Which decade produced the BEST MOVIES?
 

My bet would be the 70s.

Godfather I and II

Apocalypse Now

Deer Hunter

Chinatown

The list goes on and on.

Your pick?

Goodfellas (1990)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Matrix (1999)

You would be correct, 70's were the golden age of cinema

My money's on 2030s

The 70's saw the best acting of the best actors ever.

micheal caine
marlon brando
robert de niro
gene hackman....
dustin hoffman (kramer vs kramer)

anyone care to add some more?

The 70w were great years for film making. It was before the money men took over Hollywood.

Seems like most of my favorite movies are from the 90's so I'm going with that.

Which decade has the most titles on this list?

AFI Top 100 - 2007

1. Citizen Kane, 1941.

2. The Godfather, 1972.

3. Casablanca, 1942.

4. Raging Bull, 1980.

5. Singin' in the Rain, 1952.

6. Gone With the Wind, 1939.

7. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.

8. Schindler's List, 1993.

9. Vertigo, 1958.

10. The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

11. City Lights, 1931.

12. The Searchers, 1956.

13. Star Wars, 1977.

14. Psycho, 1960.

15. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.

16. Sunset Blvd., 1950.

17. The Graduate, 1967.

18. The General, 1927.

19. On the Waterfront, 1954.

20. It's a Wonderful Life, 1946.

21. Chinatown, 1974.

22. Some Like It Hot, 1959.

23. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940.

24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.

25. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962.

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939.

27. High Noon, 1952.

28. All About Eve, 1950.

29. Double Indemnity, 1944.

30. Apocalypse Now, 1979.

31. The Maltese Falcon, 1941.

32. The Godfather Part II, 1974.

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975.

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.

35. Annie Hall, 1977.

36. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957.

37. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.

38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948.

39. Dr. Strangelove, 1964.

40. The Sound of Music, 1965.

41. King Kong, 1933.

42. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967.

43. Midnight Cowboy, 1969.

44. The Philadelphia Story, 1940.

45. Shane, 1953.

46. It Happened One Night, 1934.

47. A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951.

48. Rear Window, 1954.

49. Intolerance, 1916.

50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.

51. West Side Story, 1961.

52. Taxi Driver, 1976.

53. The Deer Hunter, 1978.

54. M-A-S-H, 1970.

55. North by Northwest, 1959.

56. Jaws, 1975.

57. Rocky, 1976.

58. The Gold Rush, 1925.

59. Nashville, 1975.

60. Duck Soup, 1933.

61. Sullivan's Travels, 1941.

62. American Graffiti, 1973.

63. Cabaret, 1972.

64. Network, 1976.

65. The African Queen, 1951.

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.

67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966.

68. Unforgiven, 1992.

69. Tootsie, 1982.

70. A Clockwork Orange, 1971.

71. Saving Private Ryan, 1998.

72. The Shawshank Redemption, 1994.

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.

74. The Silence of the Lambs, 1991.

75. In the Heat of the Night, 1967.

76. Forrest Gump, 1994.

77. All the President's Men, 1976.

78. Modern Times, 1936.

79. The Wild Bunch, 1969.

80. The Apartment, 1960.

81. Spartacus, 1960.

82. Sunrise, 1927.

83. Titanic, 1997.

84. Easy Rider, 1969.

85. A Night at the Opera, 1935.

86. Platoon, 1986.

87. 12 Angry Men, 1957.

88. Bringing Up Baby, 1938.

89. The Sixth Sense, 1999.

90. Swing Time, 1936.

91. Sophie's Choice, 1982.

92. Goodfellas, 1990.

93. The French Connection, 1971.

94. Pulp Fiction, 1994.

95. The Last Picture Show, 1971.

96. Do the Right Thing, 1989.

97. Blade Runner, 1982.

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.

99. Toy Story, 1995.

100. Ben-Hur, 1959.

Quick glance, I'd say the 70s.

70's and 80's...don't make them like they used to :)

90's
80's
end

They still make some decent films?

Donnie Darko, The Others, Amelie, Everything Is Illuminated, American Gangster, Pan's Labyrinth, Mr. Nobody.

I use Jinni taste engine all the time, get a lot of great recommendations of movies I never heard of.

70's did wack out some great films... Same with music

most of my favorite films came out in the 40's and 50's

Jesus. either you guys are old or you like the older movies.

:)

I remember a few of those but I was a kid.

80s and 90s were cool

It's like comparing a Cadillac with a Toyota Prius .... 2 era's 2 tastes

I agree with you I would add to the list Alien. Well it was late 70s, and 1982 Blade Runner. :thumbsup

I´d say the 90s...

definitely not the 80s - too much crap like Police Academy 1 to 100 etc

80s and 90s for me :)

80s......

My first thought was about 'Godfather'. So the 70's. Other great movies followed the 70's.

