What is the best movie you ever saw?

The History Boys     

What's the "best" food you've ever eaten? What's the "best" place you've ever been? What's the "best" piece of music you've ever heard? What's the "best" piece of artwork you've ever seen?

There's black comedy, historical fiction, horror, fantasy, comic adaptions, superhero movies, mystery, romance, satire, science fiction, thrillers, and many, many more when it comes to the different types of movies out there. How might one go about comparing something like "The Shawshanks Redemption" to "Dr Strangelove" or "Gone with the Wind" to "Star Wars"?

Pulp Fiction is cool, but let's face it, but wasn't in the same league as 12 Angry Men. Does that mean that 12 Angry Men was "better" - because its meaning was superior? Does that mean that Schindler's List ought to be considered to be "better" than High Noon and that The Godfather must be "better" than The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ?

How could anybody go about beginning to draw up the criteria for how to weigh The Good, the Bad and the Ugly  against Star Wars or the Wizard of Oz against Casablanca?

The Bridge on the River Kwai was one of my favorite movies in my childhood and teenager, but it would be ridiculous to claim that it's the "best" movie I've ever watched. What about The Magnificient Seven? Gladiator or The Lives of the Others?

all very exciting movies.

Some like it hot, Trading places and Dr Strangelove are hilarious.

On the Waterfront had great performances.

How could you choose just one from all of those movies and say "This one is the best"?

You can't. Nobody can.

There is no "best" and there never can be. Not definitively anyway.    

Casablanca is my favorite.

"The Wizard of Oz" (1939)

2nd; "Treasure of the Siera Madre"(1948)

probably gladiator was really good.

Airplane.  It's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.  They got a bunch of dramatic actors, and put them in a comedy, and all of them, with the exception of Stephen Stucker, are playing it completely straight.  Stucker is the comic relief, strange thing to have in a comedy.  

The Wizard of Oz

definitely "fun sized"

One of the best movies I ever seen is POWDER.  A strong emotional movie 

Perfume the murder of Angle