Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)

Directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda.

And so we reach the final five. I could go into (a little bit of) detail about how Leone simultaneously anticipates the "demythologized" Westerns of the 1970s and beyond and blows them all out of the water, but to do so would be pigeonholing the film's achievement. This film isn't just the greatest Western of all time- it's one of the all-time great experiences one can have in a movie theatre. Leone's command of iconography is second to none, and his juxtaposition of pore-baring closeups and expansive landscapes is justifiably legendary. Many have called this film"operatic," and for good reason; this is an epic story told on a grand scale, with wonderfully archetypal characters who linger on and on in the mind. Much credit is due to the great Ennio Morricone, whose score defines the film's characters by their respective musical themes (love the way Henry Fonda's acid-guitar theme and Charles Bronson's guitar noodling mesh, suggesting their shared fate). One of the greatest pleasures for a filmgoer is finding a timeless scene- a "Moment Out of Time," as it were. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is so assured and startling that it contains one Moment Out of Time after another, adding up to a peerless entertainment- tense, moving, funny, artful, exciting as all hell, and above all the very cinematic definition of "iconic."