More American Graffiti is actually a good movie in its own right. The John Milner Storyline is particularly bitter-sweet. You spend the last day of his life with him. It is a great day, he beats the factory and falls in love. He does hours later.

I am a big fan of the movie More American Graffiti. The styles of shooting the film perfectly match the time period which was changing year by year.

I saw "More American Graffiti" before I saw "American Graffiti". I was born in 1967, and I was about 13 or 14 years old when I saw MORE on HBO a year or so after it's theatrical release. I loved it! As a kid in the 1970s, I loved watching "Happy Days". I didn't know until I started college in 1985 that the show was based on AG. By this time, everybody had a VCR, so I rented AG and loved it, too. I guess that MORE is like "The Godfather Part III" - if you hadn't seen the first two movies, TG-III would stand up on its own as a decent movie. However, you can't really understand TG-III without seeing the first two movies. Unlike TG-III, you can watch MORE without seeing AG to understand it. Finally, MORE and "Apocalypse Now" exposed me to the music of The Doors. For that, I am eternally grateful!

Milners death always depressed me. The car disappearing. I knew it was coming but wish it hadn't. For what it's worth

It is an interesting film, and that final shot *is* chilling; Milner's vehicle goes over hill, that other vehicle approaches from the other direction and you know exactly what's going to happen. Best gag in this film is Harrison Ford's cameo as Bob Falfa (he raced Milner in the first film; here he's a motorcycle cop who busts Debby.) And Toad's Vietnam sequences give a good idea of what Apocalypse Now would've looked like if Lucas continued working with Coppola on it.

I've always liked More American Graffiti. I think it had some very heart touching scenes.

I have had More American graffiti for years on VHS and still haven't bothered to actually watch it. It's one of those things where I just decided to keep as a relic of my obsession of being 19 and going to thrift shops to buy old VHS's I owe this phase in my life for my rediscovery and love for the first six Star Trek movies

What’s interesting is that it’s so blatantly obvious that the Vietnam parts takes a lot of cues from Lucas’s vision for Apocalypse Now, a project he was originally going to direct. His idea was to shoot it almost like a documentary, in 16mm… in Vietnam during the war! Here, you can easily tell that the style of the Vietnam segments are based around that idea, so no wonder he had so much input on them.

I think what's most fascinating about More is that we get to see Lucas's version of Apocalypse Now. Originally set to film it in the late 60's as a 16mm Verite film, he keeps that style here. Something even Coppola didn't do.

Seeing George Lucas' work besides Star Wars is interesting as hell

I like how More American Graffiti, stymied by the epilogue of the first film, does its best to throw in some misdirection and to tell its stories in an interesting way - not sure why it's rated so poorly, I enjoyed it.

It was kinda wild that Bob Falfa showed up as a cop. Fun fact, the 55 Chevy that gets wrecked at the end of American Graffiti is one of the three used to film the movie Two Lane Blacktop.

It'd be fun to see you cover Radioland Murders someday. It's the Lucasfilm movie that pretty much everyone has forgotten existed, and it's incredibly uneven, but it still has some really good moments. Plus the whole thing is just such a 'how the hell did this even get made?' sort of production.

4:26 Clark was the only member of the cast of the first film to get an Oscar nomination. That may have greatly influenced her larger role in the sequel.

I've always loved the split screen and parallel storytelling in "More American Graffiti."

It's cases like these that really draw to my attention just how important collaboration is in the filmmaking process. Directors are very often given far more attention than anyone else involved in making a film, their voice is seen as the most important, the most influential and the most authentic. If a film is great, the director tends to get all the praise, and if it sucks, most of the blame. To a certain extent that's certainly valid. If it weren't for the ideas and visions of people like George Lucas, many great films would simply never exist. But I think it's a tragic mistake to forget that a director is NOT the only person involved in making a movie. If a film is truly great and successful, I almost never find that to be the result of any one person's talent, but the talent of a whole team of great artists who pulled together to make the film the best version of itself that it could possibly be; the editors, the sound designers, the visual effects artists, the musical composers, the cinematographers, actors, costume designers, producers, co-writers and many more. George Lucas was able to produce his finest work when he collaborated with other talented people who could bring his unique and interesting ideas to life and some of his worst work when he minimised the involvement of those people and tried to exercise as much control over his films as possible. And he's far from the only example of an artist who's done something like that. I think it's a very important lesson for any creative individual to bear in mind. Your film is the sum of the people you collaborate with.

