What is the best movie ever made?

I can't believe that Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were only 16 when they made this movie.

Molly seemed so mature.

The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, Casablanca...

C.R.A.Z.Y.

Buster Keaton's The General.

Wizard of Oz, R3?

I don't know about GWTW. It doesn't hold up, nearly a century later.

Citizen Kane is boring.

Imitation of Life (1959)

R5 YES! A brilliant choice and in my top three.

8 1/2

OP never received the invitation to participate in the Sight and Sound poll.

2001: A Space Odyssey.

This question has been asked here many times, and of course, there can only be one answer.

Chinatown

Mommie Dearest.

All About Eve

Godfather

OP has the taste of a 15 year old fan girl. Or fan gay.

The Breakfast Club wouldn't make most people's top 1,000.

The Breakfast Club is contrived and the characters are unbelievable John Hughes creations of how he thinks people behave. The one adult character is an asshole caricature. It's entertaining but not a great film. Hughes had problems.

I'll say what I always say when we ask this here: Cabaret.

I find it hard to believe that anyone over the age of 14 thinks TBC is the best movie ever made. It isn’t even the best John Hughes movie.

My answer, anyhow: Schindler’s List. I’m not a Spielberg groupie but this movie is so well done, so beautifully edited, moving, and so full of love and anger. To today’s viewers the splashes of color (red coat, candles) seem “corny” but they will react when they see that red coat again in the graveyard.

[Quote] I don't know about GWTW. It doesn't hold up, nearly a century later.

Oh it totally does. Engrossing within the first 5 mins

Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet is still my favorite all time movie

R6 Gone With The Wind holds up. As storytelling, as a technical achievement, and as a well-acted and directed, well-produced saga. It fact it hardly ever lets up as engossing entertainment, despite its length. It was even better at the movies (it wasn't on TV until almost the 80s).

Godfather I

It's nice when they let retarded people start threads. BREAKFAST CLUB?

So many good movies, hard to choose a "best" — but the one that left the biggest impression on me, is Requiem for a Dream.

The sadness, the hope, the desperation, the abuse... It fucks you up but it is, IMHO, a masterpiece.

"Modern Times" Charlie Chaplin

Shawshank redemption

Dawson's 50 Load Weekend!

“Zodiac”

To R28.OMG!!! Great insane minds think alike... Modern movies in the last 30 yrs-RFAD was the movie that came to mind. That movie still freaks me out; and the music& the acting.You lose all hope watching the performances, Esp Ellens descent into "Speed madness".

The Grapes 🍇 Of Wrath (1939)

OP, is this you?

I'll stop whatever I'm doing to watch Goodfellas, Full Metal Jacket, Raising Arizona, Slap Shot or Sweet Dreams.

Nuts

City Lighta

American Beauty

I missh thoshe shitty lightsh, thoshe shparkling shitty lightsh, those twinkling shitty lightsh, blurring my eye!

Superman 2

It had everything you could want including cigarette advertising on kids toys.

just 1 ? not "the best" , but that 's what movies are about.

North by Northwest is still one of if not my favorite. Its stylish, clever, humorous and the phallic symbolism at the end IS the perfect end. 'Ram it in there' Cary!

[quote]The one adult character is an asshole caricature.

The custodian is a good guy.

My Life As a Dog

Wings of Desire

Purple Rose of Cairo

And yes, I realize that’s more than one.

I can't choose between Bambi and Au Hasard Balthazar.

The Red Shoes

I too nominate All About Eve.

All About Eve is the greatest movie with no action. 2 hrs 20 minutes of people talking and it's brilliant.

I can't pick one. Some movies I love off the top of my head:

Out Of The Past (1947), The Band Wagon (1953), An American In Paris (1951), The River (1950), The Lady Eve (1942), Sunset Boulevard (1950). The Searchers (1956), Rebel Without A Cause (1955), Lawrence Of Arabia (1962), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Red River (1948).

Not a single non American movie. Bravo.

For many years, Renoir's La Règle du jeu (1939) was the top choice, or top 3.

R50, I am not sure if that is a sarcastic Bravo, but I am not ashamed, if so. Most Americans do not watch many foreign films with subtitles nor read Chilean novels. Most don’t read or watch anything longer than a Tweet or TikTok.

Shindler's List

I already voted, so this is cheating, but glad someone mentioned Sunset Boulevard. It is one of the great ones.

R52 Well that's fine and it means the criteria is "the best American movie ever made".

Would you do the same about novels, speaking of? No French, German, Russian, Spanish, and yes Chilean novels need be nominated for "best novel in history"?

No one will agree with me on this (in the world) but I have 2 and I cannot decide-

Jackie Brown &

Gloria- 1980- starring Gena Rowlands and directed by John Cassavetes

Each really nail an atmosphere and feeling and they both make me feel some sort of way!

And the lead females in both are pure fire. So sexy in offbeat ways as well... (Im a 43 year old gay guy)

R50 Yes, I prefer American films. I'm not even sure what you're trying to say, but I have seen many non-Hollywood and non-American films. All of us have different favorites and those are some of mine.

I also put The Goodfellas, Wings of The Dove, The Exorcist, Opening Night, and The Godfather Part 2 in my top 10.

