A quick look at 1971 makes a strong case for that decade:

A Clockwork Orange
The French Connection
The Last Picture Show
Bananas
Carnal Knowledge
The Go-Between
Harold and Maude
Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss song
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Mon Oncle Antoine
Straw Dogs
Trafic
Vanishing Point
Walkabout
(and not to mention, the original Willy Wonka)

MAN, this is a tough one.

When talking the Best Decade for American filmmaking, it's always tempting to go with the 1970s. But I never know how much of that is because it truly was the best era and how much of it is because it was the decade that has had the most personal impact on me and how I watch movies.

Most of my favorite directors came out of that '70s generation, but overall, it's hard to say that any decade can really top the 1940s as far as the sheer number of classic films goes.

One of my favorite '40s movies is ''The Maltese Falcon'', so let's take a look at just the year in which it was made, 1941. All of the following were released theatrically:

''The Maltese Falcon''
''Citizen Kane''
''Sullivan's Travels''
''Suspicion''
''Here Comes Mr. Jordan''
''Blood and Sand''
''Dumbo''
''49th Parallel'' (technically a British film but released stateside)
''The Lady Eve''
''I Wake Up Screaming''
The original Universal classic ''The Wolf Man''

WOW. That was 1 year I picked out essentially at random. And those are not all just good films but CLASSICS. Like I said, hard to top.

As far as World Cinema goes, I'd say the '60s is probably a safe bet. ''Hands Over the City'', ''Army of Shadows'', ''Fists in the Pocket'', ''L'Avventura''. Although there, the '70s were fairly stellar as well. Who can decide?

Take Hollywood's darker edge in the 1940's and mash it together with the foreign films of the 1960's... now that would be one hell of a decade.

Since I can only pick one, the 1940's.

the 70s! It reminds me of the Pink Panther! Here is a little taste of it! The remake of it with Steve Martin SUCKED!

Man oh man, to choose just one decade? Like so many people,
I’m quite fond of the 40s for the emergence of American film noir and the
Golden Age of Animation, not to mention many technological development in film.

The 60s probably takes it for European cinema, especially for my personal favorite French New Wave – and the development of film criticism as a discipline.

The 70s is near and dear to my heart because of the New Hollywood and the directors already mentioned and others: Coppola, Scorcese, Penn, Allen, Altman, Polanski, De Palma, Lucas, Spielberg. (Even if it does begin earlier.) And I’d add blaxploitation to that list, with classics like Shaft and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Long live Park and Van Peebles.

Of course, the 1920s deserves a shout-out for German Expressionism, Eistenstein, social realism and Soviet montage, the Hollywood studio system, and the development of the documentary.

As does the 1980s, with the emergence of film festivals, independent and avante-garde cinema marketed to the general public. (Let’s not give credit only to Tarantino the relative latecomer, but nods to David Lynch, Spike Lee, the Coen Brothers, Steven Soderbergh, and John Sayles.)

Okay, so I’m avoiding picking a decade. For argument’s sake, I’ll give a little love to the film of the 1950s for these reasons:

• The long-overdue nails in the coffin of the Hays Production Code (starting in 1951,
  onwards);
  
• The emergence of new demographics for films, notable teens (ah, drive-in culture);
  
• The (continued) heyday of the American musical, British
  noir, B science fiction, epic films;
  
• Some of the great Westerns;
  
• Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, John Ford, John Huston, Yasujiro Ozu, and Akira Kurosawa;
  
• Post-war cinema in all its forms and across nation (including some really fine work coming out of Japan);
  
• The tensions between middle-class mores and an emergent sexuality reflecting the emergence of teen culture and the feminist movement, among other things; and
  
• The decline of the studio system and the early emergence of independent directors (like Hitchcock) and stars (Jimmy Stewart, Marilyn Monroe).

And the films:

• All About Eve (1950)
  
• Cinderella (1950)
  
• Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  
• High Noon (1950)
  
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
  
• Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
  
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
  
• The Big Heat (1953)
  
• From Here to Eternity (1953)
  
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
  
• Gorjira – King of the Monsters (1954) (Godzilla)
  
• Shane (1953)
  
• Tokyo Story (1953)
  
• War of the Worlds (1953)
  
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
  
• A Star is Born (1954)
  
• Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
  
• White Christmas (1954)
  
• The Wild One (1954)
  
• Rear Window (1954)
  
• The Seven Samuri (1954)
  
• The Night of the Hunter (1955)
  
• The Seven-Year Itch (1955)
  
• Forbidden Planet (1956)
  
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
  
• The Searchers (1956)
  
• The Ten Commandments (1956)
  
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  
• Throne of Blood (1957)
  
• The Blob (1958)
  
• South Pacific (1958)
  
• Vertigo (1958)
  
• Ben Hur (1959)
  
• North by Northwest
  
• Some Like it Hot (1959)
  
• Touch of Evil (1959)