In the decades since 1977’s Star Wars, George Lucas has filled many roles. Producer, writer, mega-multimedia-mogul: with the possible exception of his buddy Steven Spielberg, it would be difficult to find a more successful filmmaker than Lucas.

Star Wars clearly changed Lucas' life, but not in the way one would have predicted. Instead of just using his clout to pick and choose projects carefully, he took his newfound power and left his previous life behind the camera as a director.

Pop quiz: how many films did Lucas direct between Star Wars in 1977 and The Phantom Menace in 1999? None.

Not only do many people forget that Lucas started out as a director, they also frequently fail to remember that Star Wars wasn't his first hit movie in that role: back in 1973, he did tremendously well with the vaguely autobiographical smash, American Graffiti.

In Modesto, California circa late summer 1962, a bunch of friends ponder their next steps in life. Curt Henderson Richard Dreyfuss) plans to fly east for college, but he experiences second thoughts, especially when he becomes obsessed with a sexy blonde (Suzanne Somers) he sees drive by in her white T-bird.

Popular couple Steve Bolander (Ron Howard) and Laurie Henderson (Cindy Williams) – Curt’s sister – go through a rocky time and essentially split up because he intends to leave town for school and wants an “open relationship”. Steve gives nerdy Terry “The Toad” Fields (Charles Martin Smith) custody of his car while he’s away, a choice that allows Terry to meet and semi-woo cute blonde Debbie (Candy Clark).

Finally, aging gearhead John Milner (Paul LeMat) deals with uncomfortable changes in the cruising scene and the ways he starts to feel disconnected from the culture of his youth. All of this leads to a mix of escapades over one long summer evening.

Both Star Wars and American Graffiti share quite a lot in common. Lucas had a difficult time getting backing for both, studio faith in each was low, and the pair received a fantastic reaction from the general public.

Of course, while Star Wars spawned an unimaginably successful franchise, the most enduring legacy of American Graffiti may end up being the way it allowed Lucas to make Star Wars. That's not to say that it's not a fine film, and one that broke a fair amount of ground.

Certainly, it was all that. However, it simply seems that American Graffiti became a movie that largely left the public consciousness back in the 1970s.

Although American Graffiti largely transformed from smash film to historical footnote, it clearly turned into an important film that cast shadows. As Lucas notes in his typically self-congratulatory manner, the film's story construction was unusual for its time in that four separate, fairly unrelated narratives took place at the same time and were edited together.

This is no big deal for modern viewers, as we saw the same thing week after week on Seinfeld, for example. However, somebody had to do it first, and while I don't know if American Graffiti was truly the initial time this format was used, it most likely was the film that introduced it to much of the public.

American Graffiti also earned acclaimed because of all the notable careers it launched. Really, only Ron Howard had achieved any significant success prior to American Graffiti through his role as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show.

However, even he needed the boost this film gave him since he was having trouble making the transition from child star to adult actor. As far as the rest of the cast goes, Dreyfuss, Williams, Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Le Mat, Smith, Somers, and Harrison Ford all got their "big breaks" from the success of American Graffiti.

At this point, I've killed many electronic trees with my rambling discourse and you may have started to wonder, "What about the damned movie? Is it any good?!" I'm glad you asked!

Yeah, American Graffiti is a solid film, but I don't think it quite lives up to any kind of "legendary" status. Overall, it's a much more than competent effort.

Of the actors, the only real standouts are Dreyfuss, Smith, and Clark. Dreyfuss shines in a role where he kept his infamous multiple mannerisms under check, so for once, it appeared that he ran the show, not his various tics.

Really, Dreyfuss creates the only fully realized character in the group. That seems like no mean feat, considering how many different roles get juggled by the script.

Smith provides an endearing and amusing turn as a typical "nerd," and Clark… well, Clark's something else altogether. Of the entire cast, she was the only one to receive an Academy Award nomination for the film.

During my first couple viewings of American Graffiti, I thought that was a joke. Clark can seem very stiff and artificial, much like human puppet Melanie Griffith, so I initially thought she was terrible.

However, with more screenings, I now see more nuance in her work. I wouldn't say there's any real depth there - there isn't much available from the character - but she displays good timing and a personality spark that wasn't readily apparent to me.

The rest of the cast performs well but not exceptionally. Except for Le Mat, I think, as I feel his work is the worst and hammiest of the bunch. He just seems to be shouting his lines instead of reading them for most of the movie. He makes a more overtly comic presence than the other actors, which is to the detriment of his role. Le Mat simply tries too hard to make an impression; as such, the impression he ultimately makes is negative.

While I find American Graffiti to be an interesting and enjoyable film, I do think that it's rather slow. It's not that the film's boring, but it does take a very leisurely pace.

Maybe it's just my MTV-addled attention span, but I definitely felt somewhat impatient at times during the movie.

That said, American Graffiti does make for a sweet little Valentine to a long gone time and place. Since I was negative five years old during the film's era of 1962, I obviously can't relate to its accuracy, but I can enjoy that little glimpse into the recent past.

All that's largely irrelevant in the scheme of things, however, since the film's mainly about changes and transitions that we all go through. From that point of view, anyone over 20 should be able to relate to the characters and their experiences.

American Graffiti appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a messy disappointment.

