got to be the 2 best movies of all time. but that is the subject of another thread. If you were going to watch one tonite. which one? and why? (assume you havent seen either in 5 years - so you can’t just say its the last one I have seen)
as a footer - add a movie that is better - if you wish
Got to be Casablanca - I mean, it’s Casablanca!
Faster paced than an early 80’s MTV video without causing a seizure in viewers! More quotable lines than any other movie! Ingrid Bergman (as said by Hitchcock “so beautiful, so stupid”) holds up her end in the acting department!
The iconic piece of American Cinema - stands up with Citizen Kane while still being commercially successful.
As an additional film, I have to nominate The Philadelphia Story - If you have to ask why, you haven’t seen the movie…
Casablanca
Better dialog, better romance, better peripheral characters, better humor.
Plus it’s shorter.
GWTW is a fine movie, but it’s no Casablanca.
Casablanca - not only is it my favorite film, I can watch it straight through without having to get up to pee twice. 
Casablanca, of course.
Gone With the Wind is a chick movie.
Of course it’s Casablanca! I hate Gone With The Wind.
I own Casablanca on DVD, and when it arrived in my home I watched it several times over. My favorite character is Louis Renault, who has all the best lines.
Citizen Kane is a better movie, but that’s no slam to Casablanca. Citizen Kane is the gold standard; no film is better.
Gone With The Wind isn’t fit to hold Casablanca’s coat when it goes to pee.
Casablanca, it’s not my favorite all-time, but it * is * an excellant movie.
Casablanca, hands down.
Gone with the Wind is, the other posters should forgive me, by far the better movie of the two. The use of color (by which I don’t mean simply that it is in color but the way the colors are used) and the grandeur of its visual scope combine to make it far and away the more powerful visual statement.
Simply put, however, good writing will win me over every time. And Casablanca has a story and a screenplay any sane writer would give an organ or two to have written. I remember hearing on NPR once that there is a radio station somewhere that periodically airs Casablanca. Did you read that right? Yes, you did. Now that’s a good screenplay.
Casablanca. No contest. The fact that GWTW, filthy piece of trash that it is (IMnotsoHO), is even mentioned as one of the “best movies of all times” is making my stomach turn.
Uh ohhh… are the boards having the same problems as a few days ago, again? Although my last post is there, the thread didn’t get numped up, and KneadToKnow’s reply is still being listed as the latest one.
Well, of the two I’d say Casablanca, for the reasons stated above. Frankly, I’ve never been able to sit through a complete showing of GWTW.
Another interesting comparison, as there are numerous simlarities, would be Casablanca vs. To Have and Have Not. Casablanca has more weight to the story, I suppose, but THaHN has that Howard Hawks effortlessness and the obvious sparks between Bogey and Bacall.
where’s the “battle royale?”
Casablanca, no question.
As a side note, match up the quotable lines from each film against each other…Casablanca has it all over GWTW.
Yeah, I agree…it’s clearly a lopsided choice.
Now, if you had said Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, I probably would have had to think HARD for about ten seconds before picking The Maltese Falcon.
Ooops, nope. It’s fine now. I guess the boards just sneezed when I posted, or something.
I apologize for the two unrelated posts.
Well consdering Casablanca is the only perfect movie ever made and GWTW, therefore, is not, is there even a debate?
The SDMB server is just having trouble coping with the idea that anyone would post after me. I’ve had such a Touch of Death[sup]TM[/sup] lately, it’s just started automatically assuming that my post to any thread will be the last.
Frankly, my dear, we’ll always have Paris.
Casablanca. It’s less pretentious, much more quotable, and it’s just a cleaner movie. It doesn’t try to compress 10-15 years.
Ukulele Ike:
Think again, Uk’. The Maltese Falcon is a merely good film, and at that it’s very nearly ruined by Mary Astor’s performance. Casablanca is clearly the superior of the two.
What else you got?
Whoa, there, son…Mary Astor’s performance nearly ruins the film?
Her Bridgid O’Shaughnessy is a great Grostesque character, in its way the equal of Caspar Gutman, Joel Cairo, Wilmer Cook, or Sam Spade! That Astor can pull that performance off with the face of, well, Mary Astor, as opposed to the hideous mugs of Greenstreet, Lorre, Elisha Cook, and Bogart, is testament to her acting prowess.
Remember, the character is lying to everyone on about five different levels. If she appears phony at times, it’s either because she IS phony at the moment, or behaving phonily in order to have her audience see therough her to the next layer of phoniness further down.
(Sorry about the hijack.)
Someone has besmirched Maltese Falcon? The poor person must have suffered some terrible head trauma.
I’ll agree that Casbalanca is better than GWTW, and I’ll also second that Maltese Falcon is better than both (my love for the film knowns no bounds). The pacing of MF is pefect and not one of the characters is misplaced or misplayed (even Effie is needed). Mary Astor is dead-on as Miss Wonderly/Bridged O’Shaughnessy. Duplicitous, coniving, and as mean as cat shit (to quote my dear departed grandmother). When she and Joel Cairo are left together in Sam’s apartment you can tell that had not Bogart and Ward Bond come back to help out she’d have stabbed Cairo in the neck and not thought another thing about it.
Wilmer, too, is a great character. “Keep riding me and they’re gonna be pickin’ lead outta your liver.” What terrific writing - and perfect delivery.
A great little trivia question: What’s Sam Spade’s address? Hint: He puts it on the envelope when he mails himself the claim check for “the dingus.”
Another aside - I once introduced myself to someone as Floyd Thursby and kept up the joke all night.
Sorry for the hijack, but somethings are worth hijacking for. Maltese Falcon is one of those things.