Best movie ever made

The Shawshank Redemption rates right up there.

Cant fault that choice Wilso.

Difficult to pick any particular one, but Schindlers List would be high in my top ten.

The first Star Wars was very unique for it's time.

Spice World

So many funny & happy memories. Thoughtful, well-plotted, well-acted...no, wait. wrong movie

The Godfather would be up there.

Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge Over the River Kwai, Apocalypse Now....hard to pick just one.

Never enjoyed a movie more on first viewing than Back to the Future. Must have been in the right mood.

For nostalgia, I never seem to tire of A Christmas Story.

For technical awesomeness, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or at least the first two parts, would be hard to beat. Or anything to date by Pixar.

Best western: Unforgiven. Best fantasy/fable: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Best kid's movie: The Wizard of Oz. Best coming of age film: American Graffiti.

I guess I have no idea.

"Vertigo," "Citizen Kane," "The Rules of the Game," "Seven Samarai," "L'Aventura," "The Godfather," "The 400 Blows," "Beauty and the Beast" (the Cocteau) and LOTR, just to name a few. "Vertigo" is still number one on my list.

I just don't think "Maid in Manhattan" can be topped.

Going to have to agree with you, with emphasis on Apocalypse Now!

I do not know about your question .....(best movie every made), but one my favourites is "Casablanca".

Although Godfather I was a great movie, I think that II is at the top of the heap, filmwise. I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I never liked Brando as the Godfather. His method acting mumbling really grated on my nerves, and he looked like an overweight gerbil.

Which is what made him the personification of the aging Don. It wasn't as if there were no other method actors in the film. I'd put one and two on equal footing with three coming off as too obligatory.

Lightwizard- III just wasn't in the same class as the first two.

I also think that another great film was 2001. It was really ahead of its time.

I missed that on my list and it's on my top ten along with "Dr. Strangelove." Some find it incomprehensible and ponderous but I've always been ingulfed by this story telling in imagery. "L'Aventura" does basically the same thing -- sparse on dialogue and it's what is passing over the screen that, if one is paying attention, can be more profound that any spoken dialogue (which has its limitations and cannot really pretend to communicate abstractions or any metaphysical "feelings.") I would also put "Chinatown" on the list which could bump off either "Seven Samurai" or "Beauty and the Beast" but one can't really be totally objective in making up a top ten personal list.

Of the silent films, for instance, it would be "Grand Illusion," or "Metropolis" on my list, the later because I just got the really outstanding reconstruction and restoration and there's a statement in the special features that the film is like Beethoven's Ninth or Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in its stature as a film. The special features includes what they did to restore the film to something like the premiere showing even though one-third of the film is lost forever. It's astonishing to think this sci-fi epic with its social extrapolation and satirical criticism was made in the 20's. Films like "Blade Runner" owe a lot to that film. It was and still is a revolutionary as "2001." It's not showing up in late press releases in Variety or Billboard but there is the strong rumor that "2001" will be re-released as IMAX! Only noting this again as a kind of prayer -- can anyone imagine the final flight through time and space on the IMAX screen?

when i first saw "2001" as i was attempting to stand and leave following the end of the film someone in the aisle ahead of me said "well I liked the music and the visuals, but it needed a plot"

That echoes Rock Hudson who walked out of the middle of the studio preview saying, "Could someone please tell me what this is about?" It's about "everything." Some criticize it for being to direct and simplistic about its connotations-- that God is an alien life form, for one. It defies explanation as it's purpose was "what if" and left a lot of the answers up to the viewer. This preplexes a lot of the movie going public but not enough to make the video and DVD editions lack any sales.
The IMAX version since the small screen hardly does it justice will bring the film to a whole new generation. Some even hate the film because it advocates that God is simply an alien life form.

Lightwizard- And that was the beauty of 2001. I am the kind of person who rarely discusses the meaning of a movie after I have seen it. With 2001, my frends and I were talking about it for weeks.

One of the delights of the film, was the vagueness of it. It was the kind of vehicle where one could superimpose his own meaning to it.