the 1950s and 1960s and influenced other films such as The Lords of Flatbush (1974) and Cooley High (1975) and the TV series Happy Days. Alongside other films from the New Hollywood era, American Graffiti is often cited for helping give birth to the summer blockbuster. The film's box office success made George Lucas an instant millionaire. He gave an amount of the film's profits to Haskell Wexler for his visual consulting help during filming, and to Wolfman Jack for "inspiration". Lucas's net worth was now $4 million, and he set aside a $300,000 independent fund for his long cherished space opera project, which would eventually become the basis for Star Wars (1977).

The financial success of Graffiti also gave Lucas opportunities to establish more elaborate development for Lucasfilm, Skywalker Sound, and Industrial Light & Magic. Based on the success of the 1977 reissue, Universal began production for the sequel More American Graffiti (1979). Lucas and writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz later collaborated on Radioland Murders (1994), also released by Universal Pictures, for which Lucas acted as executive producer. The film features characters intended to be Curt and Laurie Henderson's parents, Roger and Penny Henderson. In 1995 American Graffiti was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1997 the city of Modesto, California honored Lucas with a statue dedication of American Graffiti at George Lucas Plaza.

In 1998 the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked it as the seventy-seventh greatest film ever in the 100 Years... 100 Movies list. When the 10th Anniversary Edition came in June 2007, AFI moved American Graffiti to the sixty-second greatest film. The movie was also listed as the forty-third funniest. The song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs. Director David Fincher credited American Graffiti as a visual influence for Fight Club (1999). Lucas's Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) features references to the film. The yellow airspeeder that Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi use to pursue the bounty hunter Zam Wesell is based on John Milner's yellow deuce coupe, while Dex's Diner is reminiscent of Mel's Drive-In. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters conducted the "rear axle" experiment on the January 11, 2004 episode.

Given the popularity of the film's cars with customizers and hot rodders in the years since its release, their fate immediately after the film is ironic. All were offered for sale in San Francisco newspaper ads; only the '58 Impala (driven by Ron Howard) attracted a buyer, selling for only a few hundred dollars. The yellow Deuce and the white T-bird went unsold, despite being priced as low as US$3,000. The registration plate on Milner's yellow deuce coupe is THX 138 on a yellow California license plate, slightly altered, reflecting Lucas's earlier science fiction film.