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...

Winner of four Oscars, this film is shot with the most beautifully scenic backgrounds and with great attention to costume detail. An Irish adventurer, Barry Lyndon, crosses Europe from woman to job, but in the end returns to Britain seeking a wealthy marriage. 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...

Germany 1945; in a bunker complex buried deep within the bowels of Berlin find out more...

The original big screen romantic epic that fired the hearts of generations to come. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and telling the tale of the love between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, it's the history of a selfish woman who doesn't want to admit her feelings about the man she loves, and finally loses. Won Best Picture at 1939 Academy Awards. find out more...

Originally released in 1988, the wait is over for the UK release of this anime classic, superb animated feature from the Studio Ghibli studio (Miyazaki's animation stable). What sets this film apart from the fantastical films made in the tradition of his peers, it its historical and emotional realism. The focus in Takahata's film is on the story of its two young protagonists, brother and sister Seita and Setsuko, as they flee the destruction of their home and family after the American firebombin find out more...

A truly epic epic and winner of 7 Academy Awards. Lawrence serves British colonial interests during the First World War by uniting the Arabs against the fast collapsing Ottoman Empire. Stupendous cinemascope drama with a cast of thousands and some of cinema's most famous shots; Sheik Ali's emergence from the desert haze and the storming of Aquaba for example. This is the director's cut, a more coherent version than the original cinema release. find out more...

Guillermo Del Toro's blockbusting tale of a young girl struggling to make sense of the violent world around her was a big 2006 arthouse hit. Continuing his exploration of the impact of the Spanish Civil War on his generation (it was also the backdrop for his excellent ghost story, The Devil's Backbone) Del Toro's fantasy mixes strong horror with fairytale-style aesthetics to great effect, making Ofelia's escape into an imaginary realm a poignant response to the cruel realities of her existence. find out more...

Oliver Stone's autobiographical account of life at the front in Vietnam deservedly swept the Oscars. It is particularly strong in portraying the tensions within the army social group between the brutal all-American rednecks and the more liberally inclined cynics. find out more...