Star Wars is certainly on many a "greatest of all time" list. I'm not sure about how people feel about American Graffiti - in the 70s it was extremely well regarded. I personally think it just might be superior to Star Wars.

Roger Ebert gave one of the best

for a movie when he wrote about it . The movie itself (not to mention the setting) was before my time but he does explain why it had an impact when it came out in 1973 - just picturing how much the country change from 1962 to 1973. guess timing is a lost art.

can a movie be made about teenagers in the year 2000 come out today and show the same time of changes?