Here's what I've been watching recently:

El Cid (1961) - Recently released on dvd this is a big historical epic with Chuck Heston playing Rodrigo Diaz or El Cid as he came to be known. Great movie about actual events in 11th century Spain. Christians and Muslims at war with each other (wow, what a surprise) and Anthony Mann directing. This is one of those huge, beautiful, cast of thousands films shot on real locations with real people not a bunch of digital hocus pocus...one of those "they don't make 'em like this anymore" films.

Khartoum (1966) - Chuck Heston again this time as a Christian general taking on the Mahdi or "expected one" as he is called by the Muslims who follow him...sort of like the Bin Laden of his moment. Of course that moment was around 1885 but the running theme here is that one thing you'll learn from watching these films is that the "war" Bushco is waging now has been going on for centuries and still we've learned nothing. Another great film with a huge cast and was shot on a huge scale on some fantastic locations. You'll note that I posted a link to a site that was all about these big wide format films...Cinemascope, Vista Vision, Cinerama, Super Panavision etc...well that's what the films I'm listing here are examples of. Of course if you watch these first two and then throw in Lawrence of Arabia you've got a great triple feature that will take you an entire day to get through...if you have not seen Lawrence of Arabia...well...something is very wrong.

Zulu (1964) - Another huge historical epic, cast of thousands, like Khartoum about a slaughter basically. This time it's the battle of Rorke's Drift with our Christian British soldiers up against Zulu warriors in the 1870s. Basically Pat should be renting all of these films on Netflix as sort of a fast and easy (not to mention very entertaining way) to get caught up on some history. There is a prequel to this film about an even larger slaughter called Zulu Dawn (also well worth seeing but a lesser film) which is about the battle that took place just before this one. This was the battle of Isandlwana.

A Bullet for the General (1966) - This is actually a spaghetti western about Mexican revolutionaries. I like spaghetti westerns and this one is pretty political and even has an American character that may be a CIA like spy. If you like the Leone films you'll dig this.

Grand Prix (1966) - Ok, the story stinks...total soap opera crap. Really horrible but that's not the reason to watch this. It's basically all about John Frankenheimer directing the most amazing racing footage you'll ever see and those awesome old formula one race cars. Pretty much you can just fast forward through all the romance and anything that does not involve driving the cars...actually there is a good scene between James Garner and Toshiro Mifune where they talk a bit about WW2 but this really is a terrible script and the dialoge is so bad it'll make you wince. Shot in Cinerama this was an amazing film that is beautiful to look at but the car engines say more than the people in this. I only recommend this film to people with an interest in seeing the racing footage...if that does not float your boat avoid this.

The Professionals (1966) - Western with Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Woody Strode, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance and one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the face of the earth Claudia Cardinale. I have to admit as a young boy there were two women that seemed to be about as perfect as a woman could get to me and they were Claudia Cardinale and Ursula Andress. If you like The Wild Bunch (which is a better film) you'll like this. End of the wild west, guys that see the world has moved past them, one last wild ride kind of thing. Lancaster gives one of his best performances in this film...I think anyway. The rumor is that Marvin was drunk during all of the shooting of this picture because he was nervous having to play the guy who gives orders to Lancaster (who at the time was the bigger star) and felt he and Lancaster should have switched parts. Sort of interesting...