From 1963 to 1972, Steve McQueen was ‘the king of cool’; he carried a laidback attitude with an unconventional sheen, where he said very little but stole every scene he was in.

He grew up rough and tumble, with his father abandoning him as a baby, and living through the wrath of an alcoholic mother, before stints in petty crime, military school, and eventually the army itself. This journey gave him a contempt for authority, where he wanted to play by his rules and no one else’s.

After a successful stint on TV’s “Wanted: Dead or Alive”, he broke into the film business fairly quickly, making every opportunity on screen count, with him soon becoming a reliable supporting player that captivated audiences via his smooth charisma.

McQueen’s major splash was with “The Great Escape” (1963), and from then on, he essentially held a grip on Hollywood as one of its biggest stars. He was easy on the eyes for the ladies, but was also a believable tough guy for the men. He had a flawless run of macho movies during this period, with titles like “Bullitt”, “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “The Sand Pebbles”, “The Getaway”, and “The Cincinnati Kid”. Yet those films are such milestones that they tend to overshadow some of the smaller or more experimental work he did, which hide a strong and versatile actor who could fit well into a variety of genres…

1. Never So Few (1959)

In the late 50s, McQueen had begun building some heat on TV, and also had landed his first lead role in a movie that was a success… however, that film was “The Blob” (1958), and in those days, the horror genre was scoffed at by execs and critics, so it didn’t help him much. He had a lot to prove when he landed a supporting role in this bygone war movie, and he sure made it count.

The plot centres around the US ’involvement in Burma during WW2, as a small but tough squad of military, led by Frank Sinatra’s Captain, take on relentless Japanese forces in the jungle, with McQueen playing a transport officer who shows he’s more than capable with an assault rifle.

This forgotten movie manages to be a pretty fun watch, with it being a late 50s effort, they managed to fit in a romance subplot (with Gina Lollobrigida) and some comedy breaks in too, but the movie really appears to come alive when it is about a no-nonsense gang doing missions (with Charles Bronson amongst the crew as well). It is a formula that director John Sturges would excel later with “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Great Escape”, and this feels like the forgotten testing pad for those masterpieces, even though it doesn’t come close to their epic status, it does enough to make for a gratifying watch.

Sinatra is fine in the lead, he’s got his charm and can pull a dramatic scene when he needs to. McQueen was initially cast in a few scenes, but Sinatra took a liking to him, and his role was expanded to third lead, with him being an immediate physical presence in the action scenes, and consistently captivating, even in the background of scenes (a trait he would become well known for).

2. Hell Is for Heroes (1962)

By the early 60s, McQueen had starred in a string of war movies, displaying strong acting, although the quality of the films didn’t quite match his presence, until he was cast in this tough, white-knuckle tale that strangely seems to get underrated in his bigger filmography.

McQueen’s weathered soldier returns to the battlefield with a brand new squad, as they face off on the frontline, and become embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game against an impenetrable German bunker.

Shot in stark black and white, McQueen plays the hollowed-out private, his boyish good looks covered up with a dirty and unshaven profile, only with his piercing eyes cutting through the grime. Even at a young age, he convincingly plays a man who has gone to hell and back, with a near-silent role, but every glance speaks volumes. He’s ably supported by an ensemble of gruff character actors, including an early James Coburn making a short but memorable turn as the squad’s spectacled flamethrower expert.

The action is vicious and effective; the film is essentially one large standoff between two desperate squadrons, with the first two acts essentially played as strategic set-pieces that all build up to a bombastic finale of all-out war, where McQueen is unleashed in action star mode.

This one was expertly directed by alpha filmmaker Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, The Shootist), and it’s a grand shame that he and McQueen supposedly didn’t get along on set, as they brought the best out of each other at this point in their careers, and could’ve easily knocked out a string of effective action movies together.

3. Soldier in the Rain (1963)

McQueen’s impressive work in “Hell Is for Heroes” got overlooked due to its lukewarm box office performance. The performer continued to work in military movies, but with this gig, he fully shed the macho persona for something completely on the other side of the spectrum, but nonetheless effective.

Set on a military base during peacetime, the movie is a ‘buddy comedy’, with quick-witted hustler Jackie Gleason as the master sergeant, coupled with McQueen’s milder lower-ranking soldier as his partner-in-crime, and straight man, in what starts as a zany comedy, before evolving into something much more involving.

From the jump, it’s almost shocking to see McQueen, playing an ‘aw shucks ’type of innocent, but he manages to pull it off, essentially, letting Gleason be the vibrant wild card role. While not a masterpiece, the film is really elevated by the two leads, who hold a fantastic rapport with each other, as their shared scenes are dynamite and make it an enjoyable experience from end to end, with an unanticipated dramatic third act. It’s one of McQueen’s rare forays into comedy; he fully disappears into the character, and the result was proof he was more than capable of holding his own in the genre, even next to a vet like Gleason.

4. Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)

McQueen was growing hot at this point in Hollywood, with 1963 his true breakthrough year with “The Great Escape”; however, pre-superstardom, he explored different avenues he could fit into as a leading man, and it landed him two collaborations with the Oscar-winning team of director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan J Pakula (To Kill a Mockingbird). One of those collaborations, “Baby the Rain Must Fall” (1965), was a decent if fairly melodramatic Horton Foote adaptation. However, the trio’s first collaboration is a standout that deserves rediscovery in the modern age.

The captivating Natalie Wood plays a put-upon lady in a tight-knit New York Italian household, who finds out she’s pregnant, after a fling with McQueen’s care-free playboy. After he’s confronted with the truth, the two decide to support each other through the abortion process; however, as the day goes by, real feelings of genuine affection begin to emerge on both sides.

Both leads are perfectly cast, Wood is tightly wound with the pressure of her family and unfair odds constantly against her, and McQueen is terrifically cast as the ladies’ man out of his depth, who ultimately steps up to the plate. It’s an engrossing romance that sees the two characters convincingly grow by the movie’s end, and it certainly helps the two have a sparkling dynamic from the word go.

Mulligan expertly directs the piece; it’s not a one-dimensional rom-com but a dynamic character drama with a solid love story in the middle of it, and it’s coupled with fetching period New York photography and a handful of impressive support cast. It’s a display that if McQueen hadn’t blown up into the ‘King of Cool ’that year, he might’ve found himself excelling in roles more akin to Ryan O’Neal or Robert Redford.

5. Nevada Smith (1966)

By the mid-60s, McQueen had become a full-blown star. Studios were falling over themselves to cast him in anything they could get their hands on, which likely explains how he landed the role of a 16-year-old half-Native American here, even though he was blonde, blue-eyed, and 35 years old. Luckily, it’s a pretty effective revenge tale, lost in the flood of his bigger movies in his golden period.

McQueen is the titular character, a young man who has his two parents murdered in the film’s opening by a trio of sinister thugs (played with delicious scenery chewing by Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy, and Karl Malden). This shocking opening starts him off on his journey, as he grows from a novice to a quick-draw gunman, and from a naive boy to a weathered man.

As said, the initial casting is a bit of a pill to swallow, but luckily McQueen is great in the role, evolving as the film moves forward, from a hotheaded whelp to the capable hunter he becomes. It also helps having some of the era’s best character actors in the villain roles, and none of them disappoint, with Landau’s demise a particularly memorable one.

Renowned genre director Henry Hathaway (True Grit, Kiss of Death) handles proceedings with a polished slant; the film plays out like a classic 50s western, yet coupled with a 60s grit, showcasing some startling violence at certain points. It takes us on an impressive journey with our main character, one where we’re rooting for him to win the day, even though, when faced with it, the results aren’t always quite as black-and-white.

There is a truly fascinating film to be made about Michael Jackson, but Antoine Fuqua’s incredibly cliched biopic isn’t it. Charting the rise of the late pop icon from his early days in the Jackson Five, run by their abusive father Joseph (a reliably solid Colman Domingo), Michael zips along at quite a pace, never fleshing anything out and completing every cliche you could think of. And it only takes a brief look at the credits to ascertain the hagiographic approach the film takes; numerous members of the Jackson family are involved, and not a single mention or reference is made to the glaring elephant in the room for its entire duration.

At the centre of it all is Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s nephew, who takes on the role of his uncle in a truly impressive portrayal; throwing himself into the story and, alongside Juliano Valdi as the young ten-year-old Michael, is easily the most impressive thing about the film. Antoine Fuqua is the man in the director’s chair, a filmmaker whose films – apart from the Equalizer trilogy – have arguably got progressively worse since his Oscar-winning Training Day back in 2001. But of all his work, Michael might well be the most ill-judged.

