10 best 4GB RAM phones for playing games: huge 6.0 inch, 128GB ROM

1. Lenovo K6 Note
                                 

This is one of the newest smartphones of the manufacturer. It features a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a Snapdragon 430 octa-core 1.5GHz chip, 32GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB) paired with 3/4GB RAM, a big 4,000mAh battery, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.

Those Lenovo K6 Note specs will help you play games smoothly. Moreover, the handset sports a great combo of 16MP rear (with PDAF plus dual CCT flash) + 8MP front-facing camera to assist users in taking pictures and stellar speakers enhanced with Dolby Atmos tech to deliver ultimate cinema sound experience.


2. ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra
                 

Next is ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra, a real cool phablet for playing games you need to know. Its screen measures 6.8 inches with Full HD resolution and an IPS LCD panel. So, your fingers would be more comfortable when moving on the display, rite?! Other ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra specs are also strong: ASUS ZenUI 3.0 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS, a Snapdragon 652 octa-core (4 x 1.8GHz & 4 x 1.4GHz) chipset, 32/64/128GB of expandable ROM, 4GB of RAM, and a 4,600mAh batt with Quick Charge 3.0 technology.


3. Huawei Honor Note 8
                         

                             

Thirdly, let’s meet Huawei Honor Note 8. Yeah, it’s a Note, so we are not surprised to see a huge 6.6-inch 2K Super AMOLED display getting on board. Under the hood, there are a Kirin 955 octa-core (4 x 2.5GHz & 4 x 1.8GHz) chip set, a 4,500mAh cell, EMUI 4.1 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS, 4GB RAM coupled with 32/64/128GB of internal memory (expandable) in charge of running the whole machine. Additionally, Huawei Honor Note 8 specs offer DTS sound tech to give excellent sounds to users. As a result, your games would be so lively. Huawei Honor Note 8 price is around $350, a very affordable cost for a smartphone like that, huh?!


4. Lenovo P2
                                 

Coming up next is another new Lenovo phone called Lenovo P2. It packs a 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen, Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, a Snapdragon 625 octa-core 2.0GHz processor, a 13MP + 5MP cam set, and a massive 5,100mAh battery with fast charging tech. Besides, please note that you have many choices over RAM and ROM capacity: 3GB + 32GB, 4GB + 32GB, and 4GB + 64GB.


5. HP Elite x3
                                     

Number 5 is HP Elite x3, the only Window phone as well as a very outstanding one in the market now. Spec-wise, x3 carries a 5.96-inch Quad HD display, Windows 10 OS, a Snapdragon 820 quad-core (2 x 2.15GHz & 2 x 1.6GHz) chip, Bang & Olufsen speakers, a 4,150mAh cell, 64GB of internal storage (expandable), and 4GB RAM. Those are gorgeous features and you won’t have to worry about the handset’s performance in anything. To own this premium machine, you will need at least $700.

6. Gionee M6 Plus
                         

                 
Gionee M6 Plus is the next device we would like to introduce to you. It houses many a 6.0-inch Full HD AMOLED screen, a Helio P10 octa-core (4 x 2.0GHz & 4 x 1.0GHz) processor, 64/128GB of expandable ROM, 4GB of RAM, Amigo 3.5 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, and a very generous 6,020mAh batt supported by fast charging tech to be basic. In general, Gionee M6 Plus is a great candidate you should take into consideration when it comes to buying a gaming smartphone. Gionee M6 Plus price is 2,999 Yuan ($449) for the 64GB version and 3,199 Yuan ($479) for the 128GB.


7. ZTE Nubia Z11 Max
                             

           
Continuing our list is ZTE Nubia Z11 Max equipped with a big, beautiful 6.0-inch Super AMOLED Full HD display. Other ZTE Nubia Z11 Max specs are also very powerful to give you smooth gaming performances: a Snapdragon 652 octa-core (4 x 1.8GHz & 4 x 1.4GHz) chipset, 64GB ROM (expandable), 4GB RAM, Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS with Nubia UI 3.9.9 on top, a 16MP + 8MP shooter package, a 4,000mAh cell allowing 2.82 days of regular usage and 1.76 days of heavy usage, and Quick Charge 3.0 technology. ZTE Nubia Z11 Max price is around $305 if you want to purchase it.

