Comic book heroes, while sometimes entertaining, do not compare with films like Casablanca or Cleopatra or The Godfather. Hercules and Sinbad have been classic heros that possessed great physical strength and/or cleverness, yet those characters have not projected so well as when the legend Ray Harryhausen did the special effects in films like "Jason and the Argonauts", "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad", and "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger".

My favorite films are/were Westerns. Sadly though they don't make them like they used to. Stars like John Wayne and Randolph Scott, and or Yul Brynner. In my opinion, "Silverado" may have been the last great western film made. Films like "Lonesome Dove" and "Quigley;Down Under" do deserve an official nod, but they are not in the same class "The Magnificent Seven" or "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" or "High Noon" with Gary Cooper.

What makes a great Film or Novel great is first a great story. That story then must be shaped into a film script that holds true to the original writers ideas. Then casting the parts must continue along the same path. Finally the Producer/s and the Director need to fulfill the original stories concepts without injecting their own egos into the story. John Ford, Howard Hawks, and others understood these principles and produced films that still hold up today.