Not because it’s a badly made film or indeed a bad film at all from a technical point of view. It’s solidly made with a great performance at the centre of it, but when it ends, you’re left wondering where the rest of the film is. According to Variety, the initial opening of the film showed police turning up to Jackson’s house following accusations of child abuse in 1993, but due to legal reasons, this was removed. So, Michael ends in 1988 with a stadium performance of ‘Bad’, followed by the words ‘The story continues’, before we fade to the credits. Rumour has it that there might well be a sequel if this film is a success, which it undoubtedly will be. But if this messianic fawning over such a figure, whilst ignoring the rest of the story completely, is anything to go by, there’s no chance we’ll ever see it. If we received it in its true form, it would be like watching a Pixar film followed by Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975).

To say that Fuqua’s film is safe, as some critics have suggested, is incorrect. There’s nothing safe about Michael. It’s a well put-together, well-acted, by-the-numbers biopic in which the dialogue tells you nothing interesting about the central character beyond the fact he had a difficult childhood while offering you a middle-of-the-road rags-to-riches tale that doesn’t so much sidestep the gaping holes in the story as sprint as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. It almost begs the audience not to ask questions and accept what’s being put in front of them. So, it’s not safe; in some ways, one could argue it’s the opposite in terms of the message it’s trying to send.

And because of the enormous fan base that remains intact, regardless of any potential wrongdoing, the film will make an astonishing amount of money. The songs themselves (along with Jackson’s talent) remain timeless, and they sound every bit as good as they always have done here. Everyone involved in the film has been at pains to distance themselves from some of the early critical response, claiming this is the movie they all wanted to make and that they’ve done right by themselves.

But even if you take away the whitewashing of the story and accept this film for what it is, it remains incredibly bland. Jackson’s love of animals and children, along with his soft-spoken nature and his openness about his emotions, are all present and correct here, but they don’t really go anywhere. The film appears to lay the blame for Jackson’s eccentricities at the feet of his father, and there’s probably truth in that; there’s no question his upbringing greatly affected him. But it constantly feels like there’s a whole other movie to come that tackles Jackson’s increasingly perplexing behaviour, even though we know we’re not going to get it.

I don’t know whether the film ending with the performance of ‘Bad’ is in some small way the film’s attempt to touch on the fact that this story is far from all good. But I’m clutching at straws. The final half hour or so, which provides us with entire live performances of songs during the final Jackson Five tour before switching to the 1988 Wembley Stadium act of ‘Bad’, is almost laughable in its shots of swooning fans and near Christlike depictions of its main man. No one is disputing Jackson’s astonishing talent or the quite breathtaking impact he had on the world stage, but at this point, you’re struggling to believe how the film has managed to get so far depicting Jackson in such a light without going near the unspeakable things he was accused of, and then it appears to double down for the final fling.

It sometimes feels genuinely uncomfortable in the way we’re watching something dressed up as pure entertainment that really deserves to be delved into a whole lot more. And while Jaafar Jackson’s excellent display does occasionally allow you to bask in the brilliance of the songwriter and his songs, it’s simply not enough to detract from everything that’s not happening.

Author Bio: Christian Keane is a film critic who explores overlooked gems, cult classics, and cinema’s hidden corners. He believes it’s great to disagree — everyone’s perspective matters — and shares his thoughts on his website and across his socials at Keane on Film, which you can find here https://linktr.ee/christiankeane7. You can also find him on Tiktok @keane.on.film and Instagram @keaneonfilm.

The Seventies was a decade in which audiences were bombarded with great cinema; indeed, there are many who still consider it to be the greatest decade in cinema history. We had the birth of the blockbuster as we know it in 1975, with Spielberg’s Jaws hitting cinemas and convincing people that it was absolutely not safe to enter the water anymore. We were introduced to the world of George Lucas’s Star Wars, told that in space no one could hear you scream (the tagline for 1979’s Alien), and of course were wowed by Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and its sequel.

It was undoubtedly a decade of growth within the industry, and while these more well-known films are rightly championed (well, most of them anyway), the seventies also offered up plenty of films that remain thoroughly underappreciated to this day.

In this list we look at ten of these underrated films, that might well not have the scope or production values of films that had money pumped into them by studios but are nevertheless worthy of your time.

1. Macbeth (1971)

It seems like we’ve had a deluge of Shakespeare adaptations over the last decade or so, and Macbeth alone has had two major adaptations, including one directed by Joel Coen and one starring Michael Fassbender as the titular king. But it’s Roman Polanski’s 1971 version that arguably remains the highpoint of the story’s cinematic journey.

Jon Finch does an excellent job of capturing the descent into madness of Macbeth, aided rather wonderfully by Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth, probing her husband and persuading him into shocking deeds. The story itself needs no explanation; we’ve seen and read many different iterations of Shakespeare’s initial works. Polanski, though, brings something raw and brutal to proceedings. He made Macbeth shortly after the Manson murders, and you can see the shocking influence seeping into the violence unfolding on screen.

Polanski’s vision is hugely impressive; the entire film looks like you’re really watching 11th-century Scotland. And unlike so many Shakespeare adaptations, Polanski’s Macbeth always feels like a film rather than a filmed play.

2. Executive Action (1973)

David Miller’s Executive Action remains one of the more interesting takes on the JFK assassination. Starring Burt Lancaster as Farrington, a Black ops specialist; Robert Ryan as the shadowy figurehead of the conspiracy; and Will Geer as an oil magnate- bankrolling the whole operation, the film tells the story of these wealthy conservatives and intelligence operatives who decide that JFK’s liberal policies make him a problem that needs removing.

The film builds methodically towards the inevitable Dallas finale, and its cold procedural tone makes it a gripping and fascinating watch. This is a far cry from the world of Oliver Stone (and was released nearly two decades before Stone’s JFK), yet also uses real footage that gives it an authenticity despite its fictional narrative. Lancaster and Ryan are both superb as men who have convinced themselves that what they’re planning is simply an absolute necessity rather than a monstrous act.

Miller’s film is also a brave and bold piece of narrative storytelling in itself, the assassination ten years previously still felt very recent on the film’s release, and telling the tale from the conspirator’s point of view was not only risky, but it also guaranteed some sort of backlash. Thankfully for Miller, Executive Action remains one of the great conspiratorial films yet is hardly ever mentioned in such a bracket.

3. Busting (1974)

Elliot Gould and Robert Blake star in Peter Hyams’s buddy cop thriller as two LAPD vice squad detectives who attempt to bust organised crime, facing numerous obstacles along the way such as police corruption and the mob’s influence. It all sounds like something you’ve seen a hundred times before, yet Hyams’s directorial debut offers up a lot more if you scratch beneath the surface.

Busting provides audiences with a thoroughly engaging portrayal of the police force and the challenges they face in a corrupt system, with Gould and Blake providing ample scope as a mismatched pair who constantly bicker but ultimately are after the same thing. The film doesn’t glamourise its often-gritty depiction of the scene and offers up the suggestion that it’s the systems in play that are ultimately to blame rather than any individual or group.

Busting is frequently discarded as a by-the-numbers buddy cop film, but it’s a far more intriguing piece of film-making than that and was a big influence on Starsky & Hutch, which you can clearly see if you gIve Hyams’s film the attention it deserves.

4. The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

Peter Weir is certainly better known for many other films, and his feature debut looks like a very strange one looking back- but there’s far more terrific stuff in there than you might initially expect. Paris is a small, isolated Australian town with a dark secret- the locals deliberately cause car crashes on a nearby hill, salvage the wrecks for parts, and either put the survivors to work or hand them over to the doctor for experiments.

Arthur (Terry Camilleri) and his brother George crash on their way through the village, and while George dies in the accident, Arthur survives with amnesia and gets taken in by the mayor of the town, who has his own reasons for keeping him close. The Cars That Ate Paris, as you might have guessed by its very title, is a strange beast indeed. It doesn’t fit neatly into any genre, and it’s part horror, part social satire, and part comedy, although none of those really do the film justice.

Weir’s debut feature is an odd yet very interesting film, one that will keep you gripped simply by the fact that you never have any idea where it’s going.

5. The Passenger (1975)

Jack Nicholson is tremendous as David Locke, a burnt-out journalist who assumes the identity of a dead man in Michaelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger. Locke is covering a civil war in Chad when he swaps identities with the dead businessman in the next hotel room, not for any particular reason, partly perhaps because he can’t face his own life anymore and partly on impulse.

Unsurprisingly, The Passenger hits upon themes of identity with impressive effect and, despite its meandering pace, is unrelentingly gripping. Locke doesn’t realise until it’s too late that the man was an arms dealer with very dangerous clients, and Locke drifts across Europe with a young woman he picks up along the way (Maria Schneider), while his wife and the police close in from one direction and the arms dealers from another.

