The Best MOVIE of ALL TIME

I still see favorite as more or less synonymous with "best movie of all time". You can't really cater this to public opinion on this kind of thing, and if you enjoyed all aspects of a film, it's probably your favorite, as well as the thing you consider to be the "best movie of all time".

As for Shawshank, for the 20 years he spent chipping away at the wall - oops! But in my defense, the fact that I still thought it was relatively linear even though it encompassed such a period of time makes it more streamlined than others. I think I meant...more like continuous. Besides, in jail, everything's kind of at a standstill; change was gradual.

Originally Posted by champagnesque

I would say my favorite movie is Singin' in the Rain. Not for any deep reason, but just because it's frivolous, and it knows it's frivolous, and I have a good time enjoying its frivolity. I think a favorite movie is just something you can watch again and again, and I've seen Singin' in the Rain SO many times and I never tire of it. It's kind of a stupid movie to call your favorite, because there's no inherent theme, and it's not particularly innovative. But it's a good story, it has amazing songs, it has GENE KELLY who is enormously charismatic, and it makes me laugh. Isn't that reason enough?

There is absolutely no reason to apologize for Singing in the Rain, which is generally acknowledged by people who know about such things as the best musical film ever made! It is superbly done--good songs, great choreography, excellent cast, well acted from a witty script. Not sure what you mean about it having "no inherent theme": it humorously satirizes and parodies the panic surrounding the troubling transitional period from silents to talkies in the 1920s.

It was produced during MGM studios' creative pinnacle, from the late 1930s to the early 1960s when producer Arthur Freed turned out more than 40 musicals. The creative forces at the studio in the Freed Unit—composed of Freed, Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Donen, and actor/choreographer Gene Kelly—collaborated to produce such gems as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Pirate (1948), On the Town (1949), Best Picture Oscar-winner a year earlier with director Vincente Minnelli - An American in Paris (1951), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Gigi (1958).

As you say, it may not have been very innovative. Except for two songs (“Fit as a Fiddle” and “Moses Supposes”), all of the film’s tunes in the film were composed by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown for different Hollywood films before Freed became a producer. The title song was originally created by lyricist Freed and composer Brown for MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929). The general storyline of the film was derived from Once in a Lifetime (1932), a hilarious adaptation of the Moss Hart-George S. Kaufman play also set during the time of panic surrounding Hollywood's transition to talkies.

I generally find that films adapted from stage plays are among the best movies because the scripts are so much better written. But Singing in the Rain proved the reverse is true when its original screenplay was adapted for stage a few years ago. The stage production played here in Houston, complete with a pipe system that produced rain on stage. The cast gave it their best shot but face it, they were no Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, or Donald O’Connor. That was especially evident in the “Make ‘Em Laugh” sequence that O’Connor turned into a show-stopper in the movie. I’ve been told that exhaustive dance number was shot in one long take with no cuts from stop to finish. On stage, of course, it must be done in “one take” in a live performance. But the stage performance of that musical was obviously shortened because, after all, who can recreate Donald O’Connor? The play was so below the performance level of the movie in fact that my wife and I walked out of the theater, went home, ordered pizza, and watched our recording of the film.

Talking about 20 years chipping a tunnel out of prison through a hole in the wall covered by a movie poster (like the guards would never look behind the poster for contraband during a shakedown inspection), my favorite scene is where the escaping con uses a piece of concrete to bust a hole in an iron sewage pipe. Let's see now--which is more likely to crumble on impact, iron or concrete?

Whaddya know, it took 28 posts before someone names a movie actually deserving of the thread title. Unbelievable!

There is nothing stupid whatsoever with naming the greatest musical of all time as a favorite movie! I'm not choosing sides here, but during that 100 minutes damn if it don't feel like this is what movies are made for. I dare say it is entertainment in its purest form.

Ditto! All Shawshank Redemption does is attempt to hijack the emotions of the viewer with a sweeping soundtrack and over-wistful Morgan Freemanisms. There is nothing innovative about it and the acting and direction isn't even remotely stellar. It's a decent movie and if it gave people a sense of hope, great, but of the thousands of films made, this is the best ever? I'm stunned.

The Professional..... and it's been named one of the best sniper movies of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.maximonline.com/slideshow...rs.aspx?film=9

Suspiria Is The Greatest Movie Of All Time!!!!!

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its hard to find someting when you dont know what your looking for-plan 9 from outer space

I think the best made movie would be back to the future 1. But my personal fav is rocky 2.

I've tried several times to figure out which movie might be "the best of all time" without too much luck…. Oh, I know which one is my favorite of all time… however, that doesn't necessarily mean it is the best… but then it occurred to me… the best just might have to be the very first movie ever made.... which I believe is considered The Great Train Robbery made in 1903????

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I think you are right

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The Best Movie of all time has to be the Usual Suspects. It makes u believe someone else is the killer & then it pulls a surprise on you.

None of my favorite movies would be considered "The Best Movie Of All Time, sinceo most f Top Rated Movies are classic movies, from anywhere between 20-50 years ago. I, on the other hand, prefer new movies.

It's either The Girl Next Door or Mystic River for me. They're my favorite movies. The first Saw is definitely up there for me as well.