I'm a sucker for 80s movies but the 70s had some of the most interesting movies (like A Clockwork Orange)

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/6...tcwmv5bml5.jpg

Some great 90's movies:

Shawshank Redemption
Reservoir Dogs
The Matrix
Fight Club
Pulp Fiction
Silence of the Lambs
Good Fellas
Jurassic Park
The Big Lebowski
American History X
Groundhog Day
Casino

and many more.....................

there's genius and trash in every decade (this next one has been shit so far).. its too wide a range to make an argument either way..

best year in movies is another story though.. some years are just killer and some crap

Definitely the 70's

Godfather I II
Jaws
American Graffiti
Rocky
Star Wars
Exorcist

too many to name

Al Pacino :)

70's were the golden age of American cinema. The major movie studios made movies that only indie film makers would do today with unknown actors on small budgets - in the 70's you'd have those movies made with the best talent on both sides of the camera.

it all went wrong near the end of the 70's and early 80's - box office was way down, Disney was pretty much bankrupt. A whole new breed of young studio executives and agents came into Hollywood, must more concerned with the bottom line and stock price than the previous generation, who were all more movie lovers than businessmen. The rise of the super agencies like CAA, they had power that the old agents who had been around during the days of contract stars didn't have or want, agencies became more like producers. Movies were now being put together as packages, the one sentence pitch was born it's still used today - when a producer/writer makes a pitch today for a movie if the producer can't describe the movie in one sentence the studios aren't interested. They called them 'high concept' movies. Every thing became about going for the blockbuster summer movie. Which mostly produced total crap. No decade can claim more cinematic crap than the 80's. I was a teenager, I loved most of it, crap but Police Academy, Animal House, and the 100 others like them were
great for teenagers. As bad as the 80's were there were some great films made during them. Same with the 90's and the first decade of this century.

70's all the way.

The 70's, no question.

Jaws

The Exorcist

Apocalypse Now

French Connection

There's a good documentary called A Decade Under the Influence. Check it out if you like that period.

For sheer ratio of hit:miss, I'd have to say the 70's. There was no "straight to DVD/VHS" option, so the shittier ones just didn't see the light of day. Have you seen the Land Before Time 6? No, neither have I.

There's been a lot of great movies since then, but there's been an ocean of crap to wade through, too.

oh yeah, my bad. Al Pacino.

the 60-70-80-90's are all worthy of watching closely.

I like sci fi movies... so the... dunno

I was a huge fantasy fan as a kid. They used to butcher the books and around 2000 they decided to quit doing that so somewhere in the late 90's early 2000 movies got a lot better.

yes i watched this movie, but i'm not a great fan of it.
The 90's were not bad for sci fi movies

i like poo

K never heard of that one, can you link imdb profile so I can have a look at it?

Yep!

I think motion pictures were in the classic era then. However, from the 40s and 50s only the good films survive today -- they ground out lots of grade B product too during that time period.

I just watched Woody Allen in Sleeper from 1973 for the 5th time and Cleopatra from 1963, a big budget era production before a lot of the money went into CGI films.

There are a lot of exceptions to date -- motion pictures that will survive.

50s and 70s

I completely forgot about that... its hard to imagine today, but Disney was going bankrupt and had no good movies for a long period, before Eisner took over. Seems weird to think about now.

asexual theking, What a dummy.

My theory on this is your favorite movies are closely related to the movies that came out during your teenage years. Thats when you go to the movies the most and you become attached to them.

For me it was the 90's

- Shawshank Redemption
- Unforgiven
- Jerry Maguire
- A few good men.
- Jurrasic Park
- Titanic
- Casino
- Pulp Fiction
- Silence of the lambs
- Forrest Gump
- Toy Story and Toy Story 2
- American Beauty
- Usual Suspects
- Saving Private Ryan
- Big Lebowski
- Dazed and Confused
- Sixth Sense
- As good as it gets

Plus tons of comedies like Tommy Boy, Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura, Austin Powers, American Pie, Theres something about Mary, etc.

My brothers who are 8-10 years older love the 80's movies like Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club etc. My Dad speaks fondly about the 60's movies.

* On a side note, this theory also usually holds true for your favorite SNL cast.

I'm going to go for the 2000's, maybe I'm the only one in this thread :)

Some of the reasons why:
City Of God
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Dark Knight
Crash
Avatar
No Country For Old Men
Million Dollar Baby
Sunshine
District 9
Cloverfield
Blood Diamond
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Man On Fire
Lord Of War
The Descent
[Rec]
Martyrs

I grew up in the 70's, graduating in the early 80's, so a lot of my favorites are influenced by that era.

That said, I quite enjoy classic Black and White cinema, from the silent film era through the 30's, 40's and 50's. Everything was hand built, from the sets to the costumes and with a ton of attention to detail. They were limited to the technology of the day which meant no special effects CGI to rely on. Rather, it was pure skill and craftsmanship. I think that's impressive when you look back and realize what they had to work with.

Oh yeah, and they never had to keep re-doing movies or turning cartoons in movies as they had actual original ideas.

Incidentally, my favorite movies of all time are the Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare -- both from the 60's.

70's was the turning point for cinema, but I love the 90's -- especially 1999.

I have favorite movies from all decades, but my favorite would have to be the 70's.

I am a huge horror and love my cult movies, so 70's had most of the best for me.

I'd say it was the nineties:

Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Schindler's List, Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club.

But every decade has some great movies. It's not like music where the 70s were better by far than any other decade.

Haha same here! But i hafto agree, Schindler's List was one great movie.