It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him! Willard, sent up the Nung River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the Nung River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz's outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Now, after becoming prisoners of Kurtz, will Willard & the others be able to fulfill their mission?
One of the most accomplished piano players in Poland, Wladyslaw Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans in the 1930s. At last deciding to escape, suffering the tragedy of his family deported to a death camp, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw City Revolt in August/October 1944.
Based on a true story, "The Great Escape" deals with the largest Allied escape attempt from a German POW camp during the Second World War. The first part of the film focuses on the escape efforts within the camp and the process of secretly digging an escape tunnel. The second half of the film deals with the massive effort by the German Gestapo to track down the over 70 escaped prisoners who are at this point throughout the Third Reich attempting to make their way to England and various neutral countries.
The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden (Jack Hawkins) and an American, Shears (William Holden), to blow up the bridge.
Following the Allied invasion of Normandy, two brothers lay dead in the wake of the onslaught. Meanwhile, in New Guinea, a third brother has been killed fighting the Japanese. After the Army General Staff learns that a fourth brother is missing in the French countryside, a rescue mission is ordered to find the young soldier and return him safely home. The mission is mounted by a veteran Ranger Captain commanding a squad of men who have mixed feelings about risking their lives to "Save Private Ryan".
The movie begins in the small town of Elerslie, Scotland. William lives with his father, who is not named in the film, and his older brother Malcolm. William's father and older brother are called to a meeting a few miles from their home where they find the entire nobility of Scotland hanging. Malcolm and his father then go to a battle between the British and their clan, both die tragically. At the funeral William meets his uncle Argyle who fought in the battle with Malcolm and his father. He takes him away to live with him. The scene then cuts to an adult William on his horse. William later runs into a girl he knew before he went to live with Argyle, her name, Murron, we discover that Lords have the right to sleep with brides on their wedding night, so William marries Murron in secret. Murron is the assaulted by a British guard, the guard is killed by William, a fight ensues, and eventually Murron is killed by the lord. This enrages Wallace who then build himself a fine army entering city's and killing all Englishman within. Wallace prepares to move on to Sterling where he prepared for his greatest battle yet, in the forest he realises that he must find a way to beat the heavy cavalry from the ground, he decided to create spears twice as long as men. These were used in the battle to kill the entire heavy cavalry raised at the last minute to kill the on coming horses. Eventually Wallace reaches York, the most important military city he gains control. Williams final battle at Falkirk ends in his betrayal by two nobles, whom he later kills. William is betrayed by the leper father of Robert the Bruce, is captured and refuses to bow down as a loyal subject of the king Edward I, Longshanks. Therefore, instead of mere beheading William Wallace is subject to being Hung, hung within an inch of death. Drawn, being stretched by his ankles and wrists and then having his insides shown to him before he died. Then Quartered, he was beheaded and his head was put on the London Bridge his body was torn into for pieces one sent to each corner of Britain as a warning to the citizens. After Wallace's death we see Robert the Bruce led the battle of Bannockburn the last battle for Scotland's freedom.
In the summer of 1935, 13-year-old Briony Tallis observes a flirtation between a servant's son, Robbie, and her older sister, Cecilia, that she childishly misconstrues. Briony's misunderstanding leads to a terrible crime whose consequences follow them through World War II.
Set in East Africa in 1914, the adventure drama tells the story of Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), a gin-swilling ship captain who ferries supplies to a small village where British missionary Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his maiden-lady sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) live. When German troops invade the village and kill the missionary, Rose is forced to resort to Charlie's help to return to civilization. Despite their mutual dislike, the prim missionary and the daredevil captain set off on the treacherous waters to encounter different obstacles on their way.
As the US Civil War protracts and drains even the vast resources of the north, an experiment is made with black troops, serving in a special regiment under an all-white officer corps. Since the traditional military establishment considers this a bad joke, the young abolitionist idealist Robert Gould Shaw from a very privileged family gets the rank of Colonel with the dubious honor to command the black volunteers, mainly illiterate former slaves. Even his personal friend and second in command, Major Cabot Forbes, lacks confidence in the project; yet they must overcome countless difficulties in training, procurement etcetera before the unit can even enter the War, but end up covering themselves and the Union army with glory -and a sea of blood- against the Confederates.
A gritty and emotional look at the lives of a platoon of American soldiers as they patrol, fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam as seen through the perspective of a young recruit. Two veteran sergeants clash when one of them precipitates a massacre of villagers.