8. OPPO R9 Plus
                                       

                     
OPPO R9 Plus is a selfie-centric device but it’s also a strong one for playing games. Speaking specifically, OPPO R9 Plus specs include a 6.0-inch Full HD screen, Color OS 3.0 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop OS, a Snapdragon 652 octa-core (4 x 1.8GHz & 4 x 1.2GHz) chip set, 64/128GB of expandable ROM, 4GB of RAM, a 4,120mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge technology (75% in 30 minutes). OPPO R9 Plus price is 3,299 Yuan ($507).

9. Xiaomi Mi Max

               

Number 9 is Xiaomi Mi Max, an elegant smartphone for playing games. Spec-wise, it boasts 6.44-inch Full HD ISP LCD screen, MIUI 7 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, a Snapdragon 650 (4 x 1.4GHz & 2 x 1.8GHz) or SD 652 (4 x 1.8GHz & 4 x 1.4GHz) processor, a 16MP main + 5MP secondary snapper combo, and a 4,850mAh cell. At the moment, Xiaomi Mi Max price for the SD 650 + 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM model is 1,299 Yuan (around $195) after an official price cut in China. Meanwhile, prices of other versions like SD 652 + 3GB RAM + 64GB ROM (1,699 Yuan or $255) and SD 652 + 4GB RAM + 128GB ROM (1,999 Yuan or $300) will be remained.


10. Samsung Galaxy A9 (Pro)
                                       

Finally, we’ve got Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (2016). It’s definitely one of the best phablets of the firm due to its cool combination of specifications and cost. In terms of Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (2016) specs, it has a 6.0-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS, a Snapdragon 652 octa-core (4 x 1.8GHz & 4 x 1.4GHz) chip, 32GB ROM (expandable), 4GB RAM, a set of 16MP primary + 8MP selfie camera, and a generous 5,000mAh batt with fast charging tech. Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (2016) price is around $480.



Okay, they are 10 best phones for playing games we would like to show you. All of them have powerful 4GB of RAM, beautiful 5.5-inch Full HD displays, and huge batteries. Then, what do you think about them? Share with me.

Read More

Top 10 songs of 2016 so far

10>SORRY  (JUSTIN BIEBER):

9>LUSH LIFE (ZARA LARSSON):
                                         

                             

8>FAST CAR (JONAS BLUE & DAKOTA):
      

7>STITCHES  (SHAWN MENDES):
                    

• 6>CHEAP THRILLS (SIA)
                                       
  

 5>  LOVE YOURSELF (JUSTIN BIEBER)            
                                       

 

4> RUN (RIHANNA FT DRAKE):
               

3> I TOOK A PILL IN IBIZA (MIKE POSNER):
                                    

2>  ONE DANCE  (DRAKE FT WIZKID & KYLA)

                    

1> 7 YEARS ( LUKAS GRAHAM):
                                  

Read More

The Top 10 TV Shows of 2016, So Far

10. “The Night Manager”
                                     

It took Oscar-winning filmmaker Susanne Bier to finally bring John Le Carre’s espionage thriller to life, and boy, did she ever. The miniseries was striking in every way, from the global locales and picturesque hotels to the way characters were displayed upon such backdrops. More than just eye candy, Tom Hiddleston as soldier-turned-spy Jonathan Pine was a man with a mission, quietly stoic in the face of his nemesis Richard Roper, played with dangerous glee by Hugh Laurie. Olivia Colman brought the heart, Elizabeth Debicki the heartache and Tom Hollander a sense of impotent rage. The storytelling was large in scale yet intimate in how it played out, and it’s no wonder that viewers are hoping for more, even though Le Carre never wrote a sequel.

