What decade do you think had the best movies?

[lemec]

If I had to choose, I would choose the 1970's for the following movies.


The Man Who Would Be King (One of my favourites, aside from it being Kipling, John Huston made it a film of high adventure!)

A Bridge Too Far

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Molly Meguires

Soylent Green

Logun's Run

The Omega Man (as previously mentoned)

and that is not getting into the big blockbusters, Jaws,Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture,Close Encounters of the Third Kind.



There just seems to be tons of great movies from the 1970's. Alot of great science fiction and there were many other good war movies made during that period as well.

[DeeCrowSeer]

Sadly there's no options for the fence-sitters like myself, who wouldn't be able to pick any one decade... the majority of my favourites films are 1990-modern, but I can't discount the b/w classics! It's too hard!! In theory, with the level of technology that directors now have access to, and the relative "sophistication" of the audience, this should be the greatest of all decades for cinema... but it ain't necessarily so.

Sorry. :(

[Pietro_Mercurios]

For British pictures, the 1960's:

Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb
Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment
2001: A Space Odyssey
Quatermass and the Pit
A Hard Day's Night
The IPCRESS File
Performance
The Knack
Goldfinger
Oliver!
Dr No
Otley
Alfie
If

All just oozing 'cool' and hipness (even Oliver!). And, there's more! :)

[Mikey_C]

Had to put in a vote for Nosferatu...

[Theocrat]

Had to put in a vote for Nosferatu...

His shadow scared me when I 'first' saw it. But when I saw the whole movie I laughed my ass off When Vlad Dracul carried around his coffin in the streets of London.

[Typhoid_Mary]

But when I saw the whole movie I laughed my ass off When Vlad Dracul carried around his coffin in the streets of London.

I hate to be picky, but it was Bremen.

[lemec]

Looks like I should have worded that differently. I am sorry about that.

The Ipcress File,that was super-cool , I have not thought of it in awhile.

The sixties did have great movies too.

My favourite James Bond film is Thunderball, but I of course enjoyed them all. Diamonds Are Forever made it to the 70's category since it came out in 1971.

It really seems like the movies I enjoy the best came out from about 1965 to 1982. Those that have an old time feel to them. The Crow in 1994 was the best of the 90's for me.

[Grey Mouser]

I'm with you lemec on the 70's. Just re-watched Josey Wales last night.

Josey Wales: When I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.
Lone Watie: I notice when you get to DISlikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.

Don't forget Enter the Dragon (1973).

[lemec]

Haha, thanks,I love that quote! (Josey Wales)

After I wrote that post, I looked on the internet movie data base and it said there was a Return of Josey Wales in 1986. I never knew that was made. There were no original cast members in it though.

I watched Enter the Dragon many times as well. The rewind and slow motion came in handy when trying to watch Bruce Lee's movements.

High Plains Drifter was another good one. A nice revenge story. A strange
movie for a Western.

I never did get to see the original Nosferatu movie. I will see it someday.
Did you ever see Shadow of the Vampire? I think Willem Dafoe played the vampire in that one. It looked like scenes that I did see of Nosferatu.
That was another strange one.

[Typhoid_Mary]

I never did get to see the original Nosferatu movie. I will see it someday.

Werner Herzog's remake is also worth seeing.

[David Mosley]

Picking a decade as the 'greatest' or the 'best' for movies is notoriously difficult. Each decade of the past 80-90 years has its own good points (and embarrassments).

Pre-1920s: The Great Train Robbery, DW Griffiths (Intolerance, Birth of a Nation)

1920s: Fritz Lang (Dr Mabuse, Metropolis, Die Nibelungen), Cabinet of Dr Caligari, GW Pabst (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl), Able Gance (Napoleon <- surely one of the greatest films of all time), The Golem, Wings, The General, FW Murnau (Sunrise, Faust, Nosferatu), Alfred Hitchcock (The Lodger, Blackmail), Charles Chaplin (The Gold Rush)

1930s: Michael Curtiz (Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood) , Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Hitchcock (The 39 Steps, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Secret Agent, Sabotage, The Lady Vanishes), Michael Powell (The Edge of the World, The Spy in Black), The Public Enemy, Chaplin (City Lights, Modern Times), Lang (M, Das Testament des Dr Mabuse, Fury), Frankenstein, Dracula, Freaks, John Ford (Stagecoach), Jean Renoir (La Bete Humaine, La Rأ¨gle du Jeu), Leni Reifenstahl (Triumph of the Will, Olympia 1, Olympia 2), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

