When I think about great movies, the main criteria they have to follow is
Without the conventions of nostalgia, personal taste or any of that, I think objectively the movie that fills all these boxes the best is Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975)
@SceneItReviews I would judge my greatest film on the following:
Based on this, I would declare 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) the greatest.
I haven't seen enough movies to decide this AT ALL. Plus I tend to lean towards the emotional side of things, and i know this is probably the strangest pick ever, but it is currently my favorite movie: Short Term 12. Extraordinary performances, a heart wrenching look into his characters lives, and it really made me think for several hours afterward (mind you, I was crying rather hard.) films really depend on the viewer, and what strikes equally the most familiar and powerful chord inside them, and I really adore this movie, although I know it's not very conventional. Again, I haven't seen enough fantastic movies to really nail down what i think is the greatest movie ever, but @SceneItReviews picked Jaws, so, it's whatever appeals to the viewer the most.
@buffed_film_buff You do have a point with saying you've not seen enough. I'm quite embarassed to admit some of the films I've not seen and should probably come back and decide properly after watching them.
As of right now, I usually say that my all time favorite is either Network or There Will Be Blood.
However, I am trying to go deeper with this for myself because I noticed so many of my picks were skewing to the 21st century because that is where the majority of my viewing has been. So, going one year at a time, I'm marching backward to try and fill in some of my cinematic blindspots and decide what my favorite film from that year is. My goal is to go back as far as I can and create a Bracket of all the winners then pit them against one another tournament style. I'm calling it my Best Movie Bracket.
The seeding process is going to take forever because I'm doing like a year a month when I'm active and when work gets busy I have to stop, but I've gone from 2017 - 1995 and I'm working on my best of 2018 and 1994 now. You can see my progress at lifeatthemovies.com.
