Set between 1962 and 1974 this traces the story of three buddies from adolescent surfing champs to post-Vietnam trauma. As the times change they find their youth is lost until one vital Wednesday in 1974 when there is a Big Swell and they hit the waves again, superb. find out more...

The best "buddy" movie ever made. Voight plays the naive rhinestone studded small-town boy who dreams of becoming a big-city gigolo, Hoffman is the frail, sickly hobo he takes under his wing. Stunning performances from both make this an outstandingly powerful and touching film. Very stylish. Won Best Picture at 1969 Academy Awards. find out more...

Christy Brown was an Irish cerebal palsy victim who overcame his severe handicap to become a talented painter and author with just the use of his left foot. Daniel Day Lewis is totally and utterly convincing as Brown - using method acting he became Brown and his thoroughness makes the film a great one. find out more...

The definitive gangster-epic; violent? Yes, but never mindless. The Jewish Mafia's coming of age on the Lower East Side in 1923, their rise to wealth during Prohibition, and their fall in 1933, provide the background to a story of friendship and betrayal, love and death. Leone's masterful cinematography evokes both the harshness of the vice-ridden decades before and after Prohibition, but also the philosophy behind it. Splendid performances by De Niro and Woods and a stupendous score by Ennio Mo 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...

A highly acclaimed and influential account of Algeria's turbulent past made in psuedo-documentary style. The tense plot surrounds the rise of nationalist organisations in '54 and the French government's attempts to quell them. This film was the prototype for most political thrillers of the 1970s. find out more...