1940s: Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth), The Third Man, Powell/Pressburger (The Thief of Bagdad, 49th Parallel, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The Small Back Room), David Lean (In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations), Hitchcock (Rebecca, Suspicion, Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Notorious, Rope), Casablanca, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday, To Have and Have Not, Red River), The Big Sleep, White Heat, Ford (Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon), Rome Open City, Brighton Rock, Hue and Cry, Whisky Galore!, Passport to Pimlico, Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, Henry V), The Bicycle Thief

1950s: Hitchcock (Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest), Kurasawa (Rashأ´mon, The Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress), Powell/Pressburger (Gone to Earth, Tales of Hoffman), Welles (Othello, Mr Arkadin, Touch of Evil), Lean (The Sound Barrier, Bridge on the River Kwai), Ford (Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Searchers), Hawks (Thing From Another World, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Rio Bravo), Rossellini (Stromboli, Voyage to Italy), Fellini (La Strada), Ingmar Bergman (Summer Interlude, Summer with Monika, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries), Olivier (Richard III), Kurbrick (Killer’s Kiss, The Killers, Paths of Glory), Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), 12 Angry Men

1960s: Welles (Chimes at Midnight), Hitchcock (Psycho, The Birds, Marnie), Powell (Peeping Tom), Kurosawa (Yojimbo, Sanjuro), Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago), Bergman (The Virgin Spring, The Silence, Persona), Kurbrick (Spartacus, Dr Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey), Jean-Luc Godard (A Bout de Souffle, Alphaville, Weekend, Le Mepris), Francois Trauffaut (400 Blows, Jules et Jim), Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West), Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8آ½, Satriycon), Sam Peckinpah (Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch), The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Where Eagles Dare, The Longest Day, Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Andrei Tarkovsky (Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev), West Side Story, The Graduate, Siegel (The Killers, Coogan’s Bluff), Roman Polanski (Knife in Water, Cul de Sac, Repulsion, Fearless Vampire Hunters, Rosemary’s Baby), Planet of the Apes

1970s: Kubrick (Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon), Bergman (Cries and Whispers) Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver), Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now), Welles (The Other Side of the Wind, F For Fake), John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween), Tarkovsky (Solaris, Stalker, Mirror), Peckinpah (Straw Dogs, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Cross of Iron), George Lucas (THX-1138, American Graffiti), Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Dario Argento (Bird with Glass Feathers, Cat o’ Nine Tails, Deep Red, Suspiria), Fellini (Amarcord, Casanova), The Deer Hunter, Siegel (Dirty Harry, The Shootist, Escape from Alcatraz) Clint Eastwood (Play �Misty’ For Me, High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales), David Cronenberg (Shivers, Rabid, The Brood), William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist), Polanski (Macbeth, Chinatown, The Tenant), Ridley Scott (The Duellists, Alien), Nic Roeg (Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth), Rollerball

1980s Leone (Once Upon a Time in America), Kubrick (The Shining, Full Metal Jacket), Scorsese (Raging Bull) Carpenter (The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, They Live), Tarkovsky (Nostalgia, The Silence), Oliver Stone (Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street), Brian de Palma (Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables), Cronenberg (Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly, Dead Ringers), The Name of the Rose, Coppola (Rumble Fish, The Outsiders), Kurosawa (Kagemusha, Ran), Peter Greenaway (The Draughtman’s Contract, A Zed and Two Noughts, Belly of the Architect, Drowning By Numbers, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Alan Parker (Pink Floyd: The Wall, Angel Heart, Birdy), Friedkin (To Live and Die in LA), Michael Mann (The Keep, Manhunter), Scott (Blade Runner, Black Rain), John McTiernan (Die Hard), Roeg (Bad Timing, Eureka, Insignificance)

1990s: Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino), Stone (JFK, Nixon), de Palma (Carlito’s Way, Mission: Impossible, Snake Eyes), Cronenberg (Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenz), Greenaway (Prospero’s Books), Mann (Last of the Mohicans, Heat), Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Eastwood (Unforgiven), Jerry Bruckheimer (Crimson Tide, The Rock, Con Air), McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard With a Vengeance), Sleepy Hollow, The Matrix

