शोले (Sholay)

Sholay's makers took the look and pace of its revenge story from Leone. The massacre of the Thakur's family, shot in silence with the killers walking up to a boy, is staged after the McBain massacre that opens Once Upon a Time in the West, and the film's long wordless standoffs and wide rocky landscapes come from the same source.

Sholay's writers Salim-Javed built its premise on Seven Samurai and its remake The Magnificent Seven: a village terrorised by a bandit chief, and outsiders hired to defend it. A retired policeman hires two small-time crooks, Jai and Veeru, to bring him Gabbar Singh alive.