More American Graffiti (1979)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Bill L. Norton

Writers:

George Lucas (characters) and
Gloria Katz (characters) ...

Release Date:

3 August 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

More laughs. More music.

Plot:

College graduates deal with Vietnam and other issues of the late '60s. |

Plot Keywords:

Box Office Flop | Faked Death | Auld Lang Syne | 1960s | Nostalgia

Cast

Candy Clark	...	Debbie Dunham
Bo Hopkins	...	Little Joe
Ron Howard	...	Steve Bolander
Paul Le Mat	...	John Milner
Mackenzie Phillips	...	Carol / Rainbow
Charles Martin Smith	...	Terry 'The Toad' Fields
Cindy Williams	...	Laurie Bolander
Anna Bjorn	...	Eva
Richard Bradford	...	Major Creech
John Brent	...	Ralph
Country Joe McDonald	...	Country Joe & The Fish
Barry Melton	...	Country Joe & The Fish (as Barry 'the Fish' Melton)
Robert Hogins	...	Country Joe & The Fish
Robert Flurie	...	Country Joe & The Fish
Peter Albin	...	Country Joe & The Fish

Also Known As:

Purple Haze

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Icelandic

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (original rating) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (re-rating) (1992) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-12 | UK:12 (video rating) | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Baylands Raceway Park - 44333 Christy Lane, Fremont, California, USA

Company:

Lucasfilm

Trivia:

This sequel cost eight times as much as the original American Graffiti (1973), but was brought in within it's $6 million budget and forty five day schedule.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Toad is obviously a low-ranking enlisted man who takes orders from the First Sergeant and is placed on details for enlisted men, but wears the rank insignia of a warrant officer, a higher rank than a First Sergeant.

Quotes:

Felix: Do you know I used to know a surfer named Lance? His name was No Pants Lance.

Movie Connections:

References "MisteRogers' Neighborhood" (1968)

Soundtrack:

Fingertips Part II

Unwanted, unloved but not without its good points

Like Texasville, The Two Jakes and, before long, Evan Almighty, More American Graffiti is one of those sequels to that most people not only didn't want but don't know even exists: certainly George Lucas seems happy to pretend it doesn't (it's conspicuous by its complete absence in the otherwise comprehensive 78-minute documentary on the DVD for the original film), a fate not even Howard the Duck or The Radioland Murders share among his oeuvre. No Richard Dreyfuss, and Ron Howard is little more than a cameo but the rest of the original cast are all present and correct – even an unbilled Harrison Ford turns up as a traffic cop – while Scott Glenn, Delroy Lindo and Rosanna Arquette provide the "they were around that long?" factor in the supporting cast. Yet the result is even more of a mixed bag than the original, with writer-director Bill L. Norton separating his main characters over four different New Year's Eves with wildly varying results: Paul Le Mat has now graduated to drag racing, perhaps the least cinematic sport ever invented, Cindy Williams and Ron Howard get mixed up in student riots, Candy Clark's hippie chick finally gets the message about her loser guitarist boyfriend while, in by far the best part of the film, Charles Martin Smith's Terry the Toad is doing everything he possibly can to get out of Vietnam. Shot in multiple aspect ratios from 1.33:1 to 2.35:1 and with some imaginative and often amusing split-screen work, the execution is often better than the material and it's more entertaining than you might expect, but there's little of the resonance of the original.