Plenty has been made of the film’s final shot, but what comes before it is often forgotten, especially when the subject of Antonioni’s best film comes up. Nicholson completely disappears into the role and is staggeringly good, fully convincing you of the feeling of hopelessness he portrays as he realises the impossibility of escape. This is a sweeping epic of a film yet it’s extremely minimal and is all the better for it.

With Joachim Trier landing nine Oscar nominations for Sentimental Value this year, it told us that Scandinavian cinema is alive and extremely healthy, as if we needed a reminder. Television over the past decade or so has been rife with Nordic Noir (The Bridge, The Killing and so on) while in cinema directors like Trier, Roy Andersson and Thomas Vinterberg to name but a few have been putting Scandinavian cinema well and truly on the mainstream map.

There’s a huge number of excellent films to choose from over the past quarter of a century, but in this list, we attempt to pick out the fifteen greatest Scandinavian films of the 21st century. Some you will have seen, but there are perhaps one or two that you can add to your watchlist- all of them are excellent.

1. Songs from the Second Floor (2002)

Stockholm is falling apart, and nobody can explain why. A furniture salesman who burned down his own shop for insurance money drifts through a city where traffic has permanently gridlocked, a magician has sawed a volunteer in half and can’t undo it, and the dead are climbing out of their graves to queue outside their hold homes. Sound odd?

Even though none of it is connected by strict narrative, it’s more that civilization had decided to stop functioning and everyone seems too tired to do anything about it. Roy Andersson spent twenty-five years between features before making this, and every single frame looks like he used the time well. He built entire cityscapes inside a studio, and the whole thing feels like something constructed with every section fully thought out.

It will be unsurprising to learn that Songs from the Second Floor is quite unlike anything you’ve ever seen before- add to that the fact that’s it’s genuinely funny. Really. This was the start of Andersson’s Living Trilogy that he completed with You, the Living (2007) and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014), but this remains the superior piece- and if you haven’t seen it, now’s the time to put that right.

2. Let the Right One In (2008)

Thomas Alfredson went on to helm Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and this was part of the reason he was given the gig. Oskar (a superb Kare Hedebrant) is a twelve-year-old boy who is bullied relentlessly and spends his evenings alone in the snow-covered courtyard of his housing estate in suburban Stockholm. One night a girl his age moves into the flat next door with an older man who might be her father, and the pair of them slowly become friends, although it’s immediately apparent that the girl, Eli (Lina Leandersson, who is sensational) is not the person Oskar expected her to be.

Alfredson manages to make a vampire film that never feels like one, because he understands that’s not the point. This is a coming-of-age tale about the loneliness of childhood and human connection, and the performances of the two young leads sell the film entirely. The film feels like it’s been shot in a frozen state of time, and it’s a deeply emotional and moving piece of work.

Although it was remade several years later for a Hollywood audience, don’t touch that version with a bargepole- Alfredson’s original remains one of the greatest works of the 21st century.

3. Headhunters (2011)

Jo Nesbo’s novels have always felt ripe for adaptation, and Morten Tyldum transfered book to screen with aplomb for 2011’s Headhunters. Aksel Hennie stars as Roger Brown, Norway’s top corporate headhunter and art thief- who steals paintings to fund a lifestyle designed to keep his taller, more attractive wife from realizing she married beneath her. When he targets a former military operative who owns a rare Rubens, the job goes catastrophically wrong, and Roger finds himself hunted by a man who is better at everything than he is.

Headhunters is a brilliantly entertaining exercise in excess, with everything rocketed up to eleven, and everyone has an absolute blast, most importantly the audience. Tyldum keeps the pace relentless, and the tone perfectly balanced between thriller and black comedy, meaning Headhunters was- and remains- one of the most enjoyable Scandinavian films of this century.

4. Oslo, 31st August (2011)

It won’t be the last time he crops up on this list, and Joachim Trier’s adaptation of Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s novel is a devastating and brilliant piece of work. Anders (Anders Danielson Lie) is in rehab for drug addiction and is given a day pass to attend a job interview in Oslo. He visits old friends, sits in cafes, walks through the city and tries to figure out whether the life waiting for him once he gets out of rehab is the one he actually wants.

Lie is brilliant in the central role, portraying a polite, intelligent and self-aware individual, meeting people who genuinely care about him, yet he can’t quite close the distance between what he’s feeling and what they’re offering. Trier ensures there’s no melodramatic lightbulb moment; this is simply a day with Anders that slowly reveals the lack of reasons he has to continue life on the other side. It’s one of the best performances of the 21st century, and Trier has since proven this was no one off.

5. Melancholia (2011)

This is easily one of Lars von Trier’s most accessible films, despite the fact it’s still about as far removed from a mainstream film as you could get. It opens with the end of the world; another planet crashes into earth and destroys us all. We then backtrack to Justine’s (Kirsten Dunst) wedding a few days previously, a lavish ceremony at a grand country estate owned by her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). The event slowly disintegrates as Justine sinks into a depression so deep she can barely stand- yet in the following days, Claire is the one who panics, while Justine is suddenly as calm as can be.

You can read Melancholia in many different ways, none of which might actually be von Trier’s intention. What isn’t up for debate is how good Dunst is in the role of Justine, pulling you both into her initial depression and subsequent other worldly calm. Gainsbourg is also excellent, and Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Rampling round out a superb cast, all of whom assist in making this one of von Trier’s finest films to date.

So often he can infuriate, but with Melancholia he’s produced something legitimately awe inspiring- and the visual effects at the film’s ending are every bit as beautiful as they are tragic.

6. The Hunt (2012)

The Hunt is absolutely terrifying, despite not being a horror film. Or rathe it is, but not in the traditional sense. Mads Mikkelsen is astonishing as Lucas, a well-liked kindergarten teacher in a small Danish town, recently divorced, rebuilding his life. Klara, the young daughter of his best friend, says something to a nursery worker that is interpreted as an accusation of sexual abuse. It’s not true, but it doesn’t matter.

Thomas Vinterberg constructs the film with the mechanics of a horror movie, and the accusation spreads through the town not because anyone has any evidence, but because nobody is willing to be the person who questions the child’s testimony. Once the community has decided Lucas is guilty, the truth doesn’t matter.

Mikkelson gives a performance of astonishing restraint; he never pleads his innocent or rages at the appalling situation he finds himself in. It’s an astounding piece of work, and utterly chilling.

7. Force Majeure (2014)

Ruben Ostlund went on to win back-to-back Palm d’Or’s after this, yet Force Majeure is where he set down his inimitable style. Force Majeure sets up a fascinating family premise- a Swedish family is on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, and one morning, they’re having breakfast on a balcony overlooking the mountain when a controlled avalanche appears to veer out of control and barrel towards them. The mother grabs the children; the father grabs his phone and runs. The avalanche is harmless, everyone is fine- but the marriage is not.

Johannes Kuhnke and Lisa Loven Kongsli are flawless as the married couple, and we sit watching through our fingers as their marriage slowly falls apart in front of our eyes. The entire film is built from one moment of cowardice, but it’s not the act that the film focuses on; it’s the aftermath.

The family dynamic is stretched to its limits, and Force Majeure does a wonderful job of putting you front and center of the impossible situation as it unfolds. Ostlund might have gone on to produce even finer films, but this might remain his most important.

From all the tough-guy actors who emerged in the 60s to the 70s, no one felt more the genuine article than Charles Bronson, with a tough upbringing giving that cracked-leather face and razor-sharp eyes an extra nuance of authenticity. Born into a dirt-poor Lithuanian immigrant family in Pennsylvania, he was one of 15 children, worked in the coal mines as a teenager, and fought in World War 2 (where he won a Purple Heart) before ever picking up a movie gun.

Yet, despite his credentials, Bronson had a winding, hard road to superstardom. Persistence paid off; he was typecast as a henchman throughout the 50s, as a reliable supporting player in big movies throughout the 60s, and then moved to Europe, becoming one of the biggest and highest-paid movie stars well into the 70s. This had Hollywood calling him back, and he managed to knock out some large pictures before finding a foothold in harsh vigilante movies, which he’s most famous for, and gave him work till his final days.

Bronson sits as a prime example of the type of movie star we don’t get anymore, ones that seemed to walk the walk, just like they talked the talk (when they actually did talk that is). With classic action films like “Once Upon a Time in the West”, “The Dirty Dozen”, “Death Wish”, and “The Magnificent Seven”, he stands proudly next to peers like Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin.

Yet, what of the under-seen and overlooked projects? His big titles overshadowed a large variety of interesting work that the unexpected versatile actor knocked out.

1. Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)

Inspired by the real-life exploits of the titular Prohibition-era criminal, Bronson had been toiling away as henchmen in genre movies (most memorable in the 1953’s “House of Wax”), but it was Roger Corman, the low-budget king (here as director/producer), that gave him his first leading role, and it’s one where he is immediately captivating.

Strangely, the film comes across as a deconstruction of Bronson’s later stoic badass persona, as the titular criminal’s gun-tooting alpha bravado is all really a mask for a fragile, cowardly interior, with his increasingly dangerous exploits egged on by his Lady Macbeth-style moll Susan Cabot, in a surprisingly dynamic central relationship.

The film was made during Corman’s Crime Thriller phase, where he could knock these pictures out on a C-budget and make them look like an A-picture with ease. The tension is solid, the violence is sudden, and the lead actors are strong in a crime movie with an unexpected amount of depth.

It received decent box office and reviews at the time, and led to Bronson getting supporting work in big pictures; however, this one is often overlooked in retrospect, as it doesn’t comfortably fit with Bronson’s more celebrated titles. Whilst it’s not a masterpiece of the era, it does a lot with very little, and showcases the main actor’s mold and versatility right from the jump.

2. Farewell, Friend (1968)

Despite relentlessly working in the 60s, Bronson was refused leading man roles in America. With his craggy face and unconventional aura, he wasn’t seen as movie star material. Also, during this period, he would majorly regret a decision; he had the opportunity to play the lead in a low-budget Italian movie, and outright refused. That film was Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), which catapulted a similar underused Hollywood player, Clint Eastwood, into superstardom. So when France’s most exciting actor at the time, Alain Delon, personally requested Bronson to play his counterpart in a French crime thriller, Bronson didn’t think twice this time and packed his bags.

This resulted in a film that oozes late 60s cool, sweaty heist tension, and an absolutely electric chemistry between Delon and Bronson, playing two Army vets who begrudgingly team up to rob a financial firm, only to become trapped inside the location over a holiday weekend.

It’s a strange inverse of a heist movie, the ticking bomb aspect taken away, with the robbers becoming stuck with nothing but time to complete the job, as opposed to a squad of police breaking through the door. Yet the setup gives the stars a platform to absolutely shine, Delon’s ridiculously handsome, icy-cool presence making a delicious contrast to Bronson’s charming yet no-nonsense alpha charisma. The two play into a conventional ‘buddy movie ’formula, with the brittle relationship ultimately riding the arc into mutual admiration and friendship.

Add to that stylishly cool direction by Jean Herman, a stunningly ominous main location, and a handful of involving set-pieces, and you have the film that blew Bronson up into Europe’s in-demand leading man, and opened the door to collaborating with Leone once again. While a major success in France at the time, this one gets overlooked by action fans due to the unconventional period in the actor’s backlog and possibly its Euro sheen, but for fans of his work, it’s a must-watch.

3. Rider on the Rain (1970)

After his team-up with Delon, Bronson found himself in a strange position in the French film industry: that of an unconventional sex symbol. With his cold gaze, pure muscle physique, and take-charge attitude, everything that Hollywood had shunned him for became a positive in Gaelic territory, and that brief sojourn as ladies’ man resulted in this gripping psychological thriller by René Clément (“Purple Noon”, “Is Paris Burning?”).

Marlene Jobert is takes on the strong main lead, playing a married housewife in small-town France. In a nightmarish first act, she’s alone at her house and is preyed upon by a maniac; he assaults her, and she enacts revenge, desperately concealing his body. Enter Bronson’s American investigator, a man who was tracking the dead culprit, and is seemingly on to Jobert’s crime in a psychological game of cat-and-mouse.

The best way to describe the film is “In the Mood for Love” by way of Hitchcock, it’s a captivating tense thriller from the jump, yet once Bronson’s character enters the fray, it ultimately gets hijacked into a scintillating off-kilter romance with psychological tension, with absolute fiery chemistry between the two, where every gesture and flirtation feels epic, and where a forbidden tryst would bring crumble both their worlds. Jobert is fantastic as the ordinary lady who gets thrown into a tornado of chaos and fights to survive, whilst Bronson captivates with every moment he’s onscreen as her adversary/love interest.

A success in France at the time, but overlooked across the rest of the globe, it makes for a gripping watch due to an involving lead performance, Clement’s nuanced direction, and Bronson proving that he can pull off a romantic lead without compromising his stellar persona.

4. Violent City (1970)

At this point, Bronson was riding high off the success from his seismic turn in Leone’s “Once Upon A Time In The West” (1968), and began to swerve from the suave alpha persona in French films into an in-demand badass of few words for the Italian industry.

For this effort, he was hired by another prolific countryman named Sergio, namely Sollima (“Revolver”, “The Big Gundown”), a director who didn’t hold the same nostalgic romanticism of past American genre movies as Leone; his Westerns and Crime films were dirty and nihilistic, with the resulting film a high-tier product of his selective filmography.

Playing like a less dreamy rendition of Lee Marvin’s “Point Blank”, the film has Bronson’s criminal backstabbed and left for dead. The lead is left with a cold determination to get revenge on everyone and everything that betrayed him, with the seemingly simple plot eventually unravelling a series of twists and turns that will engage until its final moments.

This was one of the first times Bronson took on his trademark persona, and later renditions of it would have him play it in his sleep, yet this film has him engaged and passionate about his determined bull relentlessly charging through a carefully organised crime syndicate, leaving destruction in his wake.

Add to that the first onscreen pairing of Bronson with his offscreen wife Jill Ireland (whom he had whisked away from husband David McCallum during filming “The Great Escape”). The two would star in around fifteen films together, and here is one of their best onscreen matches, with her playing his conflicted and ultimately tragic love interest.

Add to that, you have an ever-hammy Telly Savalas stealing the show in the third act, a banger of an Ennio Morricone score, and Sollima’s stylish yet no-nonsense direction, resulting in one of the strongest recommendations on this list.

5. Red Sun (1971)

Former James Bond director Terence Young directed three films in a very brief period with Bronson across Europe during the early 70’s. “Cold Sweat” (1970) was a fairly mid action thriller, and “The Valachi Papers” (1972), was a watchable if unremarkable mob movie. While both films were fairly forgettable, their other collaboration, “Red Sun”, a ballsy genre smash-up, is anything but.

Featuring a stunning cast line-up, Bronson is joined by Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon, and Ursula Andress. The plot essentially collides Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns with Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai epics, as the latter’s stock swordsman actor, Mifune, travels to the American West to track a stolen ceremonial sword. This has him link up with Bronson’s wise-cracking cowboy, who was betrayed by his former partner, Delon, and that might hold the sought-after item.

With Mifune playing the near-silent man of violence, it’s up to Bronson to play against type as the quick-mouthed opposite, a shake-up he appears to enjoy. Delon (teaming a second time with Bronson) is relishing the serpent-like villain you love to hate, and Andress pulls solid support as the feisty (and of course stunning) love interest.

It’s a bizarre hybrid that comes nowhere near the level of the films it homages, yet it works better than it has any right to, and is as much fun as it is as a concept, as it is on screen. Young, when given a proper budget, really could knock out an endlessly enjoyable action product during this period. It’s an oddball concoction for sure, and Bronson is playing against convention, but it has to be seen to be believed.

Amidst the tidal wave of new releases that hit us across every platform as well as our cinema screens, there has never been a period in history where we’ve had this much access to this number of films. Which means when people are browsing a film to watch on their various streaming services, the choice is both immense, and overwhelming.

Long gone are the days of perusing your local video emporium for a physical copy of a film to rent for the evening; that ritual is one that has sadly been consigned to the dustbin. But there’s several boutique labels popping up now that are forming physical releases of films that have been previously hard to track down. Which means that we now have some sort of access to a whole range of films that were thought long forgotten, many of which are superb pieces of film making and well worth your time and money in hunting out.

In this list, we pick out ten international crime thrillers that might have escaped your attention. Some of them have only recently become widely available; some of them only received patchy releases, but all of them are films that should have been singled out for bigger praise on their initial releases.

1. Chnouf (1955)

Directed by Henri Decoin and based on a novel by Auguste Le Breton (the same writer behind Rififi), Chnouf stars Jean Gabin as a master criminal who returns from the US to take control of a Paris narcotics ring, navigating corrupt dealers, police pressure and underworld double crosses. On paper, it might seem like your average crime thriller.