I hate making choices.

R50 And by the way, The River (1951), directed by Jean Renoir, is a French-Indian-American co-production (because the financing came from an American). It was filmed in India and is an English-speaking film starring British, American, and Indian actors. Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) is a British film with a mostly-British cast. So your "Not a single non American movie" comment is wrong.

R33 get ready to MARY! me, but that movie has changed something in me. I can't put it into words, but once you've seen it, you feel like something in your brain got re-wired.

I would like to add "The Last Emperor" to the list, too.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

Wizard of Oz has given me the most joy throughout life

"The Shawshank Redemption" has held the #1 spot at the IMDB for years, so I guess you could say the people have spoken.

The Silence of the Lambs

Tombstone

While there are many greater, the film I return to most (as apparently most do, given the docs/yt analysis) is The Shining… there’s nothing else quite like it. Genius.

Greatest as in most award winning or biggest box office? I couldn’t begin to decide on one movie, in face, I’m still looking for it!

John Hughes?! Is this a joke OP?

Godfather II. It has everything . Family betrayal including abortion and fratricide. Political and mob corruption go hand and hand. The protagonist ends up isolated due to his own actions and thirst for power. It's as close to Shakespearean as any movie ever made.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Jaws

Some Like It Hot.

The Company of Wolves. It has everything I want in a film: beautiful music, fruedian symbolism, a whimsical forest built on a soundstage, animatronic wolves, and English character actors

Casablanca

If I can separate “favorite” and “greatest,” I would list Through a Glass Darkly as the the former and Children of Paradise as the latter.

R57, I'll agree on Jackie Brown. At least it's a film that always jumps to mind when a question such as OPs is asked.

Others that come to mind:

Barry Lyndon

North by Northwest

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

The Rules of the Game

This has to be a troll thread. Breakfast Club is trash.

Gidget Goes Hawaiian

Welcome to my Home

R71 I don't entirely disagree with you, but I chose Godfather I because it was absolutely mesmerizing. I can never get enough of it. It transports us to a time and place, the cinematography was incredible, and the film itself, conceptually, revolutionized the whole genre of gangster movies. We'd never seen anything this epic. And the casting was brilliant. Every single one of those actors will always be remembered for those roles. IMOit was the best movie ever made. Calling it a classic is an understatement. I think of Godfather 2 as an extension of it. In a way they're inseparable.

Vertigo

The Godfather

The Year of Living Dangerously.

The Godfather baffles me, it was a pretty good movie, I saw it twice. The second time because a friend who liked it wanted me to see it again. Not my type of thing at all, I don't care about people in the Mafia. But more than that I didn't think the period was captured all that accurately. Like the wedding, a lot of it looked 1970s. Al Martino in a white suit with a blue ruffled tux shirt and a black bow tie? Wtf was that? In the 40s? Diane Keaton looked dressed up in old clothes instead of looking the period. Hey, it's just me, I guess.

The only movie Charles Laughton directed.

Goodfellas.

Singing in the rain

Apocalypse Now

In the mood for love

The Godfather Part II

Why all the hate for The Breakfast Club? While I agree that it should be nowhere near any smart person’s Best Movie of All Time list, it IS era-defining and a helluva lot of fun. It is a classic of sorts.

Taxi Driver.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Something tells me you haven’t see many movies, OP.

The Silence of the Lambs. Perfection in every way.

I dont think there is an empirically 'best' movie. There are sub-genre Best Action/Comedy, Best Pre- Code, best foreign, and also time specific. Last House on the Left could be a best in Horror, Cruisin could be best at capturing a moment soon to be a thing of the past incredubly drastically, incredibly quickly. Gone With The Wind, best ensemble in a piece of historical fiction based on another time, being the Antebellum South and its decimation. All About Eve, best dialogue etc.

Requiem for a dream. thread closed

The Sound of Music...its just so entertaining and flawless. Julies Maria leaps off the screen.

What’s up Doc 1972

I was torn between Jackie Brown, Goodfellas, Promising Young Woman, Tootsie, and Gloria.

I am going with Gena Rowlands and Mr Cassavetes- Gloria 1980. It hits every spot for me.

WOW, Jackie Brown! I forgot about that one. As good as Goodfellas and The Godfathers.

"The Third Man." I've seen it a dozen times, and can still find new things in it. Best of all, no fake happy ending.

Is this you, OP?

r3, how can any of those possibly compare to the OP's suggestion of "The Breakfast Club"?

Everyone knows the best movie ever made is "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles".

Singin’ in The Rain

Well, top rated Vertigo is very cinematic, despite its many flaws. I think the original Frankenstein and Scarface are fantastic.

R105-Yes for Scarface!!!!!

I am thinking of other films now like Alien, Aliens, Another Woman, and Ordinary People

but I am sticking with Gloria.

Reds with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton.

R107-- YES! Another awesome film-

No such thing as single best, but my desert island, one-movie-only pick would be Nashville.

Singin’ In The Rain Some Like It Hot

The Wiz

Wicked

Alien (1979)

I don't know if it is objectively "THE BEST," but The Wizard of Oz is, to me, the most perfect film ever made.