The object of this massive tribute died as he had always lived, without wealth, without property, without official title or office. Mahatma Gandhi was not the commander of armies, nor the ruler of vast lands, he could not boast any scientific achievement or artistic gift, yet men, governments, dignitaries from all over the world, have joined hands today to pay homage to the little brown man in the loin cloth who led his country to freedom. This quote is from his funeral, one of the greatest s find out more...

Adapted from the EM Forster story of cultural misunderstanding and imperialism during the period of the British Raj. Lean underestimates EM Forster's hatred of the British presence in India, but this is a magnificent award winning costume drama with stellar performances, particularly from Judy Davis as the hysteric Miss Quested, (was she or was she not raped in the Marabar caves by her Indian host?), and Lean's eye for scenery remains superb. find out more...

Among the lavish sets one can detect a plot in which one of Nero's Roman commanders falls in love with a Christian girl and they both get thrown to the lions. Ustinov barks, foams at the mouth, sets fire to the eternal city, and steals the show. Rivetting acting in one of the last great cinema epics.

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Huge epic, set during the heyday of Republican Rome, in all its ostentatious glory. The story details the purchase and selection of slaves, the harsh discipline and routine of the gladiators' school, the new comradeship balked by the realisation that a gladiator must kill or be killed. Then the film really comes into its own with the superbly staged revolt and escape, led by the slave who, with his unlikely army, holds the Roman army at bay for four years. Magnificent, masterful....a classic! find out more...

A film dominated by one performance, Forest Whitaker's turn as the infamous dictator Idi Amin. When young Scotsman Nicholas Garrigan becomes his personal physician few of us doubt that it will inevitably end in tears, but Amin, as is so often the way with monsters, has considerable charm to go with his paranoid genocidal tendencies and the naïve Garrigan is seduced. However Garrigan's role is ambiguous; is he just dumb or is he willingly looking the other way? The film also reverses the typical find out more...