American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977) were the two films which helped George Lucas, the founder of Pixar Animation Studios, make it big. Though the films are made by the same director, they have surprisingly little in common. American Graffiti is about a group of boys the night before they go to college and Star Wars is about a group of space travelling rebels who unite to fight the evil empire.
The two films have one unifying theme. The world is full of different people with different experiences who all make different decisions. This is the main theme in American Graffiti. It plays a smaller part in Star Wars, three people with very little in common are brought together for different reasons and in the end they accomplish something great together and start a friendship.
American Graffiti is about four boys and all they do in one night. Curt Henderson is having doubts about whether he should go to college at all the night before he is supposed to leave. He then spends the rest of the night chasing a blonde who he has never met. Steve Bolander does not have any doubts about going to college. He spends the night trying to patch things up with his girlfriend after he suggested that they date other people. John Milner ends up taking a little girl all over town with him and keeps trying to get rid of her but she does not cooperate and stays with him the whole night. Steve lends Terry Fields his car and Terry is forced to take care of the car as well as live up to the expectations brought on by the car.
Steve Bolander (Ron Howard)
Terry Fields (Charles Martin Smith)
John Milner (Paul Le Mat)
Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss)
The movie is set in a town at night, and therefore uses minimal lighting and plenty of scenery; daylight is not seen until the end of it. Lucas uses minimal special effects in the movie. The movie takes place in the 1960’s and uses the rock and roll hits of the time for music. The music helps to give the audience a good feel for the time period of the movie.
Star Wars is about a boy, Luke Skywalker, who lives on a small farm and feels he could be doing more with his life. He dreams to join the rebellion against the galaxy’s empire. He ends up in possession of two droids which were part of the rebellion, in an attempt to find the droids the empire kills Luke’s family. Luke decides to go with Obi-Wan Kenobi to meet with Princess Leia Organa on her home planet. They find the smuggler Han Solo and pay him to take them to her planet. While they are travelling the empire destroys the planet with their ultimate weapon, the Death Star. When Luke and company arrive where Leia’s home planet should be all they find is the Death Star. They are captured but manage to hide aboard the Death Star when they realize that Leia is aboard the station. They each rescue her for their own reasons, Luke in a sense of heroism, and Han does it for the reward. After they escape from the Death Star they destroy it together.
Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill)
Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher)
One can tell there was more work put into Star Wars than American Graffiti. This film uses constant special effects which are amazing for its time. This film also has much more complex sets. Sets were filmed on location for any scenes filmed in the desert. Entire buildings, such as Luke’s house, were built for the purpose of this movie. Special effects, like explosions, lasers and space ships, are used constantly in this film, years later, when computer animation was possible, he added newer clips to the movie. Star Wars also had its own soundtrack with songs made specifically for it. One can see that Lucas also uses camera and cuts much more effectively in Star Wars than American Graffiti. All these facts result in Star Wars being the more popular of the two.
Though Lucas put more effort into Star Wars, his theme is portrayed more effectively in American Graffiti. Star Wars is more of an action movie which takes away from the theme of the two movies. Lucas successfully managed to marry his theme to the comedy in American Graffiti. The comedy aspect, instead of taking away from the theme, adds to it, with most of the different people being portrayed in the movie being portrayed in a comical manner but still getting the theme across to the viewer. It especially succeeds in portraying the theme in the very end when it shows that the four main characters were based on real people.
George Lucas succeeded in portraying a common theme in two movies with virtually nothing else in common because he is a very capable, insightful director.
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