9. “Silicon Valley”                         

To many, Mike Judge’s gloriously profane comedy is escapism. But ask anyone who actually works in the San Francisco Bay Area tech scene, and it’s not like they’ll admit that it’s a full-on documentary… But they also won’t deny that at times, the show has struck awfully close to home when it comes to how incredibly absurd start-up culture can be. In Season 3, “Silicon Valley” truly established its groove, while also being unafraid of tossing the occasional curveball into the mix. And it has some of the most memorable characters and quotable exchanges on television. Way to use that D, “Silicon Valley.” (We’re referring, of course, to dialogue.)

8. “Togetherness”
                                     

                

Ostensibly a comedy, Mark and Jay Duplass’ relationship opus featured some staggeringly good performances from its ensemble, including Melanie Lynskey, Amanda Peet and Steve Zissis. Thanks to what felt like a truly collaborative effort, the show never shied away from getting real about how hard it can be, to be in love, to be looking for love or to just be unsure about what you should be looking for. And there was a “Dune” musical starring puppets. We may never get to find out what happens next to Brett, Michelle, Alex and Tina, but it was wonderful getting to know them in the first place.

7. “Broad City”
             

                       

“I love comedy rhythm,” Ilana Glazer said in a recent IndieWire interview. “When I was younger, I listened to a lot of stand-up comedy albums, but then when you add the visual element, I just love it. I like thinking of it in terms of rhythm.”

The statement is significant for two reasons. First and foremost, “Broad City” is a lesson in comedy rhythm; not only in how to flow from point to point, joke to joke, during an episode, but also how to construct episodes over the course of the season that challenge expectations without disrupting the series’ established identity. But Glazer’s fascination with rhythm also applies to her irreplaceable dynamic with co-star and co-creator Abbi Jacobson. “Broad City” is built on their rhythms, and it’s all the better for it.

6. “The Path” 

                                                     

Combining the doubly topical subject of cults — I mean, “movements,” which are in the zeitgeist thanks to Scientology’s detractors, but also finally being explored in a real way on TV — with the grounded realism associated with all of Jason Katims’ shows (“Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood”), “The Path” hits home in a major way for anyone who’s ever doubted, well, anything. Aaron Paul, Hugh Dancy and Michelle Monaghan make for a commanding lead trio, but the casting is impressive across the board. From veteran character actors like Rockmund Dunbar to newcomers like Kyle Allen, “The Path” feels frighteningly real from start to finish — in every way.

5. “Catastrophe”
                      

The sophomore outing for one of TV’s most brilliant dark-horse series continued to stun viewers with its daring. Few comedies have the deft touch to be able to handle all of the ugliness of relationships, but “Catastrophe” did so while still somehow remaining positive and really kind of sweet. This season brought a lot of loss — sexual desire, self, trust — but despite this, we feel that Sharon and Rob (Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney) will somehow work it out. A side plot about their friends’ broken marriage may have seemed like a curious departure from our heroes (each season is only six episodes, after all) but it offered a different, more mature and poignant take on the nature of relationships and how a couple — as individuals and together — evolve.

4. “The Americans”
                                  

“The Americans” is coming to an end. Granted, there are two more seasons left — 13 more episodes next year before a 10-episode final season in 2018 — but Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields’ critically-adored masterpiece will come to a close the way it’s always wanted. What that might look like, we have no idea, in part because each season becomes more enigmatic than the last. More surprises means more action; more action means more development; but what separates “The Americans” from the other twisty dramas out there is its primary developments are always internal. It’s not so much what physically happens to these core characters — or what they physically do to others. “The Americans” is concerned with the Jennings’ emotional health, and after so many up and down arcs, we’ve become far more invested in their future than just about anyone else on television. Season 4 took this devotion even deeper, making us all the more eager to see what’s next.

3. “Better Call Saul”
                

In its second season, “Better Call Saul” proves that it can stand on its own as more than just a “Breaking Bad” prequel hurtling to its inevitable destination. In particular, Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) has become so damn sympathetic, in part because of his dogged protection of his brother Chuck (Michael McKean) who neither trusts nor appreciates him but also in part because of the very flaws that will lead him to become Saul Goodman. It’s frustrating, it’s heartbreaking, it’s freaking hilarious, yet always compelling TV that dives deep into morality in a way that’s neither preachy nor contrived. And let’s not forget how gorgeously realized the show is, from its stunning photography to its deliberate, psychological framing. As for “Breaking Bad” devotees, the Mike (Jonathan Banks) storyline has progressed in a satisfying way that foreshadows what’s to come (perhaps Gus Fring in Season 3?).