But Decoin’s film is an early example of a crime epic, and undoubtedly one of the definitive French noir policiers of the 1950’s. Gabin is exceptional, and he’s joined by Lino Ventura as a rather menacing hitman, adding real weight to proceedings. Chnouf often reminds you of Howard Hawks’s 1932 film Scarface, bringing real depth to its world and characters. While the cinematic adaptation of Rififi (1955) is widely, and rightly, considered by many to be the godfather of the heist genre, Chnouf hasn’t got the same adulation in terms of crime thrillers, which is a real shame.

Thematically it’s ahead of its time, presenting a hardened hierarchical of organised crime, and its depiction of addiction and withdrawal remains candid today, and in 1955 it was bold to say the least. Chnouf is a masterclass in precision and execution and stands today as one of the finest French thrillers ever put to screen.

2. Paris Pick-Up (1962)

This is surely one of the lesser-known alternative Christmas films, but it’s one that you should be adding to your list for this year if you haven’t seen it. An ex-convict Robert (Robert Hossein) spends Christmas Eve with a married woman, but when they head back to her apartment, they find her husband dead on the sofa. Over the course of the night, several things happen, including the body disappearing; leaving Robert in a serious spot of bother, and wondering what exactly is going on.

The set up and execution are Hitchcockian without any shadow of a doubt (pun intended), but Marcel Bluwal’s film is very much its own thing. It takes cues from Hitchcock but builds its own suspense, leaving the audience to figure out for themselves just what exactly is going on.

Setting the whole thing over one night gives a certain claustrophobia and desperation to proceedings, ramping up the tension while the apartment becomes a character itself by the film’s conclusion. It’s underseen yet excellent film making and deserves to be added to your Christmas film viewing for this year.

3. Gang War in Milan (1973)

Gang War in Milan is an example of how good the poliziottesco sub genre could be. A style of police procedural prominent especially in the 70’s in Italy, Gang War in Milan revolves around a produce vendor named Salvator ‘Toto’ Cangemi, who also works as a pimp. When a ruthless French drug dealer known as ‘Le Capitaine’ rolls into town and tries to muscle Toto’s girls into selling heroin, Toto refuses; a decision that somewhat predictably results in an escalating gang war.

Antonio Sabato is brilliantly down to earth as Toto, while Philippe Leroy is requisitely nasty as Le Capitaine, both of them bringing a violent edge to Umberto Lenzi’s exploitation piece that leans into American noir. The film uses the narrative of the central pair being two sides of the same coin, a trait that would go on to feature prominently in the films of Michael Mann, one of the modern masters of the genre.

Gang War in Milan isn’t subtle and doesn’t try to sell itself as such; it’s a down and dirty poliziottesco thriller that doesn’t pull any punches.

4. Killer Cop (1975)

This is another poliziottesco film, this time directed by Luciano Ercoli, and based in the Piazza Fontana bombing that occurred in Milan in 1969. It explodes in a hotel during an international conference, and what follows is more of a battle against bureaucracy and politics as narcotics detective Matteo Rolandi (an excellent Claudio Cassinelli) tries to get to the truth as everyone around him seemingly tries to bury it.

Killer Cop might sound, by its very title, like some kind of video nasty, and there’s no doubting the disturbing nature of some of the film, including use of real funeral footage from the time, but Ercoli’s film is a superb police procedural giving a fascinating insight into the internal department problems that hamper a case, while being forced into corners by the chain of command.

At times Killer Cop feels like the odd one out of the sub genre, far more restrained and subdued than its peers. And for that reason and many more, it’s worth your time.

5. Like Rabid Dogs (1976)

Mario Imperoli’s film centers on Tony, a young man who spends his time outside of work persecuting and murdering prostitutes with the help of a couple of friends. Like Rabid Dogs was preceded by Vittorio Salerno’s Savage Three (1975), a film that also concerned random acts of brutal violence by disillusioned young sociopaths, and Imperoli chooses to expand on the shock nature of the B-movie picture, including a particularly vicious scene where the perpetrators force a terrified couple to have sex at gunpoint, it certainly has the feel of Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) by way of the video nasties.

But Like Rabid Dogs is a raw and unflinching piece of work, and although it can be difficult viewing, Imperoli’s film stands out for the bold and brash piece of work it is. Critics were initially very unkind towards the film, claiming the fascistic overtones were problematic; yet the movie going public generally felt a depressing connection with the film’s depiction of social concerns of the era.

The all-time great director William Friedkin sadly left us a few years ago, having built up an astonishing body of work over more than five decades. This is a man who traversed many different genres; giving us one of the best horror films of all time, one of the biggest flops in box-office history (despite being a masterpiece), as well as dipping his toes into the erotic thriller with his frankly underrated Jade (1995).

Towards the end of his career his output slowed down somewhat, yet his work remained extremely solid with his final feature, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial being released shortly before his death in 2023.

Friedkin’s films frequently proved controversial; indeed his 1980 masterpiece Cruising sparked outrage on its release and its star, Al Pacino, refused to be drawn into conversation about it for many years. Never one to shy away from difficult subject matter, Killer Joe (2011), one of his final feature films was also shunned by some critics for its contentious scenes.

Here we rank all 20 of Friedkin’s feature films since his debut in 1967.

20. Deal of the Century (1983)

Panned by nearly everyone, Friedkin’s Deal of the Century is far from a good film. Despite its cast list including Sigourney Weaver and Chevy Chase, this comedy about arms dealers competing to sell weapons to a dictator in South America falls flat on its face, frequently failing in its depiction of tradition and cultural customs.

Friedkin’s attempts at satire falls apart, with many seeing the subject matter as impossible to laugh at (Chris Morris proved you could do it successfully with his terrorist comedy Four Lions decades later for example), and the whole film just feels constantly awkward.

Although the cast do their very best, Deal of the Century is easily one of Friedkin’s worst films, and sits bottom of this list.

19. Good Times (1967)

Once again it’s another comedy that helps to prop up this list, and Good Time was Friedkin’s debut feature. It’s a light musical comedy built around Sonny & Cher’s pop-star personas, with both of them playing themselves in what ends up being a spoof of various dramas- Westerns, Spy thrillers, you name it.

There’s barely any narrative momentum; it mostly feels like an excuse for jokes, celebrity cameos and showcasing the duo’s songs, so when you think about it- it’s actually a far better film than many of the mind-numbingly dull parodies we get these days (Scary Movie, Date Movie, Meet the Spartans, etc).

Although it couldn’t really be classed as a good film, Good Times still provides audiences with an early snippet of what Friedkin could do well and remains an interesting document in his back catalogue.

18. The Guardian (1990)

We all know what Friedkin could do with horror- by 1990 we’d experienced it, knowing that we were unlikely to get many better horror features than one he directed in 1973. Unfortunately, seventeen years later, Friedkin himself gave us an example of how not to do it.

The Guardian is a supernatural horror film about a young couple living in Los Angeles who hire a beautiful, seemingly perfect nanny to look after their newborn child. Unbeknownst to them, the nanny (Jenny Seagrove) is part of an ancient druidic cult that sacrifices babies to a demonic tree to maintain natural balance and her own mortality. You know, the usual.

The central idea is striking, and the film came at a time when the sub-genre of property-chillers was in its ascendency, but The Guardian ends up being a bit of a dud. Despite the best efforts from the cast (especially Seagrove), you’d be far better off checking out Curtis Hansen’s The Hand that Rocks the Cradle which was released two years later- and achieves what Friedkin set out to do with The Guardian, only much more satisfyingly and far less hysterical.

17. The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968)

One year after directing Good Times, Friedkin returned to the musical genre with The Night They Raided Minsky’s, a comedy set in 1925 New York City about an Amish girl from rural Pennsylvania who flees her strict upbringing to become a dancer.

Instead of finding legitimate work, she winds up at a burlesque theatre- and the whole thing in some ways feels like what was to come decades later from Paul Verhoeven in his controversial (and underrated) film Showgirls (1995). Despite the period nostalgia and unique setting, The Night They Raided Misty’s is tonally uneven and a bit all over the place. Friedkin himself said later on that he struggled with the material and didn’t know how to convey the right tone, and this comes across on screen.

Still, there’s some very good performances on show, especially from Britt Ekland, Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom- and there’s certainly ambition on display, if not fully successful execution.

16. The Birthday Party (1968)

This is one of those Friedkin films that really splits opinion. Based on Harold Pinter’s iconic play, The Birthday Party takes place mainly in a dingy seaside boarding house in England, with the main lodger Stanley (Robert Shaw) living an uneventful life until two mysterious strangers show up uninvited- and insist on throwing him an unwanted birthday party, and slowly begin to psychologically torment him with strange logic and menacing behaviour.

Michael Haneke’s Funny Games this is not however, and despite solid performances across the board, there remains a theatre sensibility about The Birthday Party. Adapting stage plays for the cinema can be tricky, and although there’s still plenty to like about Friedkin’s film, it often feels very stagey.

