1903: The Great Train Robbery

I guess you ought to have seen it once. In the end, someone shoots at the screen. (5)

1965: Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More)

Once you got over the concept of manliness that is promoted in the second installment of Leone's trilogy about the overly talkative bounty hunter and are ready to enjoy it for what it is (an exercise you're already familiar with, having seen the first one), you'll realize it's not very entertaining. (5.5)

1956: The Searchers

Two men go to search for a woman abducted by Indians, shooting quite a few of them, as well as a few Nonindians, in the process. I'm not someone who thinks all people must share his taste, but even leaving aside all moral issues (discussed by Roger Ebert with a lot of sympathy for Ford, Wayne and the film), it is still a bit of a mystery why this movie should be considered one of the very great works of cinema. Ebert mentions some shots he finds beautiful, making the film sound like an American Lawrence of Arabia, but I don't see it. The Searchers is unusually good in no department and generally seems to be aimed not so much at children, but at simpletons. (That's 5 points on purely aesthetic grounds.)

1964: Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars)

From the first minute, the unnamed Clint Eastwood character in Sergio Leone's first famous film is presented as supercool - cool meaning that you don't blink an eye while you're shooting people. I don't mean to critique this on moral grounds or offer a general discussion of gender roles: I find this kind of thing a bad choice on aesthetic grounds. (I think it's uncool to try to appeal to twelve-year-old boys of any age's idea of coolness.)

Once I got over this, however (which took about twenty minutes), I started to really enjoy this film which moves slowly and presents a series of excellent visuals - Wikipedia likens Leone's close-ups to Renaissance paintings, and they have a point. Shame these scenes have been parodied to death. (7)