The greatest movie ever made? A soldier is sent into the Heart of Darkness to retrieve a commander gone AWOL in an insane reality of tin-pot power, paranoia and inglorious killing. The horror of war is stripped naked in a surreal twilight world. The crew nearly went mad making it, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack and Coppola flew so far beyond budget that the word 'bankrupt' was nearly redefined. See "Heart of Darkness"... find out more...

The definitive 'Apocalypse Now' (as if the original wasn't pretty definitive) this has nearly an hour of extra footage fleshing out the surreal journey of our central protagonists and, though it brings the film to a whisker short of three and a half hours, much of it explains what happens to the eclectic characters we meet. The cut version of 'Apocalypse Now' stands as one of the most awesome films of modern cinema, anyone who has seen it will inevitably see it again, it's just that now you have find out more...

There's a lot you can say about Michael Moore. He's sentimental. He massages the truth to fit the points he's making. His reliance on comedy when making serious points sometimes defeats his objectives (more suited to his excellent TV Nation series). He is a propagandist. But in a world dominated by right-wing media conglomerates, neo-conservative thinktanks and war profiteers thirsty for new conflicts, you can easily forgive his mawkish foibles. Fahrenheit 9/11 is an excellent feature in it's co find out more...

A beautifuly staged historical epic set in a sixteenth century Japanese civil war. find out more...

Not to be confused with the TV series, good though that was this is the original item that started it all off. Blacker harder-hitting and funnier than the TV version, although featuring the same characters and some of the same actors. An all-time classic anti-war movie. Just brilliant, see it! find out more...

Rossellini's masterpiece of neo-realist cinema. Based on the life of a priest who serves in the Resistance movement, it's triumph is to show the Resistance against a backdrop of everyday wartime life in Rome. The realism is enhanced by the camerawork and locations. A truly remarkable film. find out more...

Set during WW2; Veronica is madly in love with her fiancé, Boris, who departs for the front to do his patriotic duty. The story unravels to depict a poignant portrayal of blameless individuals doing their best to survive the travails of tragedy and hardship in the face of such an all consuming conflict. The compelling narrative is complemented by stunning black and white cinematography and the film deservedly won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1958, reintroducing Soviet cinema to the Western world. find out more...

Wladyslaw Szpilman is a brilliant Jewish pianist trapped in Poland after the Nazi invasion, managing to avoid deportation to the concentration camps Wladyslaw struggles to survive in the increasingly desperate Warsaw Ghetto, all the while dreaming of the way things used to be. The Pianist is a tour de force, deeply moving, horrific, tragic, thought provoking, the only hope provided by Wladyslaw's intense will to live. Polanski has created a beautiful cinematic masterpiece while Adrien Brody's p find out more...

Returning to the topic of The Troubles, after his 1990 effort Hidden Agenda, Ken Loach has confirmed his place as a Grand Old Duke of British Cinema with the Palme d'Or winning 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley'. Leaving his traditional hunting ground of contemporary urban environs Loach takes us to Eire, in the 1920s, and to labourers joining forces to oust the British 'Black and Tan' soldiers sent in to crush the rebellion. Brothers Damien and Teddy join forces in the battle, Damien sacrificing find out more...

Fascinating, highly visionary, epic scale surreal story spanning 50 years of Balkan history (WWII to Yugoslav civil war). Focusing on friendship rather than conflict, love, betrayal, big balls, gangsters, theatre and a whole underground population who don't know the world war is over yet. Truly bizarre..

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