Best film by decade

Film historians have been bickering for decades over which film is the "best ever." General consensus has swung in the direction of films like Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and most recently, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. I thought I would compose a list of my own, and see what the general thought is on this forum. While it is truly impossible to say what the "best film ever made" is, I feel that I can list the best film by decade.

20's: Metropolis
30's: The Wizard of Oz
40's: Casablanca
50's: The Searchers
60's: Psycho
70's: The Godfather
80's: The Empire Strikes Back
90's: Schindler's List
2000's: The Pianist
2010's: Black Swan

I would argue that the last two decades have the weakest contenders, but that is too up for debate. Of the films I have listed, I would say that I think The Godfather is perhaps the strongest of all them. What's your opinion? What's the best film of each decade?

The last two decades have had quite a few strong entries IMO.
Black Swan was a strong choice;
I'd go with 'Children of Men' for the 2000s,
and American Beauty for the 90's.
Of course, one's impression of a film is so dependent on one's life circumstances at the time it is seen

Sage Pictures said:

The last two decades have had quite a few strong entries IMO.
Black Swan was a strong choice;
I'd go with 'Children of Men' for the 2000s,
and American Beauty for the 90's.
Of course, one's impression of a film is so dependent on one's life circumstances at the time it is seen

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Oh, absolutely. There have been dozens of great films made in the past 14 years, it's just that I think that they best of those decades aren't as good as the ones that precede it.

Children of Men and and American Beauty are both great films. I would say that American Beauty is probably my second favorite of the 90's.

Mine is more of a list of personal favorites, and it is not necessarily representative of what I feel are the most important or definitive of each decade. It was tough to choose though as I love countless films from nearly all of these decades.

1890's: Arrival Of A Train At La Ciotat directed by The Lumiere Brothers
1900's: A Trip To The Moon directed by Georges Melies
1910's: Blind Husbands directed by Erich Von Stroheim (this will definitely change as it is the only 10's feature film I've seen and I wouldn't consider it to be a masterpiece just a very good film)
1920's: The General directed by Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
1930's: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington directed by Frank Capra
1940's: Late Spring directed by Yasujiro Ozu
1950's: Tokyo Story directed by Yasujiro Ozu (with the masters of Japanese cinema in their prime, Hitchcock in his prime, Ford masterpieces, the blooming of Ingmar Bergman, and countless other great filmmakers this is possibly the greatest decade in cinema IMO)
1960's: Cleo From 5 to 7 directed by Agnes Varda
1970's: Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese
1980's: Kiki's Delivery Service directed by Hayao Miyazaki
1990's: Happy Together directed by Wong Kar-Wai
2000's: In The Mood For Love directed by Wong Kar-Wai
2010's: Poetry directed by Lee Chang-dong (this will probably also change as I've seen very few films from this decade, although this film is very good)

I agree with most of your choices, with a few changes. I thought American Beauty was better in the nineties, and I know that I'm going to take some flak for this but in the 2000's, I have to go with The Dark Knight. In the 2010s I'm going to go with Twelve Years a Slave over Black Swan, just on personal preference and the fact that we aren't far enough into this decade to make the best decision.
20's: Metropolis
30's: The Wizard of Oz
40's: Casablanca
50's: The Searchers
60's: Psycho
70's: The Godfather
80's: The Empire Strikes Back
90's: American Beauty
2000's: The Dark Knight
2010's: Twelve Years a Slave

dahwws said:

I agree with most of your choices, with a few changes. I thought American Beauty was better in the nineties, and I know that I'm going to take some flak for this but in the 2000's, I have to go with The Dark Knight. In the 2010s I'm going to go with Twelve Years a Slave over Black Swan, just on personal preference and the fact that we aren't far enough into this decade to make the best decision.
20's: Metropolis
30's: The Wizard of Oz
40's: Casablanca
50's: The Searchers
60's: Psycho
70's: The Godfather
80's: The Empire Strikes Back
90's: American Beauty
2000's: The Dark Knight
2010's: Twelve Years a Slave

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Funny that you mention it, I originally had the Dark Knight listed as well. I feel like because of its mass attention from the general public, it's been neglected amongst some of the more "elitist" circles. I'm still not sure how Slumdog Millionaire won for Best Picture that year.

I have actually not seen 12 Years a Slave yet. It's one that I've been looking to get to but I just haven't yet.

I'm sorry to do this, but I was thinking about it and I have to go back on myself. I have to go with Shawshank Redemption in the 90's.

Forrest Gump is the best movie of the 00's