Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh star in one of Hollywood's most famous romantic epics. Set during the American Civil War, Gone With The Wind tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh), a woman who can deal wth anything - the war, poverty and starvation - except Rhett Butler (Gable). After their doomed marriage fails, Scarlett returns to her plantation to find consolation - only to then receive one of cinema's best put downs when she realises that she actually loved Rhett. Hugely expensive for its time, it has every dollar evident on screen, and it is easy to be seduced by its sumptuous visuals.

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One of Sergei Eisenstein's most popular films, this was made just before the Second World War and tells how Russian prince Nevsky - besieged on all sides by invading Teutonic knights - raises a peasant army and mounts a counter-attack. The parallels with Stalin and Hitler are there if you care to look for them, but what is most impressive are the intense fight scenes that take up much of the film, and the way Eisenstein marries the action with the score by Prokofiev.

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Set during the American Civil War, Ang Lee's superbly crafted film infuses new life into a well-known period by concentrating on the local battles and rivalries so that the confrontation is more personal and intense. This is not an abstract view of the divisions but a fiercely compassionate one, which charts a young boy's (Tobey Maguire) growth to manhood.

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Powell and Pressburger's fifth film, a masterwork (made despite prime minister Winston Churchill's wishes) focuses on the life of Clive Candy V.C., a heroic character rooted in the values of Edwardian England, leading up to and during the Second World War. Candy believes that any fight can be fought and settled by maintaining gentlemanly principles. It lies with his best friend, a German, to make Candy realise how different things are, since the advent of Nazism.

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A harrowing but worthy portrait of a young Russian boy's experiences during The Second World War as he turns from green teenager to hardened resistance fighter. The Second World War always brought out the best in Soviet filmmakers and director Elem Klimov found his ideal subject in this harrowing story of a teenage boy's view of the conflict. The lad Florya is taken off by a group of partisans, fighting in the woods of Byelorussia in 1943. They disappear and he is left to wander, gun in hand, until he rejoins them at the end as an active and hardened participant, his young face prematurely aged.

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