Disney does Dickens in this animated version of Oliver Twist, in which a homeless New York City cat falls in with a bunch of mischievous dogs under the leadership of the appealing scoundrel Fagin. The roots of Disney's success with animation in the 1990s begins with this clever, energetic, atmospheric movie, which succeeds in capturing the grim world Dickens conjured. Lyricist Howard Ashman (The Little Mermaid) worked on the songs, the best of which is sung by Billy Joel, who provides the voice of (the Artful) Dodger. --Tom Keogh

Director Oliver Stone is celebrated in this four-film, six-disc box set collection that includes two-disc "director's cut" versions JFK and Any Given Sunday respectively, plus Heaven and Earth and the documentary Oliver Stone's America.

JFK is that rarest of things, a modern Hollywood drama which credits the audience with intelligence. Epic in length--this 198-minute director's cut runs 17 minutes longer than the cinema version--Oliver Stone's film has the archetypal story, visual scale and substance to match; not just a gripping real-life conspiracy thriller, but a fable for the fall of the American dream. Stone's DVD commentary is thoughtful, eloquent and considered. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and the anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 picture are both first-class. The second disc contains 53 minutes of deleted and extended versions of scenes, all of which are available with or without commentary by Stone, a 10-minute video interview with the real "X", and a half-hour examination of documents only declassified in the wake of the film's release.

Any Given Sunday is a massive 150-minute American football drama which, for all its ferocity and cynicism, is as soft-centred and clichéd as any Rocky-style underdogs-make-good crowd-pleaser. This is the director's cut with Stone's commentary ranging far and wide: he is far more interesting and thought-provoking to listen to than his film is to watch. The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 image and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack are both flawless. The loaded second DVD includes Jamie Foxx's audition video, a routine 27-minute making-of documentary, music videos, outtakes set to music, and 33 minutes of deleted/alternative scenes with optional commentary from Stone. DVD-ROM and other features complete an exceptional package.

Heaven and Earth follows Platoon (1986) and Born of the Fourth of July (1989) to conclude Stone's Vietnam War trilogy. Where Stone won Best Director Oscars for both previous films, Heaven and Earth proved a box-office disaster and went unrecognised by the Academy. It's hard not to think that racism underlay the commercial failure, for where the hit movies addressed the sufferings of white American soldiers played by Hollywood stars, Heaven and Earth focused on the fundamental victims, adapting the true story of a young Vietnamese woman, Le Ly, who goes from village girl to freedom fighter to wife of a US marine struggling to adjust to life in America to reconciliation in Vietnam. Superbly made, with a stunning performance by Hiep Thi Le as Le Ly, and powerful support from Tommy Lee Jones, this is intelligent, harrowing filmmaking which attempts to understand and bridge the divide between nations traumatised by war. Unfortunately heavily cut to bring it down to a multiplex-friendly running time, the often brilliant 135 minutes on show suggest a longer modern classic ended-up on the cutting room floor. The DVD features an incisive commentary by Stone, who alone of major Hollywood directors fought in Vietnam. Confirming that Heaven and Earth was heavily cut is the inclusion of 48 minutes of deleted/extended scenes, including a vastly extended 22-minute opening, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 picture are excellent.

Oliver Stone's America is a 53-minute interview in which Stone talks candidly about his films, concentrating on the trio included in the Oliver Stone Collection, firing off considered opinions at a rapid rate. Also included is Stone's student film, Last Year in VietNam, clearly influenced by the French New Wave in general and L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1961) in particular. --Gary S Dalkin

There have been many film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist but this 1948 production from director David Lean remains the definitive screen interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. From the ominous symbolism of its opening storm sequence (in which Oliver's pregnant, ill-fated mother struggles to reach shelter before childbirth) to the mob-scene climax that provokes Bill Sikes's dreadful comeuppance, this breathtaking black-and-white film remains loyal to Dickens while distilling the story into its purest cinematic essence.

Every detail is perfect--Lean even includes a coffin-shaped snuffbox for the cruel Mr. Sowerberry--and as young Oliver, eight-year-old John Howard Davies (who would later produce Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC) perfectly expresses the orphan's boyish wonderment, stern determination and waifish vulnerability. Best of all is Alec Guinness as Fagin, so devious and yet so delightfully appealing under his beak-nosed (and, at the time, highly controversial) make-up. (Many complained that Fagin's huge nose and greedy demeanour presented an anti-Semitic stereotype, even though Lean never identifies Fagin as Jewish; for this reason, the film wasn't shown in the US until three years after its British release.) Likewise, young Anthony Newley is artfully dodgy as Fagin's loyal accomplice, the Artful Dodger.

Guinness's performance would later provide strong inspiration for Ron Moody's equally splendid portrayal of Fagin in the Oscar-winning Oliver! and while that 1968 musical remains wonderfully entertaining, it is Lean's film that hews closest to Dickens' vision. The authentic recreation of 19th-century London is marvellous to behold; Guy Green's cinematography is so shadowy and stylised that it almost qualifies as Dickensian film noir. Lean is surprisingly blunt in conveying Dickens's theme of cruelty but his film never loses sight of the warmth and humanity that Oliver embodies. --Jeff Shannon

An astonishingly good David Lean double-bill featuring his two Dickensian adaptations, Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), this is a reminder that cinema does not necessarily have to debase its literary sources, sometimes it can enhance them. Lean's painterly eye for evocative locations--be they windswept marshes or bustling London streets--provides the backdrop, but his focus on smaller details--the ominous tree in the graveyard with its almost human face, the reaction of Bill Sikes' dog to Nancy's murder--adds the vital ingredient that brings both place and character to life.

Starring a youthful John Mills as Pip, Lean's Great Expectations is an unadulterated delight, a serendipitous gelling of screenplay, direction, cinematography and acting that produces an almost perfect film. The cast is exemplary, with Alec Guinness in his first (official) role as Pip's loyal pal Herbert Pocket; Martita Hunt is a cadaverous Miss Havisham; Finlay Currie transforms himself from truly threatening to entirely sympathetic as Magwitch; while the young Jean Simmons makes more of an impact as the girl Estella than Valerie Hobson does as the older incarnation. Perhaps best of all, though, is Francis Sullivan as the pragmatic but kindly attorney Jaggers.

The cinematography alone (courtesy of Guy Green) would qualify Oliver Twist as a classic: the opening sequence of a lone woman struggling through the storm is an indelible cinematic image. Fortunately, Lean's film has many more aces up its sleeve thereafter, notably Alec Guinness' grotesque Fagin--a caricature certainly, but a three-dimensional one--and Robert Newton's utterly pitiless Bill Sikes. The skewed angles and unsettling chiaroscuro lighting transform London itself into another threatening character. --Mark Walker