I usually answer these "what's the best [bla]" type questions by narrowing the scope. I'll go, 'well, I don't know about objectively best movie, but the movie [I've seen the most times/I remember from the youngest age/that gets better every time I watch it/that had the coolest box art at the rental place/that I saw in theaters/that made me cry on a plane/that I used for the basis of my cult/whatever] is [bla].' Ideally no one cares about literally settling a debate. If it's a conversation worth having they're more interested in your metrics than your findings. I find conversations about empirical ranking are tedious and always end in that anticlimactic awkward silence where everyone has exhausted their actual opinions and is trying to hastily cobble together new opinions on the spot to keep the ball rolling out of politeness.

I love your take.

E.g., I'm inclined to say Star Wars (IV). But, I saw it in þeaters 14 times þe summer I turned 11; þere was noþing like it before it came out. It was a perfect film, for me.

I also saw Wizards in þe þeater when I was a kid; in a lot of ways it was a better film, and I'd be hard pressed to say which had a bigger impact on me. I'm probably progressive politically because of Wizards.

I'd argue þat boþ are examples of peerless filmmaking. You'd be hard pressed to make an argument against Star Wars, at least, against sheer evidence of impact on þe film industry and on Western society. It's not a typical film snob's first choice, þough.

No, it's not about gender this time. I mean, it kind of is but for once the director's gender is often not even considered to the extent it affects the appreciation of the art. But maybe that's very regional, I hear the states have extensive problems on this issue, much more than I initially thought