2. “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”                        

It’s not that no one expected “The People v. O.J. Simpson” to be any good (they didn’t), but no one wanted the well-documented story of the O.J. Simpson trial to still be relevant, more than two decades later. We want to believe the racial bias, sexism and media’s obsession with misinformation is an example of past behavior we want to keep in the past. But recent events, before and after the release of “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” serve as evidence to the contrary; that we’re not there yet; that we’re as far from harmony, truth and justice as we were when O.J. Simpson walked free. This series brought that to mind with stark, uncomfortable yet addictive clarity; a potent mix designed to make audiences question everything without alienating them from the story driving this crucial discussion. Well-acted, perfectly produced and artfully directed, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” is a stunning accomplishment that will stand the test of time — whether we want it to or not.

1. “Veep”
                                          

All eyes were on the Emmy-winning comedy this year due to a change in showrunners — often the sort of move that shows don’t survive. But under the new rule of David Mandel, “Veep” remained one of the ballsiest shows on television, taking major narrative chances all while continuing to teach us the art of insulting our enemies. The streak of cruelty that underlies Selina Meyer’s roller coaster career is at times rough going, until you consider the world of actual politics. Selina might never truly be President. But she’ll always be the “Veep” of our hearts.

Read More

10 Movies with Valuable Life lessons

1: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION                           

Hope is always a good thing.Get busy living or get busy dyingCrawl through the river of shitKeep your mind occupied when things around aren’t just fine

2:FIGHT CLUB                     

Sometimes, Pain can be redemptive. Never lose hope. Keep moving.It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anythingYou are slave of your 'civilized' mind - Your job, money, cars, girlfriend, everything owns you. The things you own end up owning you.The problem is think we have time. We expect somebody to bring the change in our lives. If you are passionate about something, pursue it. At least, you will not die with regrets.

3:PEACEFUL WARRIOR
                                   

                                       
Rushed/ busy mentality prevents us from experiencing the moment
Doing something for an end result makes it harder to accomplish
Death isn't sad. The sad thing is: most people don't live at all.
The ones who are hardest to love are usually the ones who need it the most.The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination
Fear creates restlessness and contributes to a lack of peace within your current reality.

4:THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
                                            

You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, 
go get it. Period.Just because you’re somewhere, doesn’t mean you have 
to stay there.

5:MASAAN  
                                  

You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realize, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps, though you can put your hand out to where things were and feel that tense, shining dullness of the space where the memories are. Too much to learn from. Masaan is a must watch extra ordinary piece.
6:DEPARTURES
                                         

                   It will change the way you perceive (Closure to death).

7:GOOD WILL HUNTING 
                              

Education can come from everywhere
We spend so much time thinking what others perceive us as that we eventually lose track of who we really are.We all need genuine friends and catalysts to help us find our journey.8:BIRDMAN                                           

You are truly your own worst critic.People live for applause.Things aren't always as they appear.Love and admiration are not the same.Everyone loves a comeback story.

9:THE LION KING
                                  

The past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it.
Being brave does not mean you go looking for troubles.

10>​WHIPLASH
                                                 

             

                                                 

             Never give up.The biggest enemy in our pursuit of excellence is our-self and our own failure to follow our passion, to accept that we have done a good job and post-rationalize our failure to become great on the people around us and things that life have thrown at us.








































3

Read More

Top 10 war movies

10. Where Eagles Dare
              

As the second world war thriller became bogged down during the mid-60s in plodding epics like Operation Crossbow and The Heroes of Telemark, someone was needed to reintroduce a little sang-froid, some post-Le Carré espionage, and for heaven's sake, some proper macho thrills into the genre. Alistair Maclean stepped up, writing the screenplay and the novel of Where Eagles Dare simultaneously, and Brian G Hutton summoned up a better than usual cast headed by Richard Burton (Major Jonathan Smith), a still fresh-faced Clint Eastwood (Lieutenant Morris Schaffer), and the late Mary Ure (Mary Elison).