As a modern filmmaker and cinematographer, I enjoy " More American Graffiti " now than when it was first released. I think this film gets better as we grow older seeing the world around us. Lucas did say that MAG really was a case study of how America was thrusted into the Vietnam war ( around 1975, Lucas was set to direct " Heart Of Darkness " which eventually turned into " Apocalypse Now " ). There are so many amazing mythological easter eggs in MAG if you know where to look ( Lucas uses TONS of great film lore for the audiences, and yes, that includes " Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ). Great presentation. But, I feel more audiences will appreciate MAG as time goes on.

16:41 iirc Lucas wanted the first American Graffiti to have the 1-2-3-4 format as well (i vaguely recall an interview where they called it "A-B-C-D structure"), but i think the editors told him that it flowed better the way it ends up in the final film

I loved The Two Jakes. Another underrated, under appreciated sequel.

American graffiti, Modesto the city I was born in. I have to explain to my mom's cousins that they were extras in more America graffiti not the original American graffiti. They thought they were in deleted scenes. Lol.

The silver tongued dj was Wolfman Jack. A legend.

To be fair, as far as I'm aware (after reading 'The Cinema of George Lucas'), American Graffiti was supposed to follow the 1-2-3-4 formula as well, but that plan died on the cutting room floor.

I loved More American Graffiti. Hey remember in American Graffiti when they chained the cop car axle to lamppost? I saw the exact same scene in Leave it to Beaver season 6. They rigged Lumpy’s car lol

I loved MAG because I have a lot of good memories at local drag strips in the early 1960's.

All that was missing was Paul Le Mat yelling, "Now THIS is pod racing!"

I thought this film was pretty great. I loved the stylistic approach and found the fractured structure a really good way of representing the way the sixties fractured American society. And I've never forgotten that shot of the car disappearing.

i discovered the sequel about 2 years ago, i think it's intresting & cool...a good companion to the original

I LOVE American Graffiti. It is also one of my top five favorite films. “More American Graffiti” is not a bad film just as long as you don’t make the sequel responsible for being of the same caliber. If it wasn’t a sequel then “More American Graffiti” wouldn’t have gotten so much flack. American Graffiti was beautifully low budget and I love it. There is even a historical film flub in one of the shots in your video At 8:20 the car on the left has a California blue & white license plate that was not issued until ‘69 or 1970.

"Wierdest and wildest sequel." Must be those book sequels to "Willow" writen by Lucas and Chris Clairmont.

I always thought Terry the Toad's ending was sadder than Milner's. The way he just quits the war and walks away, singing his heart out, into oblivion.

I never watched it either for those same reasons, now it seems way more interesting than I expected and you've convinced me to watch it, ironically.

Man, I really like The Two Jakes, especially. I like Texasville and 2010, too. I guess I've been able to compartmentalize my appreciation of these sequels from their more impressive original films.

“JarJar is the key to all this “ - George Lucas

I finally watched it last winter. I didn't think it was bad. It didn't match up to the original classic, and was disjointed and I didn't like some of the cinematography but it wasn't bad

i freaking love american graffiti, probably my favorite lucas film.

I grew up watching American Graffiti because my dad loved it. We were part of a classic car club, it had every major actor who was or would be from the time. It had everything... there was a sequel?

Glad to see you back so soon! Saw the 1st one on my bday during the beginning of the pandemic last year

This feels a lot like how I feel about the prequels, perhaps maybe in reverse. Great concepts and themes muddled by the execution.

