In a triple-bill feature spread over three issues, Total Film magazine recently counted down what its staff rate as the 150 most impressive screen performances of all time.
And after much long and hard debate, they placed Jack Nicholson's Oscar-winning turn in 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the top of the heap.
"It was a career-turning moment not just because of the Oscar, but because it let the Nicholson genie out of the bottle," the magazine says of Nicholson's superb performance as the only sane man in a ward for the mentally unstable.
Directed by Milos Forman, the film is a riveting, anti-establishment parable and Nicholson's wild-eyed, wild-haired, grinning rapscallion, who helps inmates take over the asylum, is unforgettable.
The actor also bagged second spot on the magazine's countdown of quality, for another Academy Award-winning turn - as troubled boxer Jake la Motta in 1980's Raging Bull, "for which he put on not just weight, but degradation".
The magazine judges state: "Nicholson turns La Motta into an animal alpha-male too frightened and fractured to interact on a normal level. Deadlocked by paranoia and self-loathing, his La Motta exists on instinct."
Third spot on the list? That goes to Daniel Day-Lewis for his turn as greedy oil-hunter Daniel Plainview in 2007's There Will Be Blood.
Of this riveting performance, Total Film states: "Lewis channels the spirit of John Huston's land tycoon Noah Cross in Chinatown, and adds a touch of The Big Bad Wolf for good measure."
The end result, the judges conclude, is a force of nature, "a misanthrophic bluster that cares little for humanity or even God."
Al Pacino's tragic hero, Michael Corleone, in 1974's The Godfather Part II, has been voted into fourth place on the countdown.
Says the judging panel: "Pacino's features become a roadmap to hell, the lips pursed tightly, the doe eyes turned dead and cold."
And so on to the highest scoring female on the list - spot five is occupied by Emma Watson, for her turn in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.
Playing a child-like woman raised in a religious community in a remote Scottish coastal town, Watson, declares Total Film, is "a revelation in an intensely demanding role".
The rest of the magazine's Top 10, in descending order, comprises Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in 1954's On the Waterfront; Denzel Washington as the title character in 1992's Malcolm X; Jane Fonda's Bree Daniels in 1971's Klute; Paul Newman's Fast Eddie Fallon in 1961's The Hustler; and, in 10th place, Meryl Streep's name role in 1982's Sophie's Choice.
Positions 11 to 20 are filled by Gene Hackman (1974's The Conversation); James Stewart (1958's Vertigo); Tom Cruise (1999's Magnolia); Jodie Foster (1988's The Accused); Sylvester Stallone (1976's Rocky); Hilary Swank (1999's Boys Don't Cry); Peter O'Toole (1962's Lawrence of Arabia); Bette Davis (1950's All About Eve); Kate Winslet (2004's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind); and Jack Lemmon (1960's The Apartment).
Random samplings from the list thereafter include Dustin Hoffman in 1967's The Graduate (No 21); Anthony Perkins in 1960's Psycho (No 27); Steve Martin in 1983's The Man With Two Brains (No 29); Sissy Spacek in 1976's Carrie (No 35); Samuel L Jackson in 1994's Pulp Fiction (No 45); Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (a surprisingly low entry at No 48); and Matthew Broderick in 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off (No 50).
