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''American Graffiti,'' the 1973 film that put director George Lucas on the Hollywood map, returns to the big screen tonight when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosts a 25th-anniversary showing at its Samuel Goldwyn Theater in L.A. It's clear that fans still revere the pre-Flower Power coming-of-age tale that stars Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, and Ron Howard, among others: The 1,000 tickets for the screening sold out in less than a day and a half -- faster than any other movie celebration that Ellen Harrington, AMPAS' special-events coordinator, has planned. (Lucas and some cast members will be on hand afterward to discuss the film.)

'' 'American Graffiti' represents a period of pop culture and pop music that America is eager to experience,'' Harrington told EW Online. ''Many people have a strong emotional attachment to the movie and to the relative innocence of that time.'' EW critic Ty Burr adds, ''It marked the birth of modern, baby-boomer nostalgia, and it served notice that the days of dark, uncompromising, 'artistic' Hollywood filmmaking were numbered. In its wake came 'Jaws,' 'Star Wars,' and the modern blockbuster.''


Posted Jul 17, 1998 | Order Article Reprints