Music lovers – at least lovers of music played by bands including live human drummers instead of computers – shouldn’t miss the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Concert (3pm TCM).

Today’s number one film:

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola/ 1979/ USA/ War-Drama/ 153 mins/ R for disturbing violent images, language, sexual content and some drug use), BEST FILM OF THE DAY 3pm Turner Classic Movies. Watch this if you liked Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter or Jarhead. Not an action film – though the action sequences are among the best ever filmed – but the most cerebral war film ever made, Apocalypse Now is magnificent, even in its shorter version (Redux, the director’s cut, clocks in at 203 mins). Some of the most profound statements about humanity are found amongst some of the most quotable lines in movie history. You’ll love the smell of napalm in the morning – and the stickler for perfection within you would benefit from reading the novella, Heart of Darkness, on which the film is based, before watching. Amazing, even if you completely ignore the Conrad and focus only on the Coppola; and the Brando; and the Sheen; and the Hopper; and the Duvall; and the Fishburne; and the very young Ford; and so on.

Also watch:

United 93 aka Flight 93 (Paul Greengrass / 2006/ USA/ Action-Biography-Drama-Thriller/ 111 mins/ Rated R for language & some intense scenes of terror and violence) 10.30am HBO Caribbean. Watch this if you liked 127 Hours, ‘71 or Hotel Rwanda. Closer to British broadsheet journalism than Hollywood flick, Paul Greengrass’s stunningly good film is as disturbing as the events on which it is based. His experience in recreating the day 13 people were killed by the British army in Londonderry (Bloody Sunday) helped him fashion a film about 9/11 that is accurate and devastating without being judgmental. There is not a single political statement made – other than in an ironically powerful scene in which he cuts directly from the hijackers flying the plane to the passengers hostage in the back, all praying feverishly. It is not the kind of film you can be said to enjoy – at the end, even Trini audiences are stunned into silence – but only a doctor’s note ought to excuse you from seeing it. Deeply touching, very frightening and fundamentally challenging in its truth. Recommended like strong coffee at midnight.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller/ 1981/ Australia/ Sci-Fi-Thriller / 95 mins/ R), 9am Turner Classic Movies. Watch this if

you liked Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Transporter 3 or either of the other two Mad Max films. The best of the Mad Max trilogy, for many, combining the scary future vision of a collapsed society pursuing gasoline for their vehicles at all costs with the improved production values that come with a budget many times bigger than that of the first film – even if the original is still probably preferred by the purist cinefile.

JUST NOSED OUT:

**The English Patient (Drama-War), 9.15am Prmt; Guardians of the Galaxy (Action-Superhero-Thriller), 10.30am & 11.05pm HBO; Ant-Man(Action-Superhero-Thriller), 3.10pm & 9pm HBO; **The Illusionist (Drama-Mystery-Thriller), 1.45pm CnCl; Dracula Untold (Horror), 6.15pm HBOC.

ALSO RAN:

Action/Adventure: Pacific Rim (Sci-fi), 5.45pm MaxP; Superman II (Superhero), 11