I've thought long and hard, and have picked the 1950's. Ofcourse i picked the decade which had the most movies that i like. I had two very strong contending decades but picked the 50's for the majority of my favorite movies in that time period. Seven Samurai, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Bridge on the River Kwai, The African Queen, Ben-Hur, Julius Caesar, Forbidden Planet, The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood just to name a few. The close contending decades for me to this decade had just under the quantity of my favorite 50's movies.

The 30s, then the 60s, then the 50s and the 90s.

80's baby!

The 1970's.....a time when films actually had balls.

Exactly.

-Scorsese
-Coppola
-Bogdanovitch
-Spielberg
-Lucas
-De Palma
-Friedkin

Just great directors who emerged from the 70's.

Hmmm as much as I loved the classics... I started to go to the cinema on the 90s... so that's my pick.

for me 1960's-bookend with Antonioni's L'Avventura and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Closely followed by the 1970's.

Close between the 90's and 80's... went with the 90's

My fave is the '90s, but I think the best is the '70s.

80's by FAR, followed by the 70's.

1970s. Why? Everything from studio film like Godfather and Star Wars to independents like Taxi Driver and Halloween, everythin was doing it right.

No decade in the history of cinema touches the 70s IMO. Exploitation cinema at it's finest.

1950's

1980's is when all this excellent Golan-Globus films were made.

90's

The 70's! It was MY time!!!!

One vote for the 1940s... the decade of Preston Sturges' greatest work!

70's!!!!!!

Voted 1950s. Followed by 1970s and 80s.

Favorite is 90's, but like a lot of us said in the favorite/best actor thread, favorite does not mean "best" for a lot of us.

Time threads are almost always going to be skewed by recency error, too.

70's, the most director-driven decade.

90's.

-Leon: The Professional
-American Beauty
-Jurassic Park
-Dead Man
-Safe
-Miller's Crossing
-Eyes Wide Shut
-Fargo
-Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas
-Fight Club
-Glengarry Glen Ross
-Goodfellas
-The Shawshank Redemption
-Pulp Fiction
-True Romance
-Happy Gilmore
-Heat
-Jackie Brown
-LA Confidential
-The Limey
-Out Of Sight
-Swingers
-Magnolia
-Clerks
-Boogie Nights
-Men In Black
-The Matrix
-Quiz Show
-The Big Lebowski
-The Thin Red Line
-Run Lola Run
-Schindler's List
-Seven
-Silence of the Lambs
-Three Colours Trilogy
-Three Kings
-Unforgiven

37 Reasons why the 90's Rocked!!

-Taxi Driver
-Apocalypse Now
-Mean Streets
-The Exorcist
-Jaws
-The Godfather

6 Reasons why the 70's will win this Poll.

While I agree, that the 70's had GREAT movies while the 90's only had really good movies, the 90's should win because there were more of them. Personally, I would rank the them 90's, 50's, then 70's.

and the 70's was when mainstream and underground film's really got more adult (for better or for worse). In content and audacity:

A Clockwork Orange
Last Tango in Paris
Pink Flamingos
El Topo
In the Realm of the Senses
The Devils
Midnight Cowboy
Emmanuelle

(just to name a few that immediately spring to mind)

The late 70's and early eighties was the definate heyday of exploitation/horror films - from the slasher pics, Euro-Sleaze to the just plain bizarre.

Argento's films: Suspiria, Deep Red, Tenebrae
Last House on the Left
I Spit on Your Grave
Ilsa Trilogy
Pasolini's "Salo"
Caligula
Liquid Sky
Repo Man
Brazil

so... short answer: the 70's and 80's