I've heard through the net-grape-vine that Spielberg wasn't happy with the film Does anybody know what his issues were?
I happen to think this is one of the great films of all time, but maybe that's just me looking at it through high-school colored glasses.
In the "trivia" section on the main page, it says he took his name off of it because he didn't like it. Screw him. I think "American Graffiti" is one of his best, but I like "Fandango" more... it's speaks to more people, now, because most of the people that grew up in the 50's are either dead or dying. This speaks to a broader set of people, because who WOULDN'T want to be able to "road trip" like that before they head off into the "unknown"? I did it in college... it's something everyone should experience! I think Spielberg may have thought the theme to the movie was going to be different... it WAS kind of like Amer. Graff.
Dreyfuss having second thoughts about going off to college and having one more last hurrah in his hometown and Costner dodging the draft... very similar.
Steven Spielberg didn't make American Graffiti. George Lucas did.
shareYup, you're right, but I always thought or heard of Spielberg having SOMETHING to do with the film, other than he and Lucas being close. Anyways, besides my goof on who "made" AG, my opinions still stand.
From a reviewer: Spielberg financed it on the strength of Kevin Reynolds' first feature, "Proof", but apparently he was disappointed with the results. Maybe that is because in Fandango there is a lack of Spielbergian sentimentality that has dominated everything he has made post-Jaws. Here, Reynolds counters every up with a letdown.
I happen to think it's a great film. It lacks that schmaltzy/cartoony element so prevalent in Spielberg's films. There's a counter point to every high note, just as you observed. It's got those Hollywood moments without being a complete Hollywood film.
I'm sorry the producer didn't like what he saw.
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None of us have any valid proof that Spielberg disliked the movie. The only article from 1985 I've found to suggest such a thing (http://books.google.com/books?id=J-cCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63 &dq=spielberg+%22Kevin+Reynolds%22&source=bl&ots=PBoRYEZpv n&sig=_CLznb5pKwLr56TaPS2zOBX_l4A&hl=en&ei=yFZHTuG1LoTy0gG Dr8z1Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved =0CFsQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=spielberg%20%22Kevin%20Reynolds%22&f= false) is heavily biased against Spielberg and makes him out to be someone who disowned the movie just because it wasn't a typical "Spielberg production". There's an interesting bit in which Kevin Reynolds is quoted as saying he's "tired of talking about Spielberg", but that's it.
We have to take into account that Fandango was made years before Spielberg himself starting taking serious artistic risks in his career (Empire of the Sun; Schindler's List; Amistad, Saving Private Ryan; A.I.; Munich). He probably just didn't expect Kevin Reynolds was use his funding to making a movie that wasn't typical of an Amblin' Production. In fact, Fandango feels like a distant cousin of Spielberg's early short film, Amblin'.
All I'm trying to say is, we have no concrete proof. If Spielberg had truly hated this great film so much, I'm hard-pressed as to why he let Reynolds direct an Amazing Stories episode.
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
Artistic risks? Are the movies you mentioned supposed to be examples of artistic risks? I beg to differ.
shareI would call Spielberg's theatrical debut, THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS, a "serious, artistic risk," especially with its downbeat ending. The fact that it didn't do well commercially may have influenced him to go for more rah-rah endings for the next few decades, though, and perhaps that also influenced his reception of FANDANGO.
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I should warn you -- he's a Fourierist.
What a putz he was. This film is great
shareI would imagine that Spielberg liked the film and recognized it's qualities but he guessed (probably correctly) that this was not the kind of film that audiences in 1984/1985 wanted to watch. Stories of Vietnam, the draft, and the '70s were not what people wanted to watch at that time. It was Reagan's "New Morning In America". The other Spielberg produced movie of 1985, Back To The Future, celebrated the '50s (just as American Graffitti had done) and was a huge hit. I don't think it was anything personal against Reynolds or the film, just business.
shareI don't know much about him, but he seems like s stand up guy from all the interviews and articles I've seen and read about the guy. Maybe he felt he didn't deserve credit at the time because he wasn't that involved. I don't know, really. It's just an educated guess.
shareThose are some good points. I don't even remember the film being released in theaters. It was probably some time around the late 90's or early 2000's one of my friends recommended this and we watched in one Saturday. I thought it was great - but I can see how in the context of the time period when it was released it might not have played well. Still a really good film.
shareI think I briefly remember it playing in the local theatres, but I didn't go see it. Then it showed up on HBO, and I thought it was up there with a lot of other coming of age films.
I don't see the connection with Lucas's "American Graffitti". AG had kind of the same "emotional story" of leaving home, but I seem to recall that both AG films were set in suburban Modesto California. Fandango is a road trip film, and is an over the top comedy.
The theology student who rarely speaks, the one guy who's passed out through the entire movie, the conman/flake, the marine, the groom who ran away from a woman who was ditched by the flake ... I don't see it having anything loosely related to do with "American Graffiti". AG is about disparate graduates pursuing their own goals and going their separate ways. Fandango does that at the end, but ... dang, it's just a different film.
I don't know. I don't think the AG theory holds up.