Dude! You answer your own question. John Milner's story 100% reflects the "Beach Party" movies at the time. 1964, Southern California, Drag Racing, Girls.... but it's also supposed to give us some emotional attachment because we are reminded that Milner dies later that night. That's the "tragedy" of his story line. Also, the 1-2-3-4 intercutting is unfortunately intentional. Test audiences did not react well to pre-release version where the intercutting was much more randomized. I believe this is what gives the movie that dragging feeling like you're watching a movie that feels much longer than it really is. I think since they had to re-edit it from scratch, some scenes are left in and run way too long without really giving us the audience any pertinent information. One thing that bothers me about Milner's story line is that RIGHT at the end, everybody suddenly remembers "Hey, what about Sven the Swedish guy that works at the snack bar?" They could have planted a few hints through-out his story that they know this dude Sven that can speak to whatever her name is but they can't find Sven. "C'mon, somebody go find Sven!" Milner would cry in anguish trying to communicate with his new love interest. That might have given the audience a little more investment as well. Oh yeah, don't forget that there's some George Lucas revisionist history at play here. In the original cut of Graffiti, Milner was killed in JUNE, 1964. This was changed for the re-release in 1978 just prior to "More" coming out so that "More" would make sense. One thing you've got to admit is that, taken as a whole, the movies compliment each other very nicely. Where as "Graffiti" leaves you on a high note, with a fairly satisfying ending; "More" brings you down, almost making you wish you could have helped these characters. After two movies, we know them well. The first move was where we were, and the second is now where we are. It's almost a tragedy unto itself; the human condition. The biggest problem is that "More" is very much a product of it's time and as time marches on, the generations who watch it have no connection to the times. They have no frame of reference as to what the world was like pre-Kennedy assassination.... they have no idea what it was like to lose a friend to street racing or drunk driving; they've certainly never been to war and never had anybody go off to fight in a pointless endeavour only to come back completely damaged or worse - in a box. They didn't live through the summer of '67 and they certainly have never experienced anything like Woodstock. The movie is 100% FOR the "Boomer" generation.

Didn't know there's a second American Graffiti? Did you know there's a third one? Well, sort of. French Postcards (1979) is written by Grafitti's scribes Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz and is similar in feel but about American college students in Paris, looking for the life of the artist and grown up love.

Honestly, I liked More American Graffiti. It has it's flaws but it was pretty entertaining

THERE'S A SEQUEL TO AMERICAN GRAFFITI?!?!?!?!?!? I need to see this

I loved the 2nd movie for the Vietnam and racing sequences. The college protest stuff and all that yelling is easily skipped when I rewatch. Toad's story especially resonated with me. But I'm a child of the time.

How has this not been taken down the second they noticed there was a beatles song?

My Dad loved this film and taped it off the TV - it was influential and I watched it many times - it's a masterpiece. My favourite part is Green onions as the cars line up at sunrise before the race - it's that transition from 50s rock n roll to funky, 12 bar 60s blues.

This is probably one of your best videos - just outstanding work all around here man! It's interesting to see a little more insight into Lucas' general outlook here. He does seem genuinely depressed about this movie, but his gripe is that "it made 10 cents" - indicating that, despite him obsessing over the movie and basically edging the director out of the way, his focus on commercial viability is what drives him. Thanks for putting this together.

Beautiful visuals, stellar writing. I love these thoughtful, visually engaging essays.

OH MY GOD THIS IS EXACTLY THE SAME EXACT THING I JUST WENT THROUGH. i love AG and when i saw the sequel i knew its challenge my love dream w the orginal

For some reason, the only thing that I really didn't like about this movie, was seeing Bo Hopkins "ex Pharoh" character take that bullet in the chest....it really crushed my soul...but, I guess that was the director's goal...so, mission accomplished.

Very glad I found this video. I’m a fan of More American Graffiti in the sense that I’ll follow any trail that leads back to my beloved American Graffiti but I also see the sequel as flawed but fascinating. The review herein is fair and worth watching till the end. For those that want to go further down the rabbit hole I highly recommend the 2019 episode of The Projection Booth podcast on More American Grafitti. In addition to a long discussion about the successes and opportunities of the movie there are interviews with director Bill Norton, writer Willard Huyck, and Candy Clark who plays Debbie.

I never pay attention to critics. I enjoyed "More American Graffiti" as much as the original.

So if Richard Dreyfuss had signed up, what do you think his storyline would have been? I always imagined that he would have been the one protesting & heading to Canada in the end, while the Bolanders were written into that later. Little bro Andy was a poor substitute.