2000s: Tarantino (Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2), Eastwood (Mystic River, Millon Dollar Baby), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings), Equilibrium

Oh I know, I've missed many great movies from that list. In any case, the point is I can't decide which is my favourite decade for movies - I just love them all. :D

[Brainwolf]

Very much a fan of 70's and 80's. Now that I think about it, my favorite childhood movies mostly come from the 70's, and the movies I liked more as a teen were from the 80's. I wish I could go back in time and live in the 70's or 80's, but I am afraid that if I went back in a time machine, all I would find is a white, vacuumus void :P
Is vacuumus a word? I think it should be

[dasNdanger]

I tend to prefer the 1940s. Comedies were funny and charming, film noir was classy, horror was fun and spinetingling, and dramas were poignant. Stuff started getting cheesy and weird in the 50s, and then everything just go too dang gritty and gruesome. The 40s were near perfect.


das

[thingfish]

I'll second that Das,there was an atmosphere to those 40s films that has never really been touched.

[Papi]

Like David, it is only my opinion.

1920s : "Aelita", "Dr Mabuse", "Cabinet of Dr Caligari", "Nosferatu", "The Lodger", "The Jazz singer", "The Gold Rush", "The kid".

1930s : "The 39 Steps", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Sabotage", "The Lady Vanishes", "Drôle de drame", "City Lights", "Modern Times", "Dracula", "Freaks", "La règle du Jeu", "Lagrande illusion", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "King Kong", "Things to Come", "The most dangerous game", "M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mِrder", "Ninotchka".

1940s : "Citizen Kane", "Fantasia", "Lady from Shanghai", "The Third Man", "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", "Suspicion", "Lifeboat", "Spellbound", "Notorious", "Rope", "Casablanca", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "The Big Sleep", "Grapes of Wrath", "Jour de fête", "La beauté du diable", "La belle et la bête", "La main du diable", "The Great Dictator", "Les enfants du paradis", " Roma, città aperta".

1950s : "Strangers on a Train", "Rear Window", "The Trouble With Harry", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Vertigo", "North by Northwest"
"Rashômon", The Seven Samurai", "Othello", "Touch of Evil", "The Quiet Man", "Thing From Another World", "Rio Bravo", "Stromboli", "Voyage to Italy", "Killer's Kiss", "The Killers", "Paths of Glory", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "The African queen", "Them !", "Fanfan la tulipe", "The night of the hunter", "The day the earth stood still", "Le salaire de la peur", "Nuit et brouillard", "Forbidden planet", "Zazie dans le métro".

1960s : "Psycho", "The Birds", "Peeping Tom", "Spartacus", "Dr Strangelove", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Lolita", "A Bout de Souffle", "The Good the Bad and the Ugly", "Once Upon a Time in the West"
"The Wild Bunch", "The Magnificent Seven", "West Side Story", "Fearless vampire hunters", "Rosemary's Baby", "Planet of the Apes", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "Doctor Jerry and Mister Love", "Easy rider", "The hauting", "Night of the living-dead", "The damned", "Z".

1970s : "A clockwork Orange", "Barry Lyndon", "Taxi Driver", "The conversation", " Apocalypse Now", "Assault on Precinct 13", "Halloween", "Stalker", "THX-1138", "Duel", "Jaws", "Close encounters of the Third Kind", "1941", "Suspiria", "The Deer Hunter", "The Outlaw Josey Wales", "The french connection", "The exorcist", "The Duellists", "Alien", "Rollerball", "Buffet froid", "Coup de tête", "Kelly's heroes", "Eraserhead/Labyrinthe man", "A Fistful of Dynamite -- Giù la testa", "Little big man", "M.A.S.H", "Monty Python : Life of Brian", "Monty Python, holy graal !", "Que la fête commence", "Silent running", "The rocky horror picture show", "THX 1138", "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask", "Dawn of the dead".

1980s : "Brazil", "Once Upon a Time in America", "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket", "The Thing", "Platoon", "Videodrome", "The Draughtman's Contract", "Pink Floyd : The Wall", "Angel Heart", "Blade Runner", "Die Hard", "The terminator".

1990s : "Reservoir Dogs", "12 monkeys", "Sleepy Hollow".

2000s : "The Matrix"'s saga.