ha! I'm already disagreeing with movies already mentioned!
I think it might help to narrow down what "all time great" means: so is this by genre? In which case I suspect most people would put "Blade Runner" on that list over and over again.
"Wizard of Oz" has to be on an all-time great list. I just watched some of that movie again when it was on tv for the holidays and what a crazy weird movie that is when it comes right down to it - and man how successful.
"Memento" would make my personal list, but I doubt seriously that a whole lot of people would agree with me.
Woody Allen movies except for "Hannah and Her Sisters" do nothing for me, but I recognize that at least one of his movies belongs on the list.
I'd say
Psycho
probably most of Hitchcock's movies would be the one on the list, but maybe
Vertigo
, too.
King Kong
, probably.
Huh. That's a good question. When I look over my list of movies that I liked well enough to want to own someday, the only ones that I think other people
might
(or ought to) think belong among the all-time greats are
Dr. Strangelove,
Gosford Park,
and
The Milagro Beanfield War.
looking at my dvd shelves...
Young Frankenstein
West Side Story
Singin' in the Rain
Easter Parade
The Wizard of Oz
The Great Escape
Amadeus
The Shawshank Redemption
Aliens
M
Dumbo
Mary Poppins
OH MY GOD NOBODY HAS MENTIONED THE PRINCESS BRIDE YET EITHER.
Seriously, people!
Also
The Muppet Movie
Oh, and I know they're not old enough to earn classic status yet, but I have to put The Lord of the Rings on there.
"Memento" would make my personal list, but I doubt seriously that a whole lot of people would agree with me.
I would.
And I'd totally put Amadeus on that list as well.
And Princess Bride
Also, American in Paris.
Blu-Ray players are awesome, and The Dark Knight really is unstoppingly bleak. And good.
Probably not on the "all time greats" list, but possibly only out of prejudice against the genre? I don't know, I can't decide.
I'd put Breakfast at Tiffany's on there.
ETA: And The Little Mermaid.
I watched TDK again over the holidays, and I just couldn't get into it this time. For every brilliant little moment, there's a clunky overwritten scene where 2 characters rehash their thematic mission statements and stop the movie dead in its tracks. I wanted to go at the script with a machete.
The Shawshank Redemption
The one movie my daughter and I can agree on.