I was born in '64. I enjoyed American Graffiti, but More American Graffiti resonated a lot more. I grew up with body counts on the news, Nixon, the Oil Embargo. The world was devolving for my generation. Just that junkyard scene, with five year old cars stacked on other five year old cars, fit for nothing but scrap, illustrated how my people were left with just casually discarded scraps. Melancholy turned into exhausted nihilism for many of us. Plus it was far better than Star Wars Episode 1.

In my “head canon,” Dreyfus’s character’s story (Kurt) is told in the film Stand by Me.

I caught it when it was on Netflix for a brief moment. While it was unnecessary, I enjoyed it largely cause I enjoyed the characters. Harrison Ford's cameo as a cop made it worth the viewing!

havent seen this video yet but really hope its about more American graffiti. One of my all time favorite films. Gotta be one of the most experimental hollywood films ever. The editing, the split screens, the cross cutting, what's not to like?

Very nice analysis of both movies. I am a huge fan of A.G. Saw it when it first came out and have watched it a dozen more times. It truly encompasses the experiences of many of us who lived through that time and the soundtrack is a sublime tapestry that weaves the visuals together. It is my all time favourite film.

I think this and the Disney Star Wars trilogy proves that Lucas taking on sequels, even when they don’t completely work, are more interesting and compelling than corporate attempts at continuing the story.

I truly enjoyed More of American Graffiti and have it sitting next to American Graffiti. Both in VHS 📼 format.😎

For what it is, a sequel to the iconic, highly influential and arguably perfect movie, More American Graffiti is a solid and ambitious flick. I really liked it, sure it has it's problems, but I really liked it. It was a tuff watch knowing that 2 characters are going to die. Luckily we get some surprise to cheer us up a bit. It's a pitty Dreyfuss is not back. To be honest it's my only real issue with the movie.

Really glad I found this channel, fantastic content.

I'm very fond of this film. Most audiences during '79 moaned that the structure of the film made it difficult to follow. Sigh.

That was quite wonderful, thank you for that. I was in the same boat, but now I really do want to sit down and view it.

I can't believe you featured this film. I have to admit to seeing it in the theater , I must have been about 11 years old. Based on my memories of the movie , your assessment of its strengths and weaknesses are right on the money. It's a wonderful mess.

Thx for covering this, lot of content I haven’t seen

Thanks for your review, I love your videos and American Graffiti is my favorite movie of all time. Despite the negativity surrounding it, I enjoyed More American Graffiti for what it was including the interesting film-making. Sure it seems like an unnecessary movie since it kind of undermines the prologue credits of the first film, but it does still have some chilling moments. I'm glad to have watched it but otherwise I just consider the original as a stand alone piece. Overall, I think your analysis is on point!

Kinda strange back then the way Ron Howard and Cindy Williams always seemed stuck in 1950’s roles..

This movie really swung for the fences to try and do something different with a sequel. It could have just as easily been set on the same night in 1964 or whatever, and everyone is back in town for some reason. Or worse, a completely different cast on THEIR last night of the summer. Like you said, it doesn't always work, but it was definitely elevated beyond a cash grab. Unlike, say, Jaws 2, which is literally just more of the same, but worse, also minus Richard Dreyfus.

The STYLE of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the least of its sins It would be interesting to view Lucas' work as an editor, especially given the story of his original edit of the original Star Wars film

hey. im newish to your channel. i'm really enjoying your stuff. I think you are one of the better film analysis channels out there. keep up the good work

1:19 I love how you managed to capturee the film's insanity within this small montage

This type of video is what I suscribed to this channel in the first place, simply amazing thought food!

TRIVIA: The amazingly gorgeous, non English speaking, Icelandic exchange student was played by Anna Bjorn 17:56 . She was the one who gave the FBI information that led to gangster and fugitive Whitey Bulger's capture

I know this would be a huge undertaking, but you should really do a video about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles someday. Talk about an interesting, uneven, often beautiful, sometimes cheesy Lucas project. The absolutely crazy round-the-world film shoot that I'd say wasn't matched until Sense8, the feature-film re-edits, the non-chronological release schedule of a full-planned story, the possibly needless CGI experimentation, it's a lot to unpack.

