Leone is one of the great directors. His works derive hevily upon the operatic concept of drama and yet they are always extremely fresh. Undoubtedly he shall be remebered for his most icnoic and famous work, "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly" or overall, for his "The Man With No Name" Trilogy. However, I cannot say that those are his best films. His film "Once Upon a Time in the West" clocks in at around 168 mintues ong yet one never feels the snesation of such a long period of time passing.

It's a film that although is meticulously made, and is slow paced it never feels slow paced. Leone knew how to keep the audiance interested with beautiful shots of Monument Valley and always keeping us on our toes. He also got the best out of his actors like Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda, with whom he created perhaps the greatest villian in screen history.

It stands for his last film to serve as his masterpiece and perhaps THE masterpiece of the Gangster epic. "Once Upon a Time in America" is undobtedly a Leone picture. Meticulous, with beautiful cinematography and so much attention placed to detail. He gets great roles again, yet here he has perfected his screenwriting capabilities making it so that it is a true work of art.

Undoubtedly one of the most debated scenes in cinema history involes our last glimpse at Max. Did he jump in?

That's aside from the point. Leone was the grandest director of the epic. He made an epic so it wasn't just a melodrama. He made it into art.