David Lean's epic romance set against the turbulant backdrop of the Russian revolution. One man's struggle for moral political and personal survival amidst the complex web of intrigue and tangled loyalties that accompanied the fall of the Tsar.

find out more...

Pudovkin's account of the 1917 Revolution was commissioned as part of the celebrations to mark its 10th anniversary and this silent epic stands as an example of the grandiose nature of early Russian film-making. The spirit of the masses is represented by a single, proto-typical worker-hero, and his view of the revolution. find out more...

Liam Neeson surpasses himself with his portrayal of the legendary Irish folk hero in this stirring historical drama. The controversial patriot's life, from his advent after the Easter Rising to his untimely death, is vividly depicted by a sterling cast in this passion-packed biopic. Excellent. find out more...

The Soviet Revolution in all its glory as the events of Red October unfold on an epic scale. The storming of the Winter Palace in Leningrad is one of the great set pieces of cinema history. Eisenstien practicaly invented the art of editing and this is the movie in which he did it! Brilliant. find out more...

Adapted from a Novokshenov novel this semi-ethnographic, semi-polemical epic follows a Mongol uprising against British occupiers not long after the communist revolution in Russia. When a young herdsman is captured by the British a twist of fate leads them to believe he is a descendant of Genghis Khan and, hoping that such a presence will pacify the people, he is dully installed as a puppet leader. This as you might expect turns out to be a terrible error of judgement on the part of the interlope find out more...

The first of Eisenstein's classic series of films. The story of a revolt in a factory and its murderous suppression contains all the elements that went into his later films - the crowd masses, the mosaic of detail, the caricatures, faces of love, breathless montage and ferocious images of cruelty. find out more...

Emiliano Zapata was the reluctant but impassioned revolutionary hero who gave the Mexican people the courage to rise up and fight against their brutal and corrupt president. As much high adventure as it is a political and historical epic, Viva Zapata has some fine performances, but it rides dangerously close to melodrama at times, a genre ill suited to the subject. find out more...