Extremely difficult to narrow it down to just one movie. Tough for me to compare a great comedy like "Blazing Saddles" to a classic like "Casablanca". Or something like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to "The Godfather". And more recent incredible movies, like "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", haven't had the chance to age, like good wine. If someone asked me that question and held a gun to my head, I'd probably tell them to go ahead and shoot and put me out of my misery.
However ...
... for the sake of argument, with a very narrow victory over several films e.g. Raiders, I'll go with
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Fantastic story, well made, great acting performances, runs the whole gamut of emotions, memorable quotes and lines, and for those of us that have escaped from a bad situation we shouldn't have been in in the first place ...
exquisite. If you can't relate, you might not agree, but a "favorite movie" question is of course a very personal thing.
Some incredible movies mentioned up there, wow.
I think I gave myself a concussion slapping myself on the head the first time I saw History of the World and Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks was so far ahead of his time and those movies are easily 2 of my favorite comedies. Oh, and now we know one of the hobbies of the incredible don JonnyB.
Esteban, as a confirmed rambling person that quote you mentioned 1.5 months ago is of course one of my favorites:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
Gives me goosebumps just thinking about that scene.
Tinglin'Man
p.s. kudos to Black Dahlia for Donnie Darko, and to Juliegirl for both Citizen Kane and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Cen-sored.