[On May 21, 1901, Connecticut enacted the first speed-limit law in American history (freakin’ Connecticut, am I right anyone who has to drive through New England?!). So for the 125th anniversary of that groundbreaking legislation, this week I’ll AmericanStudy cultural representations of fast cars, leading up to a weekend post on the Fast & Furious franchise!]
On how a pair of climactic car races represent the parallel but distinct films that feature them.
As you would expect from a film focused on the early 1960s culture of “cruising,” American Graffiti (1973) features a number of different car-centered set pieces and builds to the most dramatic, a climactic drag race at Paradise Road between main character and champion street-racer John Milner (Paul Le Mat) and mysterious challenger Bob Falfa (a very young Harrison Ford). But as you likewise might expect from a film that’s set on the last evening of post-high school graduation summer vacation and focuses on themes of leaving childhood behind, that race doesn’t go as planned—Bob’s car crashes and burns, and the race is called off as John and other main characters help Bob to safety. The moment also foreshadows John’s subsequent fate, revealed in the film’s epilogue: he was killed by a drunk driver just two years after the events of the film.
As you would expect from a film focused on a group of late 1950s car-obsessed teens known as Greasers, Grease (1978) features a title song dedicated to the promise offered by an ideal set of wheels and builds to a climactic drag race at Thunder Road between main character Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and his arch-rival Leo Balmudo (Dennis Stewart). And as you likewise might expect from a film that encircles its high school characters and settings within a largely nostalgic and cheery glow, that race goes exactly as Danny hopes—despite not having planned to race (he had to sub for his best friend Kenickie after the latter gets a pre-race concussion), he defeats Leo, and in so doing sufficiently impresses his on-again/off-again love interest Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) that she’s willing to change her entire look and image to become one of the Greasers (at the same time that he has done so in the opposite direction to become worthy of her, natch). In the film’s final image Danny and Sandy fly off in the now-apparently-magical car.
I don’t want to suggest that American Graffiti isn’t deeply nostalgic in its own ways, nor that it offers some kind of gritty realism—main character Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss)’s nightlong pursuit of a mysterious blond woman (Suzanne Somers) who mouths “I love you” and who eventually offers him a rendezvous if he chooses not to leave for college the next morning is not exactly the most authentic depiction of life post-high school. But I do think that these two car race scenes embody two very different cinematic perspectives on both car and youth cultures: in Grease those cultures are about as good as it gets, right up to that literally heavenly concluding image; while in American Graffiti they’re certainly fantasies but ones that have come crashing down by the ending, crashes that are reinforced by epilogue details like John’s death. That contrast doesn’t necessarily favor Graffiti—there’s certainly a place for fantasies that remain inspiring, alongside critiques of such fantasies—but it does mean, for this AmericanStudier at least, that Grease offers a youthful perspective on cars (and everything else) and Graffiti reminds us that we all have to grow up sometime.
Next car culture conversation tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Car culture works you’d highlight?
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