But the claustrophobic atmosphere is something that he gets very right, and of course something he would bring into many of his films in more successful fashion later in his career. It’s far from a bad film, but nowhere near top tier Friedkin.

15. The Brink’s Job (1978)

Friedkin takes one of the most notorious heists in U.S history and adapts it for the big screen, with mixed results. Set in 1950’s Boston, the story follows a small-time criminal who discovers that the famous Brink’s armoured company- long thought impregnable- actually has bizarrely lax security- and seeing an opportunity, joins forces with a gang of cronies to plan a massive robbery of Brink’s headquarters.

The light and comedic tone that Friedkin brings to the film works both in its favour and against it- The Brink’s Job is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of film making without the tension and jeopardy that a different approach could have produced. And, although the ensemble cast is impressive, many of the roles feel a little underwritten- Friedkin himself said that the final cut was pretty far from his original vision.

Still, The Brink’s Job proved once more that Friedkin could create comedy and remains a whole heap of fun at intervals.

14. Blue Chips (1994)

Once again proving his ability to traverse genres, Friedkin gave us a sports film surrounding a respected college basketball coach struggling after a poor season. Under pressure from everyone to turn things around, Pete Bell (Nick Nolte) is reluctantly pushed into breaking NCAA rules by bribing the best high school players- the ‘blue chips’ prospects- and subsequently has to wrestle with the ethics of everything going on.

Nolte is on brilliant form as Bell, bringing a real humanity to a tricky role and giving the film a real emotional heft. But the rest of the film split people down the middle- despite the authenticity of the sport being portrayed rather well on screen.

Blue Chips ultimately is an ambitious but flawed drama that says plenty about integrity and corruption but is sometimes undone by an uneven script and, other than Nolte, some rather mixed acting. But considering some of the recent deplorable depictions of sport on screen, Blue Chips can hold its head up high in that respect.

13. The Hunted (2003)

A little scene film despite boasting leads of Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro starring, The Hunted is a far better film than it was given credit for on release. del Toro’s highly trained former Special Forces soldier Aaron Hallam becomes the subject of a manhunt when he snaps and begins killing hunters and civilians in the Oregon wilderness, and the FBI enlists L.T Bonham (Jones)- a retired survival and combat instructor- to hunt him down.

The Hunted’s simplicity is the key to why the film works so well; we as the audience are thrust into the manhunt in its unforgiving setting, while the fight sequences feel raw and real. Both del Toro and Jones are excellent as you might expect, and in the end, in spite on the minimalist feel of the plot, The Hunted ends up being an expansive and interesting chase thriller, offering us something different from the usual cat and mouse survival piece.

It might not be the best thing that anyone involved has produced, but The Hunted is a tight little thriller that’s often forgotten about.

12. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023)

Friedkin’s final film before his death might be the most solid piece of work he ever produced. And by that I don’t mean it’s his best; simply that it’s a nuts-and-bolts courtroom drama that does everything it’s supposed to, offers nothing particularly new or interesting, but is still the work of a fine director ensuring that we’re entertained for the duration.

Based on Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel and the stage play he adapted from it, the film is set almost entirely in the courtroom, focusing on the court-martial of LT. Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy) after he relieves his commanding officer aboard the USS Caine during a violent storm. Maryk believed his captain, Lt. Cmdr. Queeg (an excellent Kiefer Sutherland) was mentally unstable and was endangering the ship and his crew, was compelled to take command for their safety.

As Maryk now faces charges of mutiny, he enlists the help of Defence attorney Lt. Barney Greenwald (Jason Clarke) to help build a case against Queeg. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a slight and simple affair, but everyone involved is at the top of their game, meaning that what could have been a plain, average, courtroom drama is elevated to something far more engrossing, aided by Friedkin’s meticulous direction and the performances from the impressive cast.

11. Jade (1995)

There’s no doubting that having Jade this high will anger many. Indeed Jade is widely considered dreadful amongst most critics. So why is it that it’s midway up this list?

Not only was Jade a critical flop, its box office figures were disastrous, leading to it being considered one of the worst films of 1995 and easily one of, if not the worst, film of Friedkin’s career. David Caruso is Assistant District Attorney David Corelli who is called to the murder scene of a prominent businessman called Medford, leading to the uncovering of a web of filth, blackmail and snuff, as you’d expect from an Esterhas script. What’s interesting about Jade is that I’m convinced it wouldn’t have got such a kicking had it been directed by Paul Verhoeven.

Jade is a long way from being terrible though; Friedkin provides us with a truly brilliant car chase sequence as is his wont, that adds some needed thrills to proceedings, and despite him admitting that the film was a failure, his claim that Jade contains some of his best work isn’t completely unfounded. Jade was nominated for two Golden Raspberries and lost in both categories to another Eszterhas penned film, Showgirls, which also just happened to be one of 1995’s best films, completely misunderstood by pretty much everyone who watched it. Jade isn’t even close to being in the same ball park as Showgirls, but neither is it the absolute turkey that plenty claim.

Like most other art forms, cinema is most often understood in retrospect. “Classics” are seen as such because they have withstood the test of time and, like spoken traditions of old, have been passed from generation to generation through formal and informal rituals like award ceremonies, box office numbers, or just word of mouth. There is even a term, the all-encompassing “cult-classics”, for movies that didn’t quite establish themselves in the zeitgeist when they first came out, but have since been revisited and are now seen as cultural touchstones on par with the original classics.

There is, however, a third category under which some films can be considered. Sleeper hit, or sleeper masterpieces, can be seen as movies that may or may not have been important during their time, but have since dwindled in popularity and are now only remembered by film school teachers and cinema snobs. Some of these movies are understandably reserved for film classes, since their appeal is as niche as the themes they tackle. But others have a more universal charm, they’re more similar to the “classics” or “cult-classics” in the way they address their subjects with an artistic perspective without falling into the pompousness of the niche.

This list comprises some movies which can be described by this third group. Their imaginative vision doesn’t make them obtuse pieces of art that only a few can understand; they are strange and original, but also straightforward and sincere. Their artistry is not at odds with their appeal. The following are ten films that have regrettably fallen out of fashion with the passage of time, but that maintain an innovative voice that should transcend beyond their past heights of popularity.

1. The Passion of Berenice (1976)

Directed by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, one of the most influential figures of modern Mexican cinema, “The Passion of Berenice” seems at first glance to be a typical melodrama, however, its melodramatic surface hides a complex psychological thriller that portrays the turbulent relationships between the titular Berenice and the people that surround her.

Cited by Guillermo del Toro as one of his most important teachers, Hermosillo’s cinema has unfortunately been somewhat forgotten. Beginning in the late 60s, but reaching its stride in the next decade, Hermosillo’s career was crammed between the “Golden Era” of Mexican cinema that ended in the 1950s, and the resurgence of the last thirty or so years that saw the aforementioned Del Toro, amongst others, become household names. To mention Del Toro once more he was quoted as saying that seeing “The Passion of Berenice” made him believe in himself as a filmmaker working from outside the country’s capital, where most of the productions were made at that time.

Berenice, played by Martha Navarro, is a woman in her thirties who lives in Aguascalientes, a small city in the Bajio region of northern Mexico, and who, after her last marriage ended in mysterious and dramatic fashion, has resigned herself to work as a part-time teacher in an all-boys school and as the caretaker of her godmother, Doña Josefina, a demanding and almost senile woman. Despite living what appears to be a comfortable life, she lives with her godmother in a huge mansion, Berenice is not happy with the way things have turned out for her, however she seems to lack the will to do anything about it.

This changes when Rodrigo, her godmother’s nephew, played by the emblematic Pedro Armendáriz Jr., arrives in Aguascalientes. Rodrigo, a successful doctor and charismatic womanizer, and Berenice begin a passionate affair. At first her relationship with Rodrigo seems to ignite the flames inside her that had been dormant for so long, however it slowly becomes clear that said flames are stoked not thanks to Rodrigo, but in spite of him.

The movie is a masterclass in character study. Hermosillo’s direction, both of the actors and the camera, is sublime and, if not for anything else, the movie is worth watching for Martha Navarro’s breathtaking portrayal of Berenice.

2. Antonio Das Mortes (1969)

Few directors have shaped their country’s cinema like Glauber Rocha has done with Brazil. There is not one single filmmaker working today, whether it’s the acclaimed or the up-and-coming, whose career and themes cannot be traced back to Rocha. The Pelé of the Cinema Novo, or more the Garrincha in the sense that neither would not reach their 50th birthday, any one of Rocha’s films involving the sertao, the desert hinterlands of Brazil, could make this list.

