10 Greatest Film Trilogies Of All Time
9. The Dollars Trilogy
Sergio Leone never intended to make a trilogy with his series of Clint Eastwood-starring westerns, but what is now retroactively known as the Dollars Trilogy is the epitome of the Spaghetti Western sub-genre.
The series began with A Fistful of Dollars, which is essentially a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo - so much so that production company Toho successfully sued Leone. The follow-up For a Few Dollars More delivered more classic Old West action, but the final film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is what gave these movies their legendary status.
Leone's interpretation of the western is ingrained in pop culture. The long and silent Mexican stand-offs, filled with extreme close-ups on eyes (a shot so iconic, it is commonly referred to as "the Leone shot"), is a staple of any childhood game of Cowboys and Indians.
But beyond Leone's direction and Eastwood's portrayal of the Man with No Name, it is Ennio Morricone's music for the films that sticks most firmly in the collective conscience. The main theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, along with the final showdown music The Ecstasy of Gold, are among the greatest pieces of music ever composed for cinema, and those tunes are now synonymous with the very concept of the Wild West itself.