American Graffiti is a top ten film for me, so I agree it's a great story. However, that wasn't originally the case. From the articles I've read about it, it was in danger of not being released the way George had cut the thing. It was a mess until Marcia got involved and re-edited it. Same is true for several areas of Star Wars. My take has always been that George is a great idea man, but really struggles to flesh out a story.

THX-1138 I've never seen all the way through. I've given it a look a few times, but never found it to be terribly interesting.