Although it is just plain fun to rank a director's movies, it may also help me think about the director's oeuvre of work as a whole. Comparisons can help me to discover elements of film that I am drawn to, what the director finds value in revealing through their movies and possibly how the director has grown artistically.

Leone is known for his Spaghetti Westerns and this time period in America in fascinating for being a time when modernization was just around the corner, individuals could attain a lot of wealth and power by exploiting a lot of situations in a rapidly developing and expanding country, and the law was difficult to maintain. This setting is essential for Leone as he explores themes of greed, power, exploitation and the violence employed to both destroy and protect.

Leone's movies always contain powerful men who use violence to attain wealth and power. Although these men are often portrayed as despicable people who mercilessly murder and rape the most vulnerable people around them, they are also often portrayed as complex, sometimes with tragic backstories, often cool and humorous in the face of pressure, often somewhat likable, and loyal to their own friends and families. Even though they are cruel, Leone gives them plenty of screen time to not only feel like formidable foes, but also so they feel real as if it is not uncommon or unusual for human to act like this given the opportunity is there to take with no repercussions.

Leone's heroes are also often not so clear-cut either as they also take advantage of situations and people to make more money; they just usually aren't willing to go so far with murdering innocent or vulnerable people. Although these heroes can do a lot of great and clever deeds that emphasized how cool they are, often the villains best the hero in a few situations and are also shot and framed heroically by Leone. Finally, Leone also deemphasize just how heroic his protagonists actually are by showing that internal and external damage and destruction is a natural consequence of using violence, whether it is used for destruction or to protect others.

All of the violence, coolness of the characters no matter how good or evil they are, and evilness even in the heroes is reinforced by the world they live in. Leone depicts the Old West as a truly wild, gritty, and dirty place. You see the sweat on the characters, how the heat of the sun damages their skin, and they are all caked with dirt and dust. No wonder this kind of environment produces dirty people who wallow in their own violent filth, possibly hoping to achieve enough wealth to escape it. All the grime impacts their souls.

Leone's signature grimy mise en scène is just one filmmaking flourish that makes his movies distinctly stand out. He also builds incredible tension with long, slow, quiet scenes interrupted by an explosion of violence. He also usually employs Ennio Morricone to score his movies, who uses dramatic and unconventional sounds to create iconic and memorable songs to build up tension and moments of incredible drama that is so alluring about his movies.

Other directors I have ranked:
JJ Abrams | PT Anderson | Wes Anderson | Judd Apatow | Darren Aronofsky | Ari Aster | Sean Baker | Bong Joon-ho | Jane Campion | Charlie Chaplin | Damien Chazelle | Coen Brothers | Sofia Coppola | Cameron Crowe | Andrew Dominik | Robert Eggers | David Fincher | Alex Garland | Greta Gerwig | Todd Haynes | Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu | Jim Jarmusch | Rian Johnson | Spike Jonze | Satoshi Kon | Stanley Kubrick | Richard Linklater | George Lucas | David Lynch | Martin McDonagh | Steve McQueen | Sam Mendes | Nancy Meyers |Hayao Miyazaki | Jeff Nichols | Christopher Nolan | Alexander Payne | Sarah Polley | Lynn Ramsay | Céline Sciamma | Ben Stiller | Quentin Tarantino | Andrei Tarkovsky | Taika Waititi | Edgar Wright | Chloé Zhao