Parachuted into the German Alps, they have one day to rescue an American general held in an apparently impregnable mountaintop fortress. As it turns out, there are about 40 more twists before the story resolves itself, adding some clever spy mechanics to a story that is otherwise an ecstatic, guilt-free orgy of Kraut-killing (Schaffer just loves mowing them down in their dozens). Every chase and gun battle is a classic, and the climactic fight on top of the cable cars remains etched in the memory of a generation. And yes, that is Burton, having the time of his life for a change. John Patterson

9. Rome, Open City
 

There is perhaps no film to rival the humanism and clarity of purpose of Roberto Rossellini's neorealist masterpiece, which documents the Nazi occupation of Rome and the bravery of the Italian resistance. It scarcely matters how many times you watch it, the image of a woman shot in the back as she runs through the street is astonishing in its barbarism.

Open City's great power is its immediacy. Rossellini started work as soon as allied tanks rolled into war-destroyed Rome in June 1944 (writing the script with Fellini), and by January he was shooting. Making a virtue of meagre resources, film was scavenged and Rossellini took his camera on to the streets (Rome's film studio Cinecittà was serving as a refugee camp). Parts look like newsreel footage: during filming of one scene involving Nazi officers (acted by grips) arresting a group of men, a passerby actually pulled out his revolver to stop them. But the story plays like a gripping thriller: a cat-and-mouse game between Gestapo and resistance cell.

Aldo Fabrizi stars as Don Pietro, a portly priest based on real-life underground hero Don Morosini. Anna Magnani is magnificent as the young widow protecting her lover, who is in hiding from the Germans. Fabrizi was known as a comic actor and Magnani had cut her teeth in cabaret; together they give the film tremendous warmth and heart. So while it is a great war film, Open City is filled with snapshots of daily life, family spats and love affairs, which become unbelievably moving in the context. Martin Scorsese said it is "the most precious moment of film history". Godard concurred, saying: "All roads lead to Rome, Open City." Cath Clarke

8. La Grande Illusion
                                     

It takes some doing to make a first world war film that transcends the war itself, but that's what Jean Renoir achieved with this authoritative but compassionate movie – to the extent that it was still dangerous by the time of the second. In addition, it's the wellspring of so many war-movie cliches: the seditious singing of the Marseillaise by French prisoners of war (later borrowed by Casablanca); the mechanics of tunnel-digging (as aped by The Great Escape). And it provided an enduring archetype of German officer-class stiffness in the form of Erich Von Stroheim's monocled, neck-braced Von Rauffenstein.


The principal "Illusion" that Renoir's film tackles is that of European aristocracy, and their belief that their class position superseded (and would survive) the inconvenient conflict they presently found themselves in – whichever side they were on. That notion is still desperately clung to by Von Rauffenstein, who thinks nothing of inviting the captive French pilots he's just shot down to lunch "if they're officers", and indeed, turns out to have moved in similar social circles to Pierre Fresnay's upper-crust de Boeldieu.

But there's no concealing where Renoir's real sympathies lie: with heroic commoner Marechal (Jean Gabin) and Jewish merchant Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio). Stronger affinities than class will hold the future Europe together, the film suggests – though there will be those who don't accept it. The film's foreshadowing of rising anti-semitism was certainly unacceptable to the Nazis. They confiscated the movie when they invaded France three years later, as a matter of priority.

