They don't make 'em like this any more
Absolutely breathtaking performances from the lead pair in their prime who are amazing apart and even better when together on screen - and in reply to another post, it was shown on TV recently - at 2am if you can believe it - wedged in to the dead "graveyard shift" slot in the early hours of the morning in the UK.
If more channels showed this sort of stuff at prime time rather than endless repeats of Beverly Hills Cop or Die Hard then people would have a much better appreciation of what proper acting is. Every now and then we get a glimpse of great acting in modern films (such as the scenes with Richard Harris and Russell Crowe in Gladiator), but whole films of such greatness are few and far between. There are a few films that have good performances over all and some moments of brilliance (like Blood Diamond or The Last King of Scotland) but these are exceptions rather than the rule. Maybe back when effects where limited and budgets where smaller, the focus HAD to be on the acting (such as in The Omen for $2m) but having said that, even when the budgets were off the scale (like in El Cid or Ben Hur) the acting was still much better over all I think.
Sadly the era of Heston & Eastwood will soon be over and greats like Richard Harris & Oliver Reid are passing away all the time. Let us hope that the current crop of good young actors like James McAvoy & Anne Hathaway can grow to replace the greats of yesteryear.