Set in California in 1962, American Graffiti is a film written and directed by George Lucas as a coming of age comedy-drama about cruising and rock 'n' roll youth culture. I think the film had a very weird effect on me after watching it, because it was so effective at portraying the nostalgia of 60's youth culture, yet car culture in the country i grew up in was not only nonexistent, but cars are notoriously expensive and modification of said cars is illegal.
Google equates $90,000 Singapore dollars to £54,210. Majority of the cost of the vehicle comes from the purchase a "certificate of entitlement" which is mandatory for owning of cars in Singapore
And yet, this influence of the classic American rockabilly nostalgia is one that is present across all countries and cultures, especially among the older generation who would have even less opportunity during their time to engage with a culture so far removed with their own. Metacritic calculated a score of 97 out of 100, indicating “universal acclaim”. Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars and praised it for being "not only a great movie, but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant". So it amazes me to see the effectiveness of aesthetics in instilling this nostalgia for a nonexistent culture that films like American Graffiti are so good at perpetuating (I think this is the essence of the definition of Americana?). I do think part of the film's success can be credited to its diegetic soundtrack that would have been really iconic for audiences at the time, as well as very well designed characters who were perfect at showing how teenagers saw themselves at the time.
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