On top of Renoir's political and humanist perceptions, La Grande Illusion is equally modern in its execution. The fluid camera moves feel ahead of their time and despite some theatrical acting, the characters are drawn with great credibility and compassion, and the prisoner-of-war life feels utterly authentic. Renoir had experience in these matters. He was a pilot during the first world war. His passion and anger were borne of first-hand experience, not just intellectual conviction. No wonder this feels more like a text than something simply made up. Steve Rose

7. The Deer Hunter

     

                            

Writer-director Michael Cimino had but one feature under his belt – the spirited caper movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot – before he found himself at the helm of the first epic studio movie directly about the lately concluded Vietnam war that had traumatised his country. Taking a leaf from Coppola's Godfather, Cimino opens his story slowly, with an extended working-class Russian-Orthodox wedding sequence in the three lead characters' Pennsylvania mining hometown, followed by a hunting trip to the nearby mountains.

He then plunges us directly – that is, in a single, brutal cut – into the flaming maelstrom of the war itself. Michael, Steven and Nick (Robert De Niro, John Savage and an epicene young Christopher Walken, respectively) find themselves trapped and captured after a vicious firefight, and forced by their Vietcong captors to play a nightmare version of Russian roulette. They manage to escape, though only Michael and Steven find their way back to the US. More or less destroyed inside, they find no place for themselves or their experiences at home and Michael returns to Saigon to rescue Nick. The Russian roulette aspect was widely criticised, and almost certainly never happened but, as a metaphor for America's suicidal intervention in south-east Asia, it cannot be beaten. JP

6. Three Kings

                             

                 
When he came to make his third film, David O Russell already had behind him an abrasive indie debut (Spanking the Monkey) and an accomplished modern screwball (Flirting with Disaster). But that could hardly prepare audiences for the ambition and reach of his black-comedy-with-a-conscience, Three Kings, about a gold heist that takes place at the end of the 1991 Gulf war. The movie came to be known briefly for starting a war of its own — between Russell and his star, George Clooney, who had dust-ups on set over the director's apparent volatility (the pair have only recently enjoyed a rapprochement). The film endures, though, as one of the great modern examples not only of the rhetorical weight of the best war movies but of the miracles that can occur when mavericks work in Hollywood.


It begins in the Iraqi desert. In a moment of confusion, Sgt Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) shoots a surrendering enemy officer. It hardly matters since no one knows what's going on anyway. "This war is over and I don't even know what it was about," complains a reporter. Sometimes, chaos and misconception can be an advantage. Storming into an Iraqi bunker to steal gold bullion that had itself been stolen by Saddam Hussein, Troy and his colleagues Sgt Major Archie Gates (Clooney) and Sgt Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) are assumed by terrified villagers to have arrived hotfoot from the latest massacre. But those army fatigues are not decorated with human flesh – the soldiers just happen to have been standing too close to a cow when it stepped on a cluster-bomb.

Although it has its roots in fact, the gold bullion is really just a plot device stolen from Kelly's Heroes long before Saddam Hussein seized it from Kuwait. What Three Kings is really concerned with is challenging some of the bogus US triumphalism that clung to the war at the time. Even more so than MASH or Catch-22, this is a war film in which comedy and visceral horror intensify one another. In one of the most striking moments, a bullet is traced as it carves into a man's chest in a lurid cross-section shot that will thrill anyone who owns a Visible Man model. In this movie more than any other since The Battle of Algiers, every bullet — and every human life — counts. Ryan Gilbey

5. Come and See

             

                                         
Taking its title from a verse from the Book of Revelation that describes the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Elem Klimov's 1985 depiction of the German occupation of Belarus is both as brutal and lyrical as that foundation suggests. It perhaps lacks the technical sophistication of the European cinema of its time, but Klimov's raw and urgent film is not interested in being like others. Its closest peer is Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum, in that it the story of a young boy during wartime; but this is a child whose innocence is much more quickly lost, starting as a sheltered adventurer but soon traumatised by the violent maelstrom of Adolf Hitler's war.


The film stars the then-unknown Aleksei Kravchenko as Flyora, who joins the resistance and is left behind by movement's concerned commander, Kosach (Liubomiras Lauciavicius). Although Kosach means to protect the boy, the opposite happens. Along with with local girl Glasha (Olga Mironova), Flyora faces the traumas of conflict alone, which Klimov underscores with frequent close-ups of the boy's horrified face, a deliberate homage to the silent epics of Russian master Sergei Eisenstein.

