terence young's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963)

francis ford coppola's THE GODFATHER (1972)

billy wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

stuart rosenberg's COOL HAND LUKE (1967)

quentin tarantino's PULP FICTION (1994)

francois truffaut's JULES AND JIM (1962)

akira kurosawa's RASHOMON (1950)

sergio leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)

Leone is one of the embarrassing gaps in my film knowledge, but i've seen the light that is Once Upon The Time In The West, and i'm ready to devour the rest. i don't know if i'm unequal to the task of writing on it or just too lazy to embark on what would take pages to describe, but the short version is that West is grand and brilliant in a way that few films are, and lacks not one bit of the confidence inherent in those qualities. it's been a long time since a film shoehorned itself into a shortlist of my all-time favorites, but Once Upon A Time In The West just strolled in like it owned the place.

robert wise's THE HAUNTING (1963)

it's all too true that they don't make 'em like they used to, just as it's true that Robert Wise managed to make this one like they wouldn't for years to come. The Haunting drags a little towards the beginning, sure, and could use more showing and less telling where Eleanor is concerned, but there's no denying the film's creepy power over the audience, just as there's no underestimating the presence of mind in Wise's craft; though the genre today scrapes by on a much lower brow, horror's hacks and heroes are all still taking cues from The Haunting's accomplishments.