We’ve gone with Rocha’s take, and twist, on the classic western genre in “Antonio Das Mortes”, or as it’s originally named in Portuguese “O Dragao da Maldade Contra o Santo Guerreiro” which translates to “The Dragon of Malevolence Against the Holy Warrior”, one of the most heavy-metal movie titles in the history in cinema.

The movie follows Antonio das Mortes, a janguço, or gun-for-hire, who is tasked by the police chief of a small town in the sertao to fight against the threat of the cangaçeiros, nomad bandits that attack government bases and wealthy landowners in order to give to those in need (Robin Hoods of the Brazilian desert). Antonio, a taciturn and solemn figure, carries out his duty and kills Coirana, the cangaçeiros leader, in a duel. However, ridden with both a social and personal guilt, Antonio turns on the wealthy men who hired him and joins the resistance against the unjust conditions in the town. In turn, another janguço is hired, now to kill Antonio das Mortes, who has become the new impromptu leader of the resistance.

Although commended at the time, Rocha won Best Director at Cannes, the film is not remembered as one of the classic Brazilian films as others have. Even other of Rocha’s films seem to be better remembered, like “Black God, White Devil”. However, it is in “Antonio das Mortes” where the insanity and psychedelic direction of Rocha is best represented, and its final showdown is one of the best shootouts in the genre.

3. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

British New Wave cinema of the late 50s and 60s was full of thought-provoking masterpieces that usually centered around the youth of the time and their discontent towards the various systems that coerced them. Among the writers to come from this generation, aptly termed the “angry young men” generation, was Alan Sillitoe, whose two most famous works were adapted into films, and for both of which he would write the screenplay. The first one “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” would cement its director, Karel Reisz, and its lead, Albert Finney, as mainstays of British cinema for decades to come. The second one, however, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”, would prove to be the least remembered film out of Tony Richardson’s iconic 1959 to 1970 run during which he would direct one film per year (except in 1969 when he directed two).

“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” was released a year after “Taste of Honey”, considered to be one of the best British films ever, and a year before “Tom Jones”, Richardson’s “magnum opus” which gave him the Oscar for Best Director and Best Film. In that sense “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”, has been somewhat obscured by both its predecessors and successors in Richardson’s filmography, however it could be considered one of his best, if not his best work.

Tom Courtenay stars as Colin Smith, a troubled teen who’s sentenced to a youth detention center. Once detained, Colin becomes entwined in the world of competitive long distance running, a sport which is kept in high regard by the reformatory’s governor, played by Michael Redgrave. Colin’s exceptional running skills soon place him as the governor’s “favorite” among the other young inmates, something that troubles him as he was once proud of his rebellious nature, especially towards figures of authority like the governor.

In many ways “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” might be the defining movie of the “angry young men” cinema of the 60s. A lot of later films, including Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”, borrow heavily from it. Its non-linear narrative, its expressive and at times almost contemplative style, may have contributed to its lukewarm reception at the time, particularly at the box office where the movie flopped, however it stands to this day as one of Richardson’s best films and a staple of British 1960s cinema.

4. Oh, Sun (1970)

At the same time satirical, experimental, critical and entertaining, Med Hondo’s “Oh, Sun”, or “Soleil O” as it’s originally titled, is one of Africa’s seminal films regarding the difficulties African immigrants faced, not only in the process of arriving in Europe, but the hardships they encountered once they got there. Inspired by Hondo’s experience working various odd jobs in France after he emigrated from his natal Mauritania in 1959, Hondo was gripped by how even well-educated immigrants were forced to work menial jobs, often with humiliating conditions, in order to live in France.

The film’s nature is that of a collage. At times it treats its subjects with the sterile seriousness of a documentary and at other it breaks out into musical numbers that satirize the racist perception many Europeans had of African immigrants at the time. In that sense the movie defies a traditional synopsis since it’s more an eclectic collection of experiences and styles, all of which, however, capture flawlessly the adversities of its nameless protagonist played by Robert Liensol.

Liensol’s character’s initial optimism after arriving in Paris is soon brought to a screeching realistic halt after he is faced with harsh indifference and rejection. The movie illustrates how deep the colonial entitlement had become by showing that, despite his education, the protagonist is constantly the victim of racism and negligence by the locals.

Unfortunately more relevant now than ever, “Soleil O” is a masterful example of political and disruptive cinema that portrays, at times with crudeness, at times with comedy, the cruel ways with which the West often deals with its immigrants.

5. The House is Black (1963)

Better known for her work as a poet, Forugh Farrokhzad’s efforts transcended both the written page and the film camera. Her only film, “The House is Black” is a 22-minute documentary piece about a leper colony in pre-Islamic Revolution Iran. Shot four years before her untimely death in a car crash, Farrokhzad was only 28 when she wrote and directed it.

The film straddles the line between the brutal and the humane, showing the lepers in their full splendor, never pulling any punches or mincing its imagery. Farrokhzad’s narration of various texts, including some of her own poems, contribute to the film’s mood, which is also beautifully condensed in its title. The film is obscure and feels obscure, as if Farrokhzad wanted to portray the abandon and secrecy with which the lepers were kept. It was probably this desperation that lead her to adopt a small child from the colony shortly after finishing the documentary.

Farrokhzad died four years after the release of the film, in 1967, and one must wonder if, had she lived longer, would she have continued her cinematographic career, as the care and mastery behind “The House is Black” is that of someone who not only cared deeply about its subject matter but also the form in which said subject was portrayed. The movie is not a “filmed poem” but a complete cinematic endeavor. This combination of poetic sensibility and cinematic acuteness is one that many strive to achieve after decades of work, for Forugh Farrokhzad it took only one film, and that was more than enough to cement it as one of the most powerfully devastating films of the Iranian New Wave.

The nineties was a decade which provided us with some of the finest and most important films in cinema history. It started with Anthony Hopkins managing to bag himself an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Hannibal Lector in Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs (1991) despite only being on screen for barely sixteen minutes. We also saw Michael Mann provide us with perhaps the crime epic with 1995’s Heat; and two years later James Cameron gave audiences Titanic, the film that broke box office and Oscar records alike.

Let’s also not forget (how could we) that Cameron had already produced one of the all-time great sequels with Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) at the beginning of the decade; and he certainly wasn’t the only director giving us blockbuster cinema at the time. Steven Spielberg thrilled crowds with Jurassic Park (1993) and in the same year, unleashed Schindler’s List, his astonishing adaptation of Thomas Keneally’s novel.

The nineties also saw the introduction of Quentin Tarantino to the big screen, as he provided arguably three of the best films of the decade in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997). The decade closed with Sam Mendes releasing the masterpiece that is American Beauty (1999), and all these films mentioned are but a drop in the ocean of brilliant cinema that the decade gave us.

But there were plenty of excellent films to be found elsewhere; that perhaps didn’t get the time or credit they deserved with the deluge of releases. In this list we take a look back at ten hugely underappreciated gems of the nineties; all of them in need of reappraisal, or indeed a first-time viewing.

1. Baraka (1992)

Not strictly a film with a synopsis in the traditional sense, Ron Fricke’s mind-blowing piece of work is a non-narrative documentary shot across 24 countries on 70mm film. It’s a visual meditation on humanity, nature, and spirituality with astonishing visuals from start to finish.

There’s ancient ruins, religious ceremonies, industrial cityscapes, natural landscapes and more, all spliced together with music, there’s not a spoken word in its runtime. Fricke’s film makes you feel the scale of human civilization, and the fragility of it at the same time. Indeed, Baraka feels even more prescient looking back in a post internet age; its visuals of global culture, much of which may be completely new to you, are startling and spectacular in equal measure.

Ranging between ancient and modern, Baraka gives you a true scope of humanity, and how it’s impossible to have a full appreciation of everything that unfurls on our planet. There’s no argument or narrative, just pure human life, and it’s unlike anything you’ll have seen before.

2. The Pelican Brief (1993)

Alan J. Pakula, perhaps the Godfather of the paranoia thriller, offers up another, this time based on the John Grisham novel of the same name. Julia Roberts is Darby Shaw, a law student who writes a speculative legal brief suggesting a motive for the assassination of two supreme court justices; but when the brief gets into the wrong hands, people start dying and suddenly she’s on the run. Denzel Washington’s investigative journalist Gray Grantham gets drawn into the story and helps her out, and what unfurls is a taut and tight thriller, one that’s frequently overlooked and dismissed as middle of the road.

