Won’t be long ’til summertime is through.
—The Beach Boys, “All Summer Long”
American Graffiti began life as a movie nobody wanted. But a half-century later, the quintessential end-of-summer love song to fleeting youth George Lucas made at 28 from the fragments of his own 18th summer has become a poignant touchstone for several generations of moviegoers. To honor the 50th anniversary of its August 1973 release, a new restoration of the print was screened for two days this past summer, roaring back into our lives like the 1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe owned by John Milner (Paul Le Mat), with a yellow California license plate that reads: THX 1138.