After various skirmishes, two wounded soldiers, one Bosnian and one Serb, confront each other in a trench in the no man's land between their lines. They wait for dark, trading insults and even finding some common ground; sometimes one has the gun, sometimes the other, sometimes both. Things get complicated when another wounded Bosnian comes to, but can't move because a bouncing mine is beneath him. The two men cooperate to wave white flags, their lines call the UN (whose high command tries not to help), an English reporter shows up, a French sergeant shows courage, and the three men in no man's land may or may not find a way to all get along.
In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sends his massive army to conquer Greece. The Greek city of Sparta houses its finest warriors, and 300 of these soldiers are chosen to meet the Persians at Thermopylae, engaging the soldiers in a narrow canyon where they cannot take full advantage of their numbers. The battle is a suicide mission, meant to buy time for the rest of the Greek forces to prepare for the invasion. However, that doesn't stop the Spartans from throwing their hearts into the fray, determined to take as many Persians as possible with them.
The suspense-filled war drama is based on the real-life story of German-born Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) who satisfied his passion for flying by becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. While on a secret bombing mission over Laos during the Vietnam War, he was shot down and captured by Vietcong guerrillas. The young man displayed fortitude and endurance when he was brutally tortured by his captors who wanted him to betray his country. Taken to a prison camp, Dengler didn't succumb to despair and began planning an escape from the clutches of the sadistic camp guards.
Sydney Schanberg is a New York Times journalist convering the civil war in Cambodia. Together with local representative Dith Pran, they cover some of the tragedy and madness of the war. When the Americans forces leave, Dith Pran sends his family with them, but stays behind himself to help Schanberg cover the event. As an American, Schanberg won't have any trouble leaving the country, but the situation is different for Pran; he's a local, and the Khmer Rouge are moving in.
Sean Bean is back as the swashbuckling hero in Sharpe's Challenge, an action packed mini-series to be shot on location in Rajasthan, India. Two years after the Duke of Wellington crushes Napoleon at Waterloo, dispatches from India tell of a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, who is threatening British interests there. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. When a beautiful general's daughter is kidnapped by the Indian warlord, the tension mounts, leaving Sharpe no option but to pursue the enemy right into its deadly lair. Deep in the heart of enemy territory he also has to keep at bay the beautiful but scheming Regent, Madhuvanthi, who is out to seduce him. The fate of an Empire and the life of a General's daughter lie in one man's hands...
The action takes place in Japan in the 1870s. Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a respected American military officer and Civil War veteran, accepts an offer to travel to the Land of the Rising Sun to train the country's regular army in the art of modern warfare. Preparing for more Westernized policy, the Emperor of Japan wants to extirpate the hereditary class system of the samurai warriors who rule the provinces. All of a sudden Algren takes part in the sanguinary civil war between the radical samurais and the new westernized troops. The gallant officer will have to choose which side to fight on and to learn about the code of honor.
Oppositionist Michael Moore ("Bowling for Columbine") defiantly criticizes the Bush administration in this documentary analysis of what happened at the day the World Trade Center was attacked and what followed. The documentary uncovers the probable relationships between President George W. Bush and the family of terrorist Osama bin Laden, and casts some light on the both-ways dependence binding the American power structures and the Saudi terrorists together. You have a rare opportunity to know the Bush Administration's ways of using the tragic event to push its own plans and to serve financial and political ambitions of the backers.
In 1757 England fight a bitter war with France for domination of the North American colonies. Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May), two daughters of Colonel Edmund Munro (Maurice Roëves), try to penetrate a British fort besieged by the French troops. A valorous young white frontiersman named Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) comes to their rescue. And soon a torrid romance between Hawkeye, the adopted son of the Mohican Chingachgook (Russell Means), and the refined Cora begins. When Cora and her sister are taken captive by allies of France, jugular Huron warriors, only Hawkeye and his faithful Indian friends can save them...
In the early 1990s the Civil War raged in Somali. The resulting humanitarian crisis carried away more than 300 thousand innocent civilians. The nation starved to death as the troops of Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the leader of the major belligerent faction, were taking the food sent by the United Nations Organization. The U.S. made a decision to send peacekeeping force to the capital city of Mogadishu in order to break down Aidid's resistance and kill him. On October 3, 1993, they planned to capture two top lieutenants of the mutinous warlord. Army Rangers and Delta Force entered the city on a mission that was supposed to take about an hour. However, things got out of kilter from the very beginning of the operation...
