Black Hawk Down (2001)

The United States' 1992-93 involvement in Somalia was the country's most disastrous foreign-policy venture since Vietnam. What is often forgotten is the extraordinary bravery of the American soldiers involved. Black Hawk Down, directed by Ridley Scott (Gladiator), sets the record straight. A Somali warlord seizes control of food distribution during a famine and, in effect, declares war on the United Nations. The United States considers him a political outlaw and sets out to capture him and his top lieutenants.

A key U.S. operation falls apart when two of its helicopters are shot down. What was intended to be an offensive commando raid turns into a defensive rescue mission, and the audience is viscerally plunged into the horrors and confusion of urban combat. The drama springs from the group dynamics of the American soldiers. Their courage and camaraderie is much like the spirit displayed by the police and firemen at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Silent Running (1971)

Star Wars wasn't the first movie to feature cute robotic drones as central characters. Director Douglas Trumbull, who designed the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, beat George Lucas to the punch. In Silent Running, he sets the action in 2008, with all plant and animal life on earth destroyed by nuclear radiation. Lowell Freeman (Bruce Dern) is a botanist who's in charge of a spacecraft that shelters the last remaining forest. A stubborn nonconformist, he often rubs his crew (Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin and Jesse Vint) the wrong way. His only allies are the drones Huey, Dewey and Louie (Mark Persons, Cheryl Sparks and Larry Whisenhunt). They bond while playing poker.

When the authorities order Freeman to destroy the forest, he mutinies and heads deep into outer space. His goal is to preserve the potential for life for some other time and place. But his human companions have other ideas. Trumbull's primary focus is on the imaginative visual effects and strong ecological message.

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935)

Duel-identity heroes (like Superman, Batman and Spider-Man) have been capturing our imagination for generations. The Scarlet Pimpernel, based on Baroness Orczy's novel, has been the inspiration for several feature films and a TV miniseries. It tells the story of a mild-mannered English aristocrat whose secret life thrusts him into the French Revolution, where he boldly rescues condemned nobles.

The best version is the 1935 extravaganza produced by legendary British impresario Alexander Korda. Sir Percy Blakeney (Leslie Howard) is a foppish aristocrat in the London court of the Prince of Wales (Nigel Bruce).

His wife, Lady Marguerite Blakeney (Merle Oberon), holds him in contempt for his languid lifestyle. But she doesn't know that her husband is, in fact, the mysterious master of disguises who has saved many of their friends from Robespierre's (Ernest Milton) guillotine. His signature is a small red flower — a pimpernel that he leaves behind after each rescue. The movie's emphasis is on character and intrigue rather than action and special effects.