Buckaroo Bonzai...hands down.

Wow, I am shocked. Troy and the Matrix? How bout you people crawl out from under your rocks and watch real films. Try The Seventh Seal or La Dolce Vita. Or maybe even 8 1/2. And if you don't want to dabble in foreign cinema, theres a great film called The Godfather. I mean, it's surely not as popular as Troy, but maybe you have heard of it, eh? How bout, like Rufnek mentioned, Citizen Kane.

And like mentioned before, what is with all the Shawkshank worshipping? Good movie? Yes. Greatest ever? Hell no.

Dragonballfan...

"The Best Movie of all time has to be the Usual Suspects. It makes u believe someone else is the killer & then it pulls a surprise on you."

Is that a serious statement your making?

JustDecent, honestly...do you really think the Professional is the greatest movie of all time?

What the hell is wrong with you people? I can understand (barely) if they are your favorite movies, but those movies are nowhere near being even a slight candidate for the greatest movies ever. Cmon, cinema has been around for more than a hundred years, not just since the 90s. And if you don't like old cinema, check out the 70's. That was a great decade in film.

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"All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be." - Guido, 8 1/2

my favorite movies series is all the fast and furious movies

My favmovie is, well actually I can't choose, I guess it's a changing subject for me.

So I simpley have to name a coupple in no particular order.

COMEDY;

The big lebowski
Bad Santa
Clerks/Clerks II
Knocked Up.

DRAMA;

Shawshank Redemption.
Forrest Gump.
Finding Neverland.
Garden State.
Big Fish.

THRILLER/ACTION;

Fight Club.
Memento.
Pulp Fiction.
True Romance
Kill Bill I & II
Leon.
Man On Fire.

CRIME;

Casino.
Good Fellas.
Snatch.
Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.

Animation;

Shrek.
The Polar Express.

I know this isn't you, because you mentioned films from other decades, but it does make me laugh when people berate others for only watching 90s films, then insist that the 70s is the best decade for films and only films made in the 70s are any good. I think a strong preference for one decade shows people's age, rather than the objective quality of the decade.

I don't think that he meant that the 70's is the only decade, just suggesting to look at them, as it was a good decade

I think you are defiantly right

Hmmm, that makes no sense because 1. I never said that the 70's was the best decade for film. I said it was a great decade and I never said that only films made in the 70's are good. So how bout you re-read what I said. And I think people should be berated for only watching 90s films. Theres 80 plus years more of film and furthermore, film isn't only native to America because many of the films I am seeing here are American. Why watch films only from the other 10 years? "Because they look old"?

All I am expressing and stressing is exploration. Why just stop at 10% when you can explore the other 90% of cinema...

Yes and no.

It can show you a more casual film fan's age, perhaps, as they will not have had the time to digest a wider variety of cinema. But it also stands to reason that the era of filmmaking you grew up in (or at least became cinematically aware in) is the period where you would have the deepest well of knowledge.

There are amazing performances and movies that get nominated for awards and such every year, and because of that level of attention and notoriety they tend to become a fairly firm part of the canon right away. But every year there are also some knock-out smaller or weirder films that just plain don't catch on...catch on immediately, anyway. If you're twenty-years-old and go to see a lot of movies with your friends and rent a lot of movies, you may wind up seeing say thirty or forty or even more films from a given year, both in that calendar year and the six or eight months afterward as the titles make their way onto DVD and TV such. If you're seeing that many new movies, that means yes you're going to see the big, popular ones but you're also catching up with the much less popular. So if you've seen say forty-eight movies from 1999, of course you're going to have a better feel for the width and breadth of what was out there. You'll know the blockbusters and award fare, but you'll also have seen things just for the sake of seeing them, because it was Friday night and everything else new was rented. Whatever.

At the same time, that person who by sheer osmosis knows the cinematic minutiae of 1999 may have only seen one movie made in 1943 (and it'll be one of the most popular and enduring, an established "classic"). Even if they thought it was great they'd have no frame of reference for how great relative to the others released that year, either the other well-known established greats and definitely not the more obscure and forgotten. So there is an ignorance of 1943, but knowing a lot about more recent films can lead to some interesting and different choices from those handful of years they do know so very well.


The best of course is to know twenty or thirty or fifty or sixty films from virtually every year of cinema, and fom all corners of the globe, then your likes and taste truly have some serious frames of reference and when you say this one or that one is your personal favorite "of all time" it carries more weight. But until then being hyper-focused on the films you grew up on and are actually familiar with isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Not necessarily.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

And I never said that you said that, so how bout you re-read what I said...I did start with 'I know this isn't you'...

Of course people should watch films from different decades, of course it is dumb to only watch 90s films, and anyone who claims to be a film fan ought to go out of their way to see older films, but as Holden says it does stand to reason that you will know most about the decade you started really watching films, as that will be when you saw most films in the cinema, including real rubbish.

I have no time for people who only watch new films because they 'don't like old films'. But on the other hand, I don't agree with people who think only older films can be any good and dismiss anything made after Goodfellas as 'not as good as the classics'.

(And before anyone complains, I'm not accusing anyone in this thread of doing that, I'm just saying.)