After hearing so many great things about this movie, I decided to watch it. It's definitely a great movie, but I feel that there's a lot of nostalgia factor involved with all the praise heaped up on it by critics and older people in general. I don't think it has aged too well personally, although I still think it's one of the best movies to come out of that age.So in your opinion, what do you think is the movie that our generation will look at 40-50 years from now and hold it above all the rest? I would have to go with two: Crash for its incredible story-telling ability, and Jurrasic Park for showing how important and life-like special effect can be in a movie. I know I'll probably remember something like Fight Club or Donnie Darko more fondly, but as set-pieces of this period, I'd have to go with the first two.

I think its really hard to pick just ONE movie thats the greatest of our generations. Plus everyone has a different opinion. I do think that there are a few movies I will remember in 25 years or so. CRASH - The story is just incredible. FIGHT CLUB - You know you will be remembering this. This list could obviously go on forever, but some of the most memorable to me were: Alpha Dog, Harsh Times, Saw, Lucky Number Slevin, Pulp Fiction, Reservior Dogs, Scarface, The Boondock Saints, The Shawshank Redemption, United 93, 300. I think that in 25 years those are the movies that I will still be able to watch a million times. Some of those movies have already been around for 15 years, and they are just as good now as then.

maybe pulp fiction, kill bill, sin city, fight club or trainspotting...

I agree with dangerpatrick that it's hard to say if there is ONE movie that will be on par with Citizen Kane in the future. I'd say that Back to the Future would be good example of a movie from our generation that has held up well. I've even been told by friends in film school that they study it for an example of excellent script writing as there is no "wasted" lines.

I don't think Kane gets so much acclaim because of nostalgia but because it is a great story that told very well. It also did a lot for the movie industry.

Every movie listed in this thread has used something that Kane started or perfected upon. Citizen Kane brought with it some very innovative cinematography that changed that way movies are made even today.

That's not to say that there isn't a movie out there that will do what Citizen Kane did. It's all a matter of time.

I'm not disagreeing that Citizen Kane was a monumental moment in movie history, I'm just getting a bit litteral with the term "was". If another movie had accomplished what Citizen Kane did at that time, and Citizen Kane came out today instead of those many years ago, would we still think it's the greatest movie ever?

It's getting harder and harder to make as big a splash in movie history as Citizen Kane did, that's why I went with merits alone instead of what movie I personally like. Depending on how far you can stretch "generation", I would add Jaws to my list because it created the summer blockbuster.