An all time classic 60s movie glamourising the real life story of the Barrow gang who terrorised the American South in the early 30s. 'Reclaiming the American gangster movie, after it had been stolen by the Nouvelle Vague, Penn's film was so successful (and so imitated) that it inevitably met with some grudging devaluation. But it's still great, half comic fairytale, half brutal fact, it reflects the essential ambiguity of its heroes by treading a no man's land suspended between reality and fant find out more...

Elem Klimov's powerful, mesmerising and dynamic award winning feature has been deservedly hailed as one of the greatest war films ever produced. find out more...

One of the finest Spaghetti's in the west! Banned for 25 years, it has lost nothing of its hard-edged impact. The gringos are bad and the law are worse! The hero, Django, dispenses justice from a smoking Gatling gun, and sounds like a dubbed Clint Eastwood. Absolutely superb! find out more...

The highly eccentric and totally brilliant Alexandro Jodorowsky doesn't make films like anybody else. Directed, written by and starring the man himself "El Topo" is a violent, surreal, quasi-religious Western, if that makes sense (which like the film it doesn't). AJ plays the nomadic lone gunslinger of the title, mostly shooting people for the first half, before being reincarnated as the comedian-cum-holyman protector of a community of deformed outcasts. No doubt some would attempt to read all s find out more...

Gus Van Sant's take on the shooting at Columbine High School is a masterpiece. Using a cast of unprofessional actors, he has created a unique and highly affecting film, rich in atmosphere and style. The non-linear narrative follows the experiences of the key characters, giving a different perspective of events in the short time frame (most of the events shown in the film take place in about an hour). While the tension in the film obviously comes from the impending violence, the film's strongest find out more...

A stunningly photographed epic western and Peckinpah's finest film. This is a tale of two old friends forced onto opposite sides of the law by the greed of cattle barons. A brilliant portrait of the arbitriness of the law during the twilight years of the Wild West. Essential viewing and, of course, there's Bob Dylan's soundtrack. find out more...

The story of three steel workers caught up in the Vietnam war. Concentrates as much on the shattering effect on their families as much as on the conflict itself. This emotionally charged movie kicked off America's self-examination of this shameful episode in it's history. Stunningly powerful. Won Best Picture at 1978 Academy Awards. find out more...

John Woo's 1989 Hong Kong action classic, a stylish bullet-riddled elegy to friendship under fire, firmly established him as the maestro of mayhem and brought him wide-spread recognition in the West. Superstar Chow Yun-Fat, Asia's king of cool, plays the most charming hit man ever, but when one of his killings leaves an innocent nightclub singer blinded he dedicates his life to giving her back her sight. Danny Lee is the cop on his tail, but the two adversaries become unlikely comrades when the find out more...

Peckinpah completely rewrites John Ford's Western mythology by looking at the passing of the Old West from the point of view of marginalised outlaws rather than law-abiding settlers. While never ignoring their brutality he contrasts their code of loyalty with that of the corrupt railroad magnates. In purely cinematic terms, the film is a savagely beautiful spectacle, Lucien Ballard's superb cinematography complementing Peckinpah's darkly elegiac vision. find out more...