He was 25-years-old, combed his hair like James Dean. She took music lessons and could twirl a baton, she was 15. For a while they lived together in a tree house then in 1959, she watched while he killed a lot of people. A tale of two dumb kids going nowhere who achieved infamy in the US Midwest. The original to films like Natural Born Killers and True Romance. Sheen, Spacek and Malick debut in this impressive cult classic Brilliant - watch it! 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...

A superb modern thriller in the ultra-hardboiled Jim Thompson mould, in which a trio of criminals, wanted for a brutally murderous drugs heist, converge on a small, quiet Arkansas township where the local cop, treated with contempt by the LA officers in charge of the case, looks forward to a High Noon-style showdown. The asides on racial and sexual inequality are made subtly and succinctly; the performances and pacing are nigh perfect; the violence is explicit, disturbing but never gratuitous; a 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...

Chucked out of Cuba as an undesirable by Castro a small time crook claws his way to the top in the Miami cocaine trade. A megolamaniac rise in a twisted version of the American dream. Very violent, foul mouthed and bloody - a telling parable for the 80s. find out more...

Gal is living the good life at his villa on the Costa Del Sol, he's with the woman he loves, he's got a bit of cash stashed away, and some good mates just around the corner. Before this idyll however, Gal was a robber, and one of London's big boys requires his expertise for a particularly complicated job. Gal's old colleague, Don, is dispatched to Spain to bring him back, and Don is not a man to disagree with, being something of a professor in the time honoured art of psychotic nutter. Sexy Beas find out more...

Reformed hellraiser William Munny saddles up for one last killing, hoping the bounty will help him raise his children. But the steel has softened, and the killing doesn't come so easy any more. More real than any other Western, Clint's creation is bleak, black, desperate and brilliant. find out more...