This is a film that shows the second world war in rural microcosm and is shocking in its artless savagery. Key is a sequence that shows the burning of civilians in a village church, the use of non-professionals as Nazis and victims only adding to its grotesque matter-of-factness. That it ends with a nod to Dziga Vertov's surreal Soviet classic Man With a Movie Camera, by running actual war footage back to the birth of Hitler, shows Klimov's poetic intent; though its people and landscapes are Russian, Come and See is not bound or defined by those things, rather it is a profound, universal and deeply subjective film whose only purpose is to bear witness to war as a form of collective insanity. Damon Wise

4. Ran

             

Kurosawa's last great film was made after many years in the wilderness. His star had fallen in Japan after a period of extraordinary artistic fertility ended in the mid-60s. His eyesight was failing; he'd attempted suicide. In 1980, he returned to favour with Kagemusha, which was seen as a rehearsal for his long-planned adaptation of King Lear. Ran finally appeared in 1985, and in its portrait of a great man who has lost control of his offices of power, critics were quick to read the experiences of the director himself.

Appropriating Lear gave Kurosawa scope to meditate on man's diminishing through age, but, in so doing, he produced, at 75, a film of breath­taking power and scale, and one of the most visually arresting war films ever made. The title translates as "chaos", and this is what erupts when Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), the patriarch of the Ichimonji clan, attempts to divide his kingdom between his three sons. The youngest son, like Cordelia, alerts the father to his folly and is banished. Accompanied by his fool Kyoami (played by the Japanese pop star Pita), Hidetora stumbles from one catastrophe to the next, watching powerlessly as his realm burns around him. The silent battle scene at the centre of the film, set to Toru Takemitsu's funereal score, has to be seen to be believed. Killian Fox

3. The Thin Red Line

                                 

In the 1962 James Jones novel on which it is based, this is a story about the Guadalcanal campaign, fought in the Solomon Islands in 1942-3. And while The Thin Red Line holds a deserved place in the annals of war movies it is rather more a war dreamed of by Terrence Malick than the one actually fought for in reality. For Jones, the "thin red line" came from Kipling and stood for the infantry, but it was also the line that separated the sane from the mad. The author of From Here to Eternity, Jones had actually served at Guadalcanal, but in the preface to his novel he admits he had created a place of the imagination. In truth, that is the key to Malick's film which, filmed in Queensland and in the Solomon Islands, is as interested in the flora and fauna of the Pacific as it is in the outcome of the combat. So we see American soldiers trying to take a hill, but we see more of the long grass in the wind than we do of the enemy. Beneath it all – the shooting and the talk – there is a sense of the island having been there long before and long after the battle.

There were always some critics who found this approach arty, and the film vacant of conventional excitement. It is a marvel that it ever got made as an expensive American picture, with a star-studded cast. But unlike Fred Zinnemann's 1953 epic From Here to Eternity, which starred Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed, there are no women as characters – even if we glimpse them as dream figures in the minds of the soldiers. It's a deeply mysterious movie, interested in so many things above and beyond war, and so beautiful that the sudden sight of bodies and damage come as a surprise. Malick wrote the film himself and he shot and edited it according to his own timetable. It's a measure of his reputation that so many big names were willing to be in this half-abstract picture – if only for a few scenes: John Travolta, George Clooney, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Elias Koteas, James Caviezel, Woody Harrelson. But the standout performance comes from Nick Nolte as a ranting colonel whose authority has been questioned, and who is the clearest proof of the army that James Jones loved and hated. David Thomson

2. Paths of Glory

                   

This is one of the darkest anti-war films ever made, in great part because its vision – that of the young director Stanley Kubrick (he was only 29, making his third full-length picture) – is as bleak as the story. The place is the western front of the first world war, in a section manned by the French army. An attack is decreed by General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou), and passed on to General Mireau (George Macready) to execute. Everyone knows the attack is doomed because infantry advancing over open ground torn apart by artillery barrages will be cut down by the machine guns in the secure German lines. But when the plan fails, Broulard determines that there must be scapegoats – alleged cowards or malingerers – who betrayed the national purpose. Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), who led the attack, is charged with picking three victims who will be subject to court martial and firing squad.


