Anchorhead - Ah, I didn't know that about the film.

AG was really good. Like I said I'd seen it before but it was a long time ago... I'd forgotten a lot. I appreciated the various character moments (duh), though I also really liked, narrative-wise, the way Curt basically wanders around behind the scenes of the "cruising" world inhabited by the other characters.

I've currently got a story percolating through my head and a lot of things from Graffiti seemed applicable/helpful, though I guess that means I was kind of seeing it in a more inspirational/clinical way.

Good catch on the wine. I always remembered bruallki and kaf. ;)

prequelsrule said:
wouldn't a criterion collection trilogy consisting of THX 1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars be awesome? This popped into my head because of some of the discussion about the high quality of George's films in the 70s. I remember a movie reviewer talking about the similar themes in all three of these films - that they could be considered a trilogy of sorts; the parallels between Kurt in AG and Luke in SW are interesting.

Absolutely. I can almost see the covers in my mind. And I too remember that article on the 'thematic trilogy'; wish I could find it now.

zombie said:
Anyway, most blockbuster movies like Star Wars are predictable. Will Luke beat the bad guys? Yes. Will he save the princess? Yes. Will he survive the ordeal? Very probably. But how does he beat the bad guys, what situations does he have to get himself out of, and how does the princess get rescued? This is the suspense structure of Star Wars. That's also one reason why it was downright shocking when Luke got his ass kicked in ESB and all the good guys lost--that's not supposed to happen!!

I just listened to a podcast interview with Tim Zahn the other day where he talked about this exact concept, and how he purposely approaches his stories this way.