Rockwellian Vision

Our Friday Night at the Movies series continues this Friday, September 2, starting at 5:30 p.m., with a screening of Norman Rockwell fan/collector George Lucas’ 1973 film, American Graffiti.

As written in the catalogue for the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2010 exhibition, Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Lucas’ breakthrough film could be seen as the “last pure, unmediated, non-revisionist ‘Rockwell film’ ever made.” Set in 1962, the film expresses the same innocent image of adolescence that had prevailed in the United States prior to the early 1960s. “In these decent, fun-seeking, eager high school graduates, particularly those played by Ronny Howard (before he became Ron), Charlie Martin Smith, and Cindy Williams, one could clearly see the same American youth Rockwell had been depicting since early in the century but who were about to become either extinct or retrograde resisters of cultural trends.”

A Q&A will follow the screening, with refreshments served. The movie is free with Museum admission, or $10 only for the film ($5 for members).