GREAT CINEMAMASTER LIST
Menu

The Essential 713, made interactive

Find your next
great film.

Search 713 spoiler-free recommendations from 1916 to 2026. Filter by the night you want—not the list you’re supposed to finish.

Direct film viewShowing master rank #266 on its own—not above the ranking.
Refine this collection

Your canon

Back up / restore my film dataLoading your progress…Saved only in this browser
Artwork
DirectorAll directors

Most represented · 6+ films

More recurring directors · 3–5 films54
All directors · surname A–Z438
ActorAll actors

Most represented actors

Big Three membership
Major award winners

1 selected film

Master Rank balances Greatness, Engagement, and Ease. Sort by Greatness for the artistic-canon view.

Director:
Cast:
View The Good, the Bad, the Weird film page
Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List

Spoiler-free premise

The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits.

Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free

In 1930s Manchuria, thief Yoon Tae-goo steals a treasure map from a Japanese official's train. Bounty hunter Park Do-won and bandit Park Chang-yi pursue him as imperial troops and other outlaws join the race across the desert.

Why it belongs

The Good, the Bad, the Weird builds exuberant Korean western spectacle around a treasure-map chase through practical stunts, comic velocity, and sharply differentiated outlaws.

Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case

Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung give each outlaw a distinct pulse and screen silhouette. Trains, motorcycles, horses, cannons, desert ridges, and wide-angle movement keep pursuit geography readable amid comic chaos.

Major award wins

No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.

Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Good for
Date Night
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.

Institutional reference ranks

Sight & Sound—IMDb Top 250—AFI 100—
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score

Great Cinema Master List scores

Greatness8.0
Engagement9.5
Ease9.2

Korean · R
Narrative Feature
Mood: Exhilarating & Gripping