Interesting study. Paul told me that the original conxept was a movie just about John Milner, but it was of course expanded. The Milner story in More... is the only one I think that really works and I didn't find his relationship with the Icelandic girl silly, but narratively a character widening his narrow horizons. I'm going to share this with Paul if that's cool. He may have a comment to make about it.

Caught MAG on TV late one night in the late 90's. It's the one film with Lucas' name on it that matches his oft-mentioned hopes to make more interesting experimental movies. It's not bad, it's just really different and the splitscreen stuff made TV a presentation, where it could have gained a cult fanbase, pretty difficult.

Fantastic review!

always interesting. thanks for the effort and the sharing. i am an appreciative subscriber. thumbs up.

More American Graffiti is a tough watch, but there are some gems in there, that final shot of Milner's yellow deuce crossing those hills at dawn to meet it's fate might be one of my favorite shots of all time.

Very good comments! I had always assumed that a sequel to A.G. would have brought the characters up to date, that is, the year when the sequel was to be made, in order to know what are they doing today, and how they are reacting to the changes. But only going up to 1967 was neither here nor there. And most people who liked A.G. did not like the culture of the late 60s, which is why A.G. was such a success

Really enjoyed this. I actually saw MAG in theater at the time when I was way too young to get any of it and grew up thinking it was that terrible sequel to a great movie. Rewatched the original this weekend and decided "what the hell?" and put on the sequel. By the end, I wasn't suddenly on the "secret masterpiece" team, but admired it for being the swing that it is. They're trying something in a way you don't see with IP handling anymore and you see the glimmers of the "weird, smaller films" Lucas always said he would make if he wasn't so weighed down with his franchises. I never totally bought that from Lucas, but this shows that spirit in there, even if the box office of this probably smothered any future adventurism in the crib. But there's a lot going on on in this one and I now have a new affection for it.

If there was ever a more unnecessary sequel this is it, American Graffiti (1973) was lightning in a bottle and can never truly be replicated

Very nice job in content and presentation.

I like Lucas biography book, read for weeks at a bookstore because I was so cheap

Now I'm gonna have to see this movie. I am intrigued by the insights of this video.

9:54 A reference to George Lucas' first movie THX 1138 is right here.

As someone who spends an unhealthy amount of time thinking about the boxes that movies are presented in... I now have to watch this film I just assumed was a cash geab with noone from the original team participating.

2 american 2 graffiti

Hey, _Jaws 2_ wasn't bad.

Your channel is wildly underrated

More American Graffiti is one of my favorite movies. I watch it every new years eve. Paul le mat as john millner is my favorite character in the movie. John millner's story is my favorite in the movie. It has a lot of great music in it.

I genuinely believe that if you cut the Steve and Laurie section, you’d have an okay epilogue that would play well with the first film. Three stylistic retellings of how the new world affects these characters. Steve and Laurie just don’t feel rooted like the rest. Without them you have a tight 80 minute streamer. Better yet, in a world where they could get Dreyfuss back to play Curt, you could slip in a fourth section that actually works. Tying the film together with soft reflection on the people and time lost, with a writer trying to write about the world of the first film. Trying to remember where (and who) he was in 62

The original Graffiti is without doubt my favourite film of all time. Ive watched it regularly since i was in my teens. More i've watched only once , and while it has its plus points and i cant say its a bad movie, i just dont feel any desire to watch it again

Lucas saying "You _can_ destroy these things." LOL!

I had the notion that this film had no redeeming qualities. A cheap sequel. What you showed here was a flawed movie for sure but an interesting one. Having loved every character from the first one, being able to accompany some in their last moments (John really was my favorite now that I think about it besides Kurt) seeing that whole sequence beautifully shot like Grand Prix... that ending. I gotta pop it in sometime and give it a go. There’s always something to enjoy or to learn

I like MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI, even if it isn't quite as good. The changing film stocks and aesthetics make it memorable and compelling.

I thought it was an excellent movie using the Woodstock split screen style. Milner's story was the best, even if it was slow. The girl from "Eess-lind" really melted my heart.

Live Ur analysis. Great work.

Where this ends the big chill begins if you think about it

No you're right, Kingdom of crystal skull was totally a 1950's B movie! I never thought of it that way. Either by mistake or on purpose. That makes it much more watchable.