The essential historical epic, and a forebear of Gladiator, this tale of a slave rebellion from Stanley Kubrick and producer/star Kirk Douglas is a true classic. Having been trained up to fight to the death for the purpose of entertainment in the arena, Douglas' Spartacus revolts against his owners and leads the other slaves on to freedom. His socio-political cause is the point of the story, and this appealed to writer Trumbo, who saw the gladiator who defeated Roman battalions as a political symbol.

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Russell Crowe goes to war with a Roman Emperor in this mighty epic from director Ridley Scott. When General Maximus' (Crowe) family are murdered by Joaquin Phoenix, he wants revenge. Sold to gladiator trainer Oliver Reed, Crowe fights his way up through the ranks all the way to the Colosseum. The darling of the crowd, he soon gets the chance to go one-on-one with the Emperor. Although Gladiator is primarily a battle between two men, Scott's epic use of the camera lift the events to the scale of war.

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Paths of Glory tells a story designed to make the blood boil: a botched First World War assault ordered by high-up French officers in order to further their own careers results in blameless French soldiers court-martialled for cowardice. A work of genius from Stanley Kubrick; for all its chilly symmetry and beauty, the sheer injustice shown will have your pulse racing.

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Robert Altman's anti-establishment comedy is set during the Korean War but actually satirises the US Vietnam war effort. Based on a novel by Richard Hooker and following the fortunes of a group of rebellious surgeons stationed in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean war, M*A*S*H is actually a thinly veiled indictment of the Vietnam conflict (Altman removed all references to Korea just to be sure). With its grainy, washed-out colours and documentary style camera-work, Altman has created a film that looks like authentic newsreel footage. The largely improvised script drips with sarcasm, and Sutherland and Gould spark off each other with rapier wit and devastating put-downs.

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A classic Second World War thriller starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood as crack paratroopers sent deep behind enemy lines to rescue a captured Allied general imprisoned in a forbidding castle commandeered by the SS. Alastair MacLean's script has more old-fashioned thrills, spills and hair-breadth escapes than 20 chapters of 'King Of The Rocket Men'.

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