I came across this film during lockdown when I was working through Harrison Ford’s filmography and found George Lucas’ breakout film four whole years before Star Wars. It’s a time capsule of the 60s, apparently using Lucas’ own experiences of cruising in his Modelo as inspiration. It captures everything of that time, cruise culture, hot-rods, drive-ins and even the more unfortunate parts of that culture that haven’t aged well. 

Despite that I found myself fascinated with this film; it delivers one continuous night following the perspectives of different members of a friend group as some of them prepare to leave for college. I say some because not everyone is ready to leave the town they grew up in, especially the hot-rod king John played by Paul Le Mat who is determined to remain the fastest in his town despite the culture changing and rapidly outgrowing him. Each friend is thrown into a situation that they’re least equipped to deal with and they have to change with the times or slowly fail clinging onto what they already had. The whole night is accompanied by the haunting ramblings of Wolfman Jack, a mysterious radio presenter who really lends aid to the atmosphere of their last night of familiarity. 

It interested me because I’ve found myself resistant to change before. At the time of lockdown, like many others I was preparing to go different ways with my friend group as we moved to different parts of the country. While I wasn’t racing hot-rods against Harrison Ford, I found myself thinking whether things were ever going to be the same. Now I’m preparing to leave uni and the same thoughts are appearing again. 

This is less of a coming-of-age film but rather more of a goodbye film, a goodbye to the wide-eyed innocence that came with being a schoolkid and choosing whether to accept the possibilities that the future holds. It’s okay to be scared and it’s fun to be nostalgic, but also life is fleeting and the more you see of the world, the better. If you get too wrapped up in the good times that you had, you may not ever get the name of that stranger longingly staring out the window of a Thunderbird at you – or whatever the non-cruise culture example of that is. Live in the present, have fun and best of luck to all!  

Image: Unsplash