The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: American Graffiti

written by George Lucas and Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck


American Graffiti has become a classic. The story follows four teenagers on a night in 1964, as two of them prepare to leave for college the next day.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1 min.)
    • Curt and Steve are leaving for college the next day. This is their last night in town.
  2. Complication (2 min.)
    • But Curt, despite winning the Moose Lodge Scholarship, has decided not to leave town after all.
  3. Call to Action (12 min.)
    • "I saw a goddess," Curt says, a blonde driving a white T-bird, and the vision answers his earlier question, "Where's the dazzling beauty I've been waiting for?" He will find her.
  4. Act One Plot Point (40-3 min.)
    • Seeing the white T-bird again, Curt becomes obsessed with meeting the mystery woman.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (54 min.)
    • For sitting on a stranger's car, Curt is taken "hostage" by some gang members.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (97 min.)
    • After being released by the gang, Curt takes a record request to the local radio station, where the DJ says he just plays tapes, that Wolfman is on tape. It looks like his radio message to the blonde won't happen that night.
  7. Climax and Resolution (101-6 min.)
    • But the DJ is Wolfman and makes the dedication. Curt has a brief phone conversation with his goddess at a phone booth. He decides to go off to college after all.

Notes

American Graffiti is an ensemble story, with each of the four characters having fully developed story lines. Steve, for example, decides not to leave to college and to stay with his high-school girlfriend instead. In the credits, Richard Dreyfuss (who plays Curt) gets top billing and his story also presents the central issue of the story: should he leave his small town to move into the world at large by going off to college? His character arc moves his decision from "no" to "yes."


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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