American Graffiti [Blu-ray]

Featuring a great cast of mostly unknown yet soon to be famous actors and starting a whole movement of nostalgia for the world of the 50's sock hops, cool cars and music, a young George Lucas films a semi-biographical remembrance documentary of sorts of his young teenager years in Modesto California in the late 50's and early 60's. Shot in a single nighttime span of various vignettes featuring the above-mentioned cast as well as many other characters we either knew in school or had heard stories about, American Graffiti became a very successful coming of age time capsule for that era. Even if you didn't do any cruising down the main street in your small town, you'll appreciate all the fantastic vintage cars and be reminded of all the various typical high school hijinks of these young people. And most of us can relate to at least one of not several of these young kids' situations on the precipice of adulthood facing a very uncertain future. Lucas manages to capture this feeling quite well. More than likely the nostalgia of our memories is much more pleasant than the reality! Lots of humor and great classic rock n roll keeps the film rolling along. And we see in the space of one night some who do step forward into adulthood and some who postpone it.The Blu-ray does a reasonable job putting up a remastered picture supervised by George Lucas himself. This movie has always been a difficult transfer to home video as it was filmed somewhat on the cheap and of course essentially shot completely at night. Some scenes have great fine grain, natural detail, good color pop and nice contrast. The gleaming, smooth paint jobs and chrome on the vintage cars shine just right. But there are some instances of black crush, disappearing grain into a sort of a digitally processed picture with some edge enhancements. None of this is fatal and for the most part you'll be pleased watching this disc. The 2.0 DTS-HD Master audio sound has very good fidelity. Dialog is sometimes drowned out a little by the music but there's no distortion or tinniness to the overall sound environment. Extras include a great "The Making of American Graffiti" documentary and some fantastic sometimes hilarious screen tests of the young cast. If you are of a certain age, you'll need this in your video collection to remember what it was like at a moment in America for high school kids before the rest of the 1960's and its terrible events began to crush all the innocence out of society for good. So, where were you in '62?

This is not a movie for a small screen or 2.1 playback.Like all others here, I've seen this film countless times on every available format. But boy was I in for a shock when I popped the 4k HDR10 restoration into a private home theater running a JVC projector paired with a Lumagen Radiance Pro that displayed a 120" diagonal image, and which was also set up for 13.2-channel Auro 3D playback. I say I was "shocked" because a few YT clickbait kids claimed on their "review" sites that this Graffiti restoration was the worst thing since the Permian Extinction. Well apparently, they merely cherry picked one or two 4k elements they disagree with (and who can't do that for ANY film ever made?) while watching this on laptops using ear buds. IMHO this 4k restoration is the real deal and gives all movie buffs great hope for how other films shot decades ago can be made "better" than the original.First, the displayed images are pristine; negative-like. It's so clear that I saw things that I hadn't ever noticed before (one of many examples -- Toad smoking a cigarette in Steve's car, content of posters/ads displayed in shop windows, etc., etc., etc.). The scenes with Debbie and Toad in the dark when they're worried about the Goat killer are now vividly dark and truly creepy -- it's a scene that now works. That sensation doesn't come across in the old version.Lucas has publicly stated that he wanted film goers to feel like they were playing a pinball machine when watching -- a reference to neon and quick cuts spread over multiple storylines. He also wanted the soundtrack to illustrate the "moving on/growing up" theme. I guess that was all there in the older presentations but on this 4k version, I totally get it now!Buy this just to see what you've been missing but only if you have a large screen TV (or projection system) to do it justice (bare min. 75 inch). It was simply a joy to observe. As a gut check, I watched it back-to-back with the 2011 Blu-ray version and while I can appreciate the docu-graininess of the original, you lose nothing in terms of storytelling with the 4k restoration but gain so much more intimacy and realism and thus emotional engagement via the 4k version. This is one instance where I wholeheartedly agree with Lucas' instincts. I don't need grain or out of focus shots to remind me that this was made in 1973 on an off-35mm film stock by a group of unpaid collaborators.The sound. Maybe this is the highlight of the disk. The 5.1 DTS-HD audio makes you "feel" as though you are on the street with the actors. Whoever was responsible for this outdid her/himself. Nothing -- not even one little cricket chirp -- was ignored. For example, hearing the train come into town as a background noise was so eerily real (maybe only home-grown Calis would understand this) as compared to the BR version. Hearing Curt's sneakers clearly squeak as he walks the deserted school hall will instantly conjure up that smell you remember just after a janitor mops the floors. I found myself clapping at multiple scenes like this throughout the film -- I was applauding the sound. I heard things I never heard before suspecting they were always there or maybe should have been. As good as the displayed image is, the sound envelope on this presentation is 10x better. Off-screen foley work is simply stunning and alone deserves special recognition. However, if you listen to this on a system that is less than 5.1, you're missing out on the total experience. I'd go so far as to say, don't buy it if you don't have at least 5.1 sound. This is THAT disk that gives you the justification to spend the money for an Auro 3D or Atmos layout.Two thumbs way up for this one! I can't recommend it more highly -- not only because it's Graffiti, but because it's Exhibit A for how any film restoration should be done.

GREAT MOVIE. MUST BUY.

Outstanding Movie From The Past