Rotten Tomato In Teen Movies

This essay will discuss a film which has been said by Critics Consensus is Rotten Tomato as “One of the most influential of all teen films” (“American Graffiti”, 2018). This film is one of the unusual motion pictures in many respects, these particular items in this screen classic will be discussed. The story line is a classic “day in the life” saga of a group of middle class west coast high school kids, however the plot is perhaps a little deeper than the unknowing viewer may think. Thought to be just another “teen movie” when released, the movie was a box office success, time has been very good to American Graffiti, in 2007, “the American Film Institute ranked this as the #62 Greatest Movie of All Time” (IMDb, 2018).

American Graffiti a Film

Two of the characters Curt and Steve are scheduled to ship off to college in the east in the morning, Curt had reservations about leaving and Steve was in a relationship with his “steady” Lori. As the story develops, their relationship begins to un-ravel. While this line is developing, Curt contemplates joining a gang, The Pharaohs, ultimately walking away from them. Curt is constantly taunted by the illusive, “most beautiful woman ever”, the “blond in the T-bird”. While all this is going on, there is a subplot of a geeky nerd, Toad, who is always the victim of the whims of the general public, however he “strikes gold” when he manages to connect with Debbie (way beyond his

These two manage to avoid each other until the race challenge is issued towards the end of the movie. This race becomes the pinnacle of the movie, as Lori has broken with Steve and is riding with Bob during the race. During the race, Bob’s car flips and rolls. Both Lori and Bob are fine, however Steve pulls up as the car ignites, and runs to Lori committing to “never leaving her again”, sidelining his college trip to the east with Kurt who was originally the one who was not committing to leaving.
Throughout the film, there is a running theme about the voice on the radio, Wolfman Jack. Several times during the movie there is a reminder the sociological and cultural impact of people of color on parts of our society. Most of the kids believed Wolfman was black, in fact at one point in the movie Carol is talking to John and says, “my parents don’t let me listen to the Wolfman because he’s a negro”, although in reality he wasn’t. This was a sign of racial intolerance of the early