I felt fine with the occasional softness and mushiness that resulted from the original photography. Unfortunately, the transfer tried too hard to semi-modernize the image, and that became an issue.

The presentation used digital noise reduction to reduce grain, and that took detail with it. The film already came with softness issues inherent to it, so the added loss of resolution from the DNR didn’t help.

All of this left Graffiti as an up and down presentation. At times, definition looked quite good, but many shots were unnatural and soft, with a smoothed-out look that seemed plastic.

No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and I saw no obvious edge haloes. The transfer eliminated virtually all print flaws.

Colors got a boost that made them brighter and perkier than made sense for this story. While superficially attractive, the hues tended to seem overly vivid given the nature of the source. HDR added to this and made the colors too vibrant.

Blacks seemed reasonably dense, while shadows offered generally positive delineation, though the noise reduction eliminated detail in these as well. Some awkward day-for-night material didn’t work well either. HDR gave whites and contrast extra pep – again, probably too much pep.

If you want a version of the film that looks “modern”, then you’ll feel happy with the 4K. If you want a disc that accurately reproduces the original photography, you’ll encounter severe disappointment.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of American Graffiti was also something of a mess, though I suspect the original audio was mostly to blame. The quality of the material came across the worst, with only one exception: speech. Despite a few edgy, tinny lines, most of the dialogue was pretty warm and crisp.

Otherwise, audio was problematic, largely due to a heavy layer of reverb. That factor rendered both music and effects as rather metallic and artificial.

Little ever sounded natural, as the songs and effects were distant and without any heft. To some degree, I understood the echo for the omnipresent radio broadcasts, as the movie wanted those to sound like they came from passing cars.

However, everything else worked the same way. It got so bad that when a train passed, I thought it was supposed to come from the radio!

In terms of soundfield, Graffiti showed a broad mix, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Occasionally I noticed some fairly well-localized material – like cars that went from one spot to another – but much of the information seemed poorly placed.

The elements came from an unspecified, general space in the spectrum and didn’t demonstrate accurate locations. Speech also could bleed from the center to the sides.

The surrounds contributed bland reinforcement much of the time, though they occasionally offered some effective unique information. This wasn’t a terrible mix, but I didn’t think it held up well over the last 50 years.

How did the 4K UHD compare to 2011 Blu-ray? Though the 4K came with a 5.1 mix versus the BD’s 2.0, I thought the two seemed very similar, with the same pros and cons.

Due to all the noise reduction, visuals failed to demonstrate an upgrade. If anything, the higher resolution of 4K meant that the issues with processing seemed even more obvious here. This disappointing 4K didn’t deliver an upgrade over the similarly flawed Blu-ray.

The 4K essentially duplicates the BD’s extras, and we launch with a 1990s documentary called The Making of American Graffiti. This one-hour, 18-minute, 11-second program offers circa 1998 interviews with director George Lucas, producer Francis Ford Coppola, co-writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, sound montage and re-recording supervisor Walter Murch, casting director Fred Roos, visual consultant Haskell Wexler, and actors Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Kathleen Ann Quinlan, and Suzanne Somers.

“Making” starts with the flick’s origins and development, aspects of the script and autobiographical elements, the use of music, casting, shooting the movie and aspects of the characters, locations and camerawork, performances and Lucas’s attitude on the set, post-production, and the film’s reception.

“Making” provides a pretty full glimpse of the flick’s creation in this excellent program. I’m delighted to see so many of the film’s principals – especially all the actors – and we learn a ton about the movie. This becomes a truly enjoyable and insightful piece.

Presented as a video commentary on the Blu-ray, we get an audio commentary from George Lucas. In this running, screen-specific piece, he discusses the opening credits, autobiographical elements and themes, story/characters, influences and historical components, music, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, audio and editing, and a few other production elements.

Despite a little inevitable repetition from the documentary, Lucas provides a solid commentary here. We get a nice overview of the relevant topics as well as good insights into the era and Lucas’s mindset as he made the film. Expect a lively, engaging chat.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get some Screen Tests. These cover four options: Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Paul Le Mat (12:08), Ron Howard and Cindy Williams (2:18), Mackenzie Phillips and Paul Le Mat (6:47) and Charles Martin Smith (1:42).

The first try-out also includes an actor as Terry; not only does the disc fail to credit him, but also it masks his face. All of these are a bit clunky in terms of dialogue and performance, but they’re cool to see.

The package also includes a Blu-ray copy of the film. As mentioned, it offers U-Control, which means two differences from the 4K.

Like I noted, this gives a video commentary from Lucas. It offers the same notes as the audio-only version but it also allows us to watch Lucas as he shifts in his chair. The visual component adds nothing.

“U-Control” also offers “The Music of American Graffiti”. It provides simple credits, so when a song plays, we get some notes about it. This is a decent but fairly inconsequential addition.

Though I think American Graffiti sags at times, it still offers an entertaining piece of work. The film provides a warm and nostalgic look at teen life but never becomes sappy or condescending. The Blu-ray boasts a small but very strong collection of supplements, but picture seems overly processed, and the audio appears lackluster, though the latter suffers mostly from the deficits of the source material. While this becomes the best Graffiti on the market, the fact it comes with flaws makes it a disappointment.

To rate this film visit the prior review of AMERICAN GRAFFITI