I have a great love for old films (60s latest), especially Westerns, Samurai & Film-Noir... Does anyone else have this passion?

My respective favourites of the different genres: Once Upon A Time In The West, Seven Samurai, Le Samourai (is not a samurai film).[/img]

Once Upon a Time in the West is an absolute classic - up there with the greats such A Fistful of Dollars and Clint's other early stuff.

The oldest films I've seen and loved were The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon - Humphrey Bogart at his best.

Love all the old westerns, especially the Sergio Leone films. And I also love the old samurai films with Sonny Chiba and Toshiro Mifune.

Recently got into the Chambara style of films like Lady Snowblood and Baby Cart (Over the top but without them there would be no Tarantino and Star Wars wouldn't have been made without Kurosawa.)

Well I wouldn't have gone that far. Star Wars & The Hidden Fortress are only superficially similar. They got a similar plot, they use similar cinematic styles/wipes etc. and such, but you can watch both and not realise they were related in some way.

The one thing that George Lucas did take straight from The Hidden Fortress, was the story being told from the POV of two minor characters; the droids in SW, and the two peasant deserters in THF.

Lucas has said it himself, many times that without the inspiration he got from Kurosawa that he wouldn't have thought up Star Wars. Kurosawa films have never had much of an impact on me and to be honest I wish someone would point out to me what exactly is so great about them

The director of these movies was Sergio Leone and I really love his work. The way soundtracks are used in his movies is amazing (The Good, the bad and the ugly especially has several scenes where the music emphasizes so much) and the epic, panning shots of the old West are awe-inspiring. Interestingly, Quentin Tarrentino used Leone's famous music composer Ennio Morricone to score Kill Bill Vol. 2. It's a sad fact that Leone directed only 7 movies.

Anyway, I'm not big into old movies but I'm more than willing to try anything that is supposed to be good.

Sadly, no. The only film I've seen fitting any of those genres is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's an excellent movie of course, i've just not seen anything else

edit: Along with Lawrence of Arabia, it's one of the only long films i'd probably sit through again someday.

I have to admit I have a soft spot for the old black and white comedies like HARVEY and the BOB HOPE-ROAD TO movies, brilliant films in my opinion

Oh and also I am a HUGE KEVIN SMITH FAN, the guy is a genious in my opinion, starts making films by maxing out credit cards, then makes a fortune off of his next few films to the point where he can make something like Jay and Bob Strike Back without fear of the studio pulling his budget.

Have all his movies on DVD and signed.... bring on CLERKS 2 and CLERKS the animate movie

Like the scene in Once Upon A Time In The West where the horse gallops in time with the music. The music for that film was actually composed before any shooting was done, and then the film was shot to the music (genius).

And another note with the Film 4 free thing going on, they are doing a 'films to see before you die' night on Film 4. On the advert they show a clip from Kagemusha, a great film by Kurosawa.