Ridley Scott directed epic that gives the definitive version of the Columbus story. The lush scenery, superb casting and top-notch direction don't quite make up for it being overlong, but on the whole Scott (and Depardieu) have painted a wonderful and absorbing picture. Well worth a watch! find out more...

1560, Peru. In a beautiful poetic opening scene the conquistadors cross an Andes pass, situated between the peaks and the valleys, between conquered land and unexplored forests, between 'heaven' and 'earth', shrouded in mists, they make their way down a narrow path. Aguirre's meglomania grows as around him his comrades mutiny and die in his search for the lost city of El Dorado. Herzog's best film, an unforgetable tour de force. Made before the director himself gave in to meglomania on a later t find out more...

A group of abducted Africans break free from their shackles aboard a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, so setting the scene for a lengthy courtroom drama played out against a backdrop of 19th Century slavery. Matthew McConaughy is the noble young lawyer fighting for the slaves' freedom, while Anthony Hopkins is mesmerising as decrepit former President John Quincy Adams. Superb sets and an authentic atmosphere, and it's pretty gruesome at times too. Typically Spielberg-esque epic. find out more...

Romantic period drama, adapted from the novel by Joseph Conrad. Cornish servant girl Amy is an outcast in her small community, shunned even by her own family and suspected of being a witch by the locals. When a Ukranian ship is wrecked in a storm, Amy claims the sole survivor, Yanko, as her own. But the villagers, who believe Amy conjured up the storm herself, conspire to keep the lovers apart. A windswept epic. find out more...

Cinematic maestro Federico Fellini shows that, even in his mid-sixties, he had lost none of his power to shock, entertain and amaze with this `comedy of arias'. The film is set on the eve of the WWI, but this matters little find out more...

Michael Anderson had the bright idea of collecting hundreds of stars together way before Robert Altman thought of it and here they all are, in glorious technicolour. Niven is suberb, as always, as the impeccable Fogg who, for a wager, tries to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days! Hop on a sailing railroad across The West! Be attacked by fierce prairie Indians! Rescue a Princess in India! Sail a burning Atlantic paddle-wheeler! Fight bulls in Spain! Romp through Paris! Won Best Picture at 1956 Ac find out more...

Mind those steps! Perhaps the most famous movie scene in the history of cinema. The documentary style story of mutiny aboard the Potemkin as the sailors fight oppression and fire on Tzarist troops attempting to quell rebellion in the city of Oddessa. Almost every shot is so beautiful it could work as a still. find out more...

Errol Flynn, in his starring debut, plays a doctor wrongly condemed to prison who escapes and leads his fellow prisoners to a life of piracey. He then goes onto form the 'Brotherhood of Buccaneers' to fight the villainous James II. find out more...

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Erik has a problem, he simply doesn't enjoy all the rape and pillage that goes with being a Viking. So he persuades his villagers to go on a different sort of mission - to visit the Gods and put an end to the Dark Ages. Another epic in the inimitable Python style. Not their best, but worth a watch. find out more...