(Credits: Far Out / YouTube)
Sat 23 August 2025 14:15, UK
Unless there’s one undefeatable film that will never be dislodged from the top spot, asking someone to name their single favourite movie of all time is one of life’s most difficult questions. Fortunately, Bill Hader didn’t need a gun held to his head to make a decision, even if he thought he might.
It’s like when someone asks you to think of a song, and suddenly, you can’t think of a single track. Pressing someone to pick their favourite feature from everything they’ve ever seen has a similar effect, because suddenly the title of every motion picture in history instantly escapes from memory.
That’s probably not a problem for someone like Hader, who, in the nicest possible way, is a huge nerd. He may have built his reputation on chaotic comedy and eerily accurate impressions before spending the formative years of his big-screen career hamming it up for the cheap seats, but he’s fast approaching Martin Scorsese-esque levels of cinephilia.
He’d scoff at the notion, but anyone who knows anything about Hader is aware his taste in cinema runs deep. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why he’d find himself plunged into a state of existential panic when one of the most mundane and innocuous questions posed to those involved in the industry was thrown his way.
Hader loves everything from the arthouse and avant-garde to blockbusters and the broadest possible comedic capers, but as Highlander famously said, there can be only one. As you’d expect from a self-confessed movie geek, the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg on The BFG, one of the legendary director’s rare box office bombs, was something he couldn’t resist.
“Jaws is my favourite movie,” he boldly proclaimed to Slash Film. “If you put a gun to my head, ‘What’s your favourite movie?’ I’d say Jaws. So I told him that, and he just, he literally patiently sat there while I asked him. I go, ‘The guy who goes, ‘Oh what?’ Who’s that guy?’ And he goes, ‘That guy, his name is blah, blah, blah.’ I mean, I would walk away from every conversation just floating on movie geek air.”
Hader watches Jaws at least once a year, so it was always in the running for top spot. It’s arguably still the best thing Spielberg has ever made, although mileage may vary on that when he’s spent the last 50 years knocking out classic after classic after classic, but it definitely is, as far as the Saturday Night Live veteran can see.
Does he love the movie that scared an entire generation out of the water as much as Emily Blunt, though? It’s debatable when she’s spent the better part of two decades not only telling anyone who’ll listen that Jaws is the single greatest film ever made, but explaining exactly why she’s so confident in being right.
It’s definitely up there, and even today, the combination of memorable characters, iconic dialogue, John Williams’ seminal score, and Spielberg’s mastery of building dread and staging set pieces makes it as rewatchable today as it was in 1975 when it swam into cinemas and completely changed everything.
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