Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Sergio Leone.

In many scenes like this one, set in a Chinese laundry, the camera lingers over an almost dizzying amount of visual detail.

Did Leone really have Jack Elam blow a fly off his face for an entire minute and a half? I think I read Elam poked his eye out with a pencil when he was kid, but I might be wrong about that.

The dubbing of actors' voices is jarring (like in A Fistful of Dollars etc., many of the Italian actors are dubbed here). Or maybe it was just odd. Odd like dressing up a bunch of Italians to look like Irish homesteaders and filming them in the Spanish desert.

I went out and got this one only to see Henry Fonda as a complete badass, and sure enough he's a real soulless piece of beef jerky. An interesting one, but moves at a glacial pace.

Understanding Movies (1999), Louis Giannetti.

Great little survey course textbook on reading film. Makes up for the fact that I was too Protestant to take Film 101 in university. I particularly enjoyed the section where he references himself in the third person, as in "Most college textbooks, such as Gerald Mast's A History of Narrative in Film, and Louis Giannetti [at this point I had to look at the cover to re-check who was writing] attempt to integrate as much as possible from technological, economic, and social film histories, but their main emphasis is on film as art." I always thought a good drinking game would be to take a shot whenever an academic author cites himself.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I picked this one up when I heard Roger Ebert recommended it as a classic. I have a few bones to pick with popular pro film critics. I will up front say I love the guy for loving movies and unashamedly admitting his fanboy attitude. However, I think the guy's given too many thumbs up to total crap in recent years and this in my mind raises the question as to the role of film criticism - is he part of the PR machine, or actually providing insightful observations about film? Well, without slamming the guy when he's down (I know he's been ill recently), I'll just say thanks for the great book recommendation.

Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ernest Lubitsch.

A little dessert of a movie. Everyone is sinful and everyone gets off scot free.