The Humphrey Cobb novel on which it is based had been published in 1935. At that time, Sidney Howard made a play out of it, but the play flopped. Kubrick loved the book and he got a script out of Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson (the famous pulp novelist who wrote The Grifters and The Killer Inside Me). The project became viable when Kirk Douglas agreed to play Dax and to produce the film for his own company, Bryna Productions. The trench and attack scenes were all shot for just under $1m. The photography is in glittering black and white, but the pattern of tracking shots is Kubrick's design – and he actually shot some of the attack scene himself with a hand-held camera.

For the rest, there is a stark, sardonic contrast between the splendid chateau where the officers live and the mean barracks for the enlisted men. Douglas is angry but repressed – this is one of his most controlled performances. Menjou and Macready are properly odious. The three scapegoats are Ralph Meeker, Joe Turkel and Timothy Carey, abject or defiant but not sentimentalised. If you expect any kind of mercy or relief, then you are misjudging the misanthropic tone of this movie. But the conclusion is a strange, touching gesture to hope and the future, and it involves a young German actress – Susanne Christian – who would become Kubrick's wife. DT

1. Apocalyse Now

             

               
It was John Milius who first came up with the idea of transposing Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to a Vietnam war setting. Milius wrote the first drafts of the screenplay; former war correspondent Michael Herr later added narration. George Lucas was down to direct, but it was Francis Ford Coppola who finally set out to make what was intended to be the ultimate statement about the madness of war. It turned out to be equally about the madness of movie-making. Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) hitches a lift on a Navy patrol boat up the Mekong river to Cambodia on a mission to terminate "with extreme prejudice" a certain Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who is reported to have gone native in rather a nasty way. But it's a long journey, and before he confronts the renegade colonel, Willard must first face all manner of trippy imagery, including the American Air Cavalry strafing a Vietnamese village to the sound of amplified Wagner, Robert Duvall declaring that he loves "the smell of napalm in the morning", a riot triggered by frugging bunny-girls, a Californian surfer on LSD and Dennis Hopper as a madly babbling photojournalist.


After this build-up, it's hard to separate the film from the circumstances of its production. Brando's arrival on set unprepared and overweight, necessitating his being shot only from certain angles in dim lighting, has now been incorporated into film-making legend, described in George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr's documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Film-maker's Apocalypse. For the opening shot, set to Jim Morrison singing "This is the end", several acres of palm trees in the Philippines were doused with 1,200 gallons of gasoline.

"There aren't too many places in the world you could do it," said Coppola. "They'd never let you in the US; the environmentalists would kill you." Leading actor Martin Sheen (who replaced Harvey Keitel two weeks into the shoot) suffered a heart attack, and a typhoon destroyed the sets. The budget soared from $12m to $30m and shooting dragged on from the scheduled six weeks to 16 months. With the director struggling to edit millions of feet of footage (literally) and come up with an ending, industry wags dubbed the unseen film Apocalypse When? and predicted it would be a disaster.

In the event, though, the finished film was a qualified, critical success and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Reviews were mixed, but within a year or so it had established itself as a modern classic, with young adult audiences in particular revelling in the hallucinatory visuals and quotable one-liners such as "Saigon... shit!", "Charlie don't surf!" and "Never get out of the boat!" Hollywood had largely steered clear of the war in Vietnam while it was being fought, but Coppola's film spearheaded a small cluster of attempts during the 80s to revisit it, albeit almost exclusively from the navel-gazing perspective of the Americans. In 2001, Coppola released an extended version called Apocalypse Now Redux which restored 49 minutes of footage cut from the original film, most notably a long sequence featuring Christian Marquand and Aurore Clément representing the legacy of French colonialism. "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and, little by little, we went insane," said the director. The experience certainly seemed to knock the stuffing out of Coppola, who has since failed to make anything even half as passionate or spectacular. Anne Billson

Read More