DRIVE- IN
US, 1976, 96 minutes, Colour.
Lisa Lemole, Gary Lee Cavagnaro, Glenn Morshower.
Directed by Rod Amateau.
Drive- In was filmed at a real drive-in outside Dallas, Texas. It is a small-budget local film – something of a piece of nostalgia nowadays for the era of the drive-in theatres and their customers.
It was directed by Rod Amateau, a director mainly working in television although he made the Peter Sellers vehicle, Where Does It Hurt, in 1972.
The film is the story of Glowie, who is in love with the very shy Orville. However, there are subplots including some teen gangs, some outlaw bikers, some small-time thieves, the auxiliary sheriff with his guns and his right-wing stances – and his nagging mother. There is also an engaged couple – a cross-section of odd characters from Texas.
Of interest is the film on the screen during this film: Disaster 76, it is something like Flying High as a spoof of a disaster films of the 70s – one can see traces of Airport, Towering Inferno, Jaws.
1. How enjoyable a comedy, social comment, example of local cinema, American comedy of modern manners? Blend of these?
2. As designed for an American audience, the nature of its appeal? Non-American? audiences? Intelligibility for non-American audiences?
3. Comment on the style, the breezy attitudes. the delineation of characters (two-dimensionable, depth?), Texas town locations, the Drive-in, the choosing of a cross-section of people in the town? The influence of films about youth for example American Graffiti? Trying to capture the atmosphere of a place, time, outlook of the young? (The bonus of the disaster film on the screen - a compendium of the disaster trend of the mid-seventies?)
4. How well did the film present and communicate local colour, engaging characters, satirical outlook on people and situations, the style of life, the Drive-in culture? The humorous gags and witty lines?
5. The structure, the time factor of the afternoon and night and the Drive-in screening?
6. Comment on the presentation of the film 'Disaster 1961 and the way that it was a compendium of the disaster films - ships, planes, airport, towering infernos, dams bursting, jaws? How well blended together, as commentary on attitudes of Americans, the popular response to such disaster films? Its coinciding with events within the film?
7. Glowie and Orville as the all-American girl and boy? The skating rink, the car driving, the crashes, the rivalry with the gang? Homes, families, brothers and sisters? Reflection of the permissive attitudes? A conventional hero and heroine, the ups and downs of their relationship for that night, their generosity towards each other, boy-girl relationships, sexuality? Rivalry and proving oneself?
8. The humour in the character of Little Bit, his curiosity, bravado, his involvement in the robbery - source of comedy?
9. How sympathetic and humorous was the presentation of Enoch and the gang, the van and the crash, their chasing of Ayful, Enoch and Glovio and the water bed?
10. The attention to detail in the minor characters as the pot-smoking vigilante and his mother?
11. The build-up to the robbery, the inefficiency of the characters, their carrying out the robbery? Bill Hill recognizing them, Little Bit's presence? Their behaviour and failure in the robbery?
12. The satire in Bill Hill and his attitude towards sex?
13. What did it all add up to, a glimpse of ordinary Americans presented comic style? A comedy of 1976?
