Contents
Reviews
How
Discs Are Rated
#
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
News
Archives
DVD
Guide
Contest
About
DVDlaunch
Meet
The Staff
Contact
|
American Graffiti: Collector's Edition
review by Eric Dahl
Rated PG
Studio: Universal
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat,
and Charles Martin Smith
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz, and Willard
Huyck
Directed by George Lucas
Retail Price: $29.99
Features: "The Making of American Graffiti"
Documentary, Theatrical Trailer, Cast & Crew
Biographies, Production Notes, DVD-ROM Web Links.
Specs: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer, English
Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono,
English Captions, Spanish Captions, and Chapter Search (49
Chapters for the Movie, 7 for the Documentary).
In 1973, a little movie came out that was directed by a
man who only had one previous film under his belt and had a
cast of almost completely unknown teenagers. This film,
doubted by it's studio, and thought to fail on all counts by
everyone excluding it's cast and crew, went on to get
nominated for numerous Academy Awards, including best
picture, claimed itself a spot in the American Film
Institute's best 100 films of the last century, and in the
process, won itself into the hearts of many a moviegoer. If
you haven't guessed already, this film is 1973's surprise
hit, "American Graffiti". The film, which made the names of
practically the whole cast and crew (Including director
George Lucas, stars Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison
Ford, and Charles Martin Smith.) household ones, follows the
lives of four teenagers (Dreyfuss, Howard, Smith, and Paul
Le Mat) on the night before two of them are set to go to
college.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 picture on this DVD is
the best that this movie has ever had, and compared to the
video version, boy does it show. The film was shot
intentionally grainy, as to make a documentary-ish feeling
so this DVD will be nowhere near reference quality. The
colors are fairly well defined, and the picture is a little
soft at times, but it is never distracting. A few little
things I noticed, comparing my hack-job Pan-and-Scan video
to this beautiful Widescreen DVD are that George Lucas used
his 2.35:1 ratio to the absolute fullest, making the video
full of unnecessary, distracting pans back and forth across
the screen. Also, during the "Where are they now?" epilogue
at the end of the movie, Lucas' original vision of having
all four character's futures displayed in the same frame is
here, instead of the "full screen one-at-a-time" method used
on the video. Anyone who is familiar with the video will now
notice an amazing, extremely well composed, and now great
looking Widescreen version of their favorite film.
The THX enhanced Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround mix has never
sounded better, save inside the theaters from which the film
was first seen. I kind of hoped that Lucas would have sprung
for a 5.1 remix to further accentuate the awesome
wall-to-wall soundtrack of classic oldies, but the 2.0 mix
does the job just fine. Dialogue is clear and pronounced and
although this isn't a John Woo bullets-
flying-from-all-corners-of-the-room soundtrack, the
soundtrack composed of late fifties, early sixties rock and
Motown hits are adequately used throughout the surround
speakers.
This DVD, dubbed a "Collectors Edition" by Universal,
well deserves the title is has been bestowed. The DVD isn't
loaded with TV Spots and the like, but the one highlight is
one of the greatest I have ever seen...
"The Making of American Graffiti". The day I received
this DVD in the mail, I eagerly ripped it open, wondering
what features Universal would give one of my favorite movies
of all time. I started watching this documentary, thinking
that it would be one of those 15-minute promotional
featurettes. Man, was I wrong. Before I knew it, about an
hour and twenty-two minutes had passed and I knew more about
this movie than I could have ever dreamed to known. This is
one of the most informative, well done, and least boring
documentaries I have ever seen. Almost the entire cast and
crew gets their whole two cents in, and they seem to be
gleefully reminiscing about the best time in their lives.
They tell some great stories about the shooting of the movie
and all seem to have a great time doing it. The documentary
also features screen tests and auditions, for what it's
worth. This feature alone makes the disc worth every penny
it costs.
The Theatrical Trailer is pretty nifty, posing as a
yearbook for the high school within the movie. We get the
pictures of the cast along with clips from the movie while
being narrated by Wolfman Jack, the Disc Jockey from the
movie who also was very notorious in real life during the
period when the movie took place.
Production Notes as well as Cast & Crew Biographies
are pretty standard, but are very welcome as a couple of
little extra extras.
While I eagerly wait for George Lucas' masterpieces, the
"Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" trilogies, to be finally
released in the best format available, I can sleep partially
well knowing that Lucas decided to give "American Graffiti"
the treatment it so richly deserves instead of his lesser
known failures, "Howard the Duck" and "The Radioland
Murders". Just the close-to-90-minute documentary makes this
DVD a must buy for anyone who even partially likes "American
Graffiti", and for the die-hard fans of it like me, well, if
you don't have it, run, don't walk to your nearest store and
pick yourself up a copy this modern classic.
 (4/5, NOT included in
final score)
(4/5)
(4/5)
 (3/5)
(4/5,
NOT an average)
|