Washington and Roberts elevate it above that, and in the hands of Pakula, The Pelican Brief becomes much more than your average on-the-run thriller. This is a proper grown-up thriller with a genuinely interesting and complex conspiracy, never fully tipping into action movie territory. We’re used to seeing Washington in these sorts of thrillers, but Julia Roberts puts in one of her best performances here, pulling you into her panicked world as things spiral out of control.

The Pelican Brief doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence, and keeps you gripped from minute one. While it might reach the heights of Pakula’s Klute (1971) or All the President Men (1976), this is a thoroughly underrated thriller which deserves more attention.

3. Unlawful Entry (1992)

Although Unlawful Entry doesn’t quite hit the heights of the superb Breakdown (1997), it edges Executive Decision (1996) in terms of Kurt Russell led nineties thrillers. Michael (Russell) and his wife Karen (Madeline Stowe) have their house broken into, and the intruder threatens Karen with a knife before escaping. The break-in is investigated by Ray Liotta’s Officer Pete Davies and his partner, and initially Pete seems very helpful in helping the couple set up a security system, and slowly becoming a good friend to the couple, even taking Michael out on a patrol and appearing as a guest at Karen’s primary school.

Unsurprisingly, Pete slowly becomes obsessive with Karen and takes it upon himself to attempt to remove Michael from the equation. It’s an excellent performance from Liotta, one of the late man’s finest, and the film runs with it; it takes a pulpy premise and uses it to say something real about power and vulnerability. Jonathan Kaplan provides something here that despite knowing exactly what it is, gives you a lot more bang for your buck than you might think.

4. Dream Lover (1994)

James Spader might well be a man known for delving into the erotic thriller, but Nicholas Kazan’s Dream Lover is certainly one of his lesser known. Starring Twin Peaks alumni Madchen Amick, Spader’s Ray, a recently divorced architect, meets Amick’s Lena, a beautiful and mysterious woman who he falls hard for, and the pair end up marrying very quickly. It’s only after this that he begins to notice things about her that don’t add up, and everything quickly begins to fall apart.

Sure, this sort of thing has been done many times before, and with it coming only two years after Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct, one could be forgiven for dismissing Dream Lover as a Verhoeven cash in. But Dream Lover has some surprises up its sleeve, not least the genuine intrigue that it causes in its unfurling storyline. It’s also an excellent femme fatale tale, one that could easiy qualify as a Brian De Palma vehicle, although that suggestion perhaps does Kazan a disserivce.

Dream Lover is surprisingly thrilling piece of work; both Spader and Amick are absolutely terrific, completely selling you on their characters and ultimately give you an ending that’s every bit as satisfying as it is surprising.

5. The Funeral (1996)

Abel Ferrara has many strings to his impressive bow, although his mid nineties gangster flick is one that often falls by the way side. Christopher Walken, Chris Penn and Vincent Gallo play the Tempio brothers, violent gangsters in 1930’s New York. Johnny (Gallo) turns up dead, and at the funeral, Ray (Walken) and Chez (Penn)start looking for who killed him, convinced it was a rival.

Ferrara unfurls proceedings in flashbacks, unpacking the brother’s history as we learn about the choices made that led to this very point, and the truth that is eventually learned of what happened doesn’t help anyone. Ferrara’s film is more interested in what violence does to his characters rather than the violence itself, making The Funeral a far more interesting piece of work than it might have been.

Ferrara’s relatively brief gangster pic is well worth tracking down, all the performances are effective which is vital in such an intimate film; and although it doesn’t hit the heights of the films it’s attempting to veer away from, this is a film that remains sorely underrated, and deserves to be championed.

There are numerous different sorts of conspiracy thrillers, going all the way through the history of cinema. From the early work of Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock to David Mackenzie’s Relay this year, the role of the conspiracy thriller has been a hugely important in cinema, with Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991) especially causing a ruckus on its release, and actually spurred the creation of the JFK Records Act.

There are those that are fast paced and thrilling, and those that are more nuanced and minimalist, yet no less gripping. And of course, there have been releases that have proved more successful than others, including many that are considered up there with the very best films of all time. Wherever you sit on conspiracy theories themselves, and there’s plenty to go around, cinema is an optimum medium in which to absorb and immerse yourself in the mayhem, and potentially the truth, of conspiracies.

Here, we take a look at the ten greatest conspiracy thrillers of all time.

1. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Based on the superb novel by Richard Condon, John Frankenheimer’s terrific adaptation still holds up today, despite being over sixty years old, and is no less hard hitting. Laurence Harvey is excellent as Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw, a Korean War veteran, who is brainwashed by a communist conspiracy to become an assassin.

Frankenheimer’s film arguably predicts the era of the Trumpesque popularist politician and remains eerily preeminent of the current day. It helps that it’s a first-rate thriller, with Harvey fully convincing you of Shaw’s struggles, and also contains top performances by Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. The Manchurian Candidate still resonates with its uncomfortable nature and haunting narrative, playing on the idea of McCarthyism prevalent at the time and of course the crippling fear of communism.

All in all, The Manchurian Candidate remains one of the best conspiracy films of all time, and the 2004 remake starring Denzel Washington isn’t at all bad either.

2. Chinatown (1974)

There’s admittedly little left to say on Roman Polanski’s towering Private Investigator conspiracy thriller starring Jack Nicholson in one of his finest ever roles; not to mention Faye Dunaway’s brilliant performance. Nicholson is Detective Jake, who specialises in matrimonial cases, and is hired by Dunaway’s Evelyn Mulwray to spy on her husband and see what he’s up to. Taking the job, Jake finds himself in no end of trouble, unveiling a conspiracy involving a drought to buy farmland cheaply, and divert water there for future profit.

But we know all of that, of course. Polanski’s 1974 film might very well be his best, with its masterfully crafted screenplay and compelling performances; not to mention the intriguing and intricate plot built around the conspiracy at its center. Chinatown revitalized the film noire genre with its atmospheric cinematography, and its tragic elements ensure the film lingers long in the mind after you’ve seen it, even after several rewatches.

Chinatown left a lasting impact, and spawned a sequel some sixteen years later, The Two Jakes, with Nicholson reprising his character. While definitely worth a watch, it’s not a patch on Polanski’s stunning original.

3. Blow Out (1971)

From potentially Polanski’s finest film to, arguably, Brian De Palma’s. Blow Out is a successful homage and reinvention of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966) by way of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).

John Travolta plays a sound technician who accidentally records evidence that a car accident was actually a murder- and as a result becomes entangled in a dangerous conspiracy. Coppola’s film works so well for a number of reasons, chiefly Travolta’s performance alongside a great turn from Nancy Allen; but the visual style and aesthetics that De Palma brings to the film elevate it above your average thriller.

The film also cleverly explores ways in which stories are constructed through the media, and it’s bleak ending works brilliantly, meaning it’s a film that still endures today, and remains, for many, De Palma’s best work.

4. The Conversation (1974)

Some would argue this is the king of all surveillance thrillers, and it’s true; Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation is a monumental piece of film making. Gene Hackman is brilliant as surveillance expert Harry Caul, a man hired to record a conversation between a young couple. While initially believing it to be a simple case of an affair, he becomes increasingly fearful, and obsessed, that the piece of recording might be evidence of a murder plot against the couple.

The Conversation is actually a far more somber affair than you might think; Caul is haunted by a previous job that ended in tragedy, and as a result he’s determined to prevent the potential murder even as he himself is being watched. Coppola’s film is a masterclass in tension and complex storytelling, which is brilliantly woven into the narrative. Hackman, as you’d expect, is superb, showing every emotion on his face and in his movements; everything he does you fully believe in, and he pulls you through the film all on his own.

Of course it’s not just Hackman that makes the film, but you can’t imagine anyone else in the role. And, in any other year, The Conversation would probably have been a shoe in for Best Film at the Oscars, but Coppola lost out….to himself, for The Godfather Part II.

5. The Parallax View (1974)

Aan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View used the murder of both Kennedy brothers to form a tale of a mysterious organisation (the Parallax Corporation) which deals in political assassination, and the initiating ‘lone assassin’ patsies.

Reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) investigates the assassination of a U.S senator and uncovers a vast corporate conspiracy, and as he digs deeper, more and more is revealed. The Parallax View is a masterclass of suspenseful filmmaking, building atmosphere and tension whilst holding a chillingly plausible conspiracy to create a feeling of genuine dread.

The fact that it came just over a decade after the assassination of JFK, and with the ensuing decade being packed with various theories about the actual events that led to it, meant that Pakula’s film was an easy sell to punters on its release. But it’s a film that somehow feels even more relevant today, when worldwide media and governments seemingly lie to us and cover up whatever they like. Of course, at the end of the day, it helps that The Parallax View, with its stunning opening sequence atop the space needle, is also a damn fine thriller.