once upon a time in the west (1968)

AKA C'era una volta il West. There Was Once the West.
"He knew someday or another that railroad through Flagstone would continue on west. So he looked over all this county here. Until he found this hunk of desert. Nobody wanted it! But he bought it."
The railway is heading west and needs to go through the McBain property, but McBain knowing the value of his land is unwilling to part with it. Up steps Frank (Henry Fonda), a ruthless man in the pay of the rail boss. Shortly after Frank 'negotiates' with Mr McBain and his family, his new bride Jill (Claudia Cardinale) arrives. Finding her husband dead and with nowhere to go, she decides to stay, much to the annoyance of the railroad. Help comes in the unlikely guise of a notorious desperado Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and Harmonica (Charles Bronson), a man with a grudge to settle with Frank.
A frontier epic, the ultimate western from a master of the genre.

a fistful of dynamite (1971)

AKA Duck You Sucker. Giù la testa. Once Upon a Time in the Revolution.
"Listen, Firecracker. Now you listen to me. Listen, why don't you come with me, eh? And we will work together and we will become rich!"
Mexico during the revolution and Juan (Rod Steiger), a bandit leader, meets up with John Mallory (James Coburn), an IRA explosives expert on the run from the British. Juan hatches a plan to use John's talents to raid the bank of Mesa Verde, but John wants to put his talents at the services of the revolutionaries.
A big budget, epic western, dealing in grand concepts, as well as how they effect family, and Leone's last due to its failure at the box office. Not on a par with the Dollar trilogy, this is never the less an entertaining western, with a political message, unfortunately overshadowed by the greatness of his previous efforts.

the good, the bad, and the ugly (1966)

AKA Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. The Magnificent Rogues.
"Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're gonna have to earn it."
Blondie (Clint Eastwood), is a bountyhunter. Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), is a hit man, and Tuco (Eli Wallach), an outlaw on the run. Tuco and Blondie have an uneasy partnership, scamming towns out of the bounty for Tuco, then making off with the money. But when Blondie disolves the partnership, leaving Tuco for dead, Tuco vows to hunt Blondie down. Having caught up with Blondie the pair stumble upon the only survivor of a robbery and learn from the dying man that he buried a stash of gold in a cemetery. Each has one piece of the puzzle and so come to an uneasy truce in their hunt to uncover the cash. Unfortunately for the pair Angel Eyes is also on the hunt for the loot and discovers that they know where it is. Who is going to get there first and who will walk away with the money?
Leone revisits the western genre and again he ups the anti. Now with some real money he comes up with a longer, deeper (almost philosophical) and more spectacular film. This contains everything, action, comedy, and even pathos, as the three make their way across civil war torn North America in search of the treasure. A masterpiece in any genre.

for a few dollars more (1965)

AKA Per Qualche Dollari In Piu. For Some Dollars More.
"When two hunters go after the same prey, they usually end up shooting each other in the back. And we don't want to shoot each other in the back."
Monco (Clint Eastwood) and Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) are bounty hunters both persuing the same quary, a manic killer Indio (Gian Maria Volonte). They come together initially to track him down, but when Indio robs a bank, Monco in the gang by this time tries to slip the Colonel, but the Colonel is one step ahead of the situation.
Leone adds some new elements to the genre and with an obvious confidence produces an even better film than A Fistful of Dollars.

a fistful of dollars (1964)

aka Per un pugno di dollari.
An anonymous man (Clint Eastwood) rides into a New Mexican town on a mule, and decides to stay when he finds out that it is torn in two by a gang war between the Baxter's and the Rojo's. He schemes to make money from both sides by playing them off against each other, but his plans are complicated when he gets involved with Marisol (Marianne Koch) and decides to reunite her with her husband and child, despite one of the Rojo's taking her for himself.
From the opening titles you know this is going to be a classic and served to popularise the spaghetti western genre. From the music, the script, and the cinematography, all add to make a classic western. And even though it is a thinly disguised remake of Yojimbo (1961), it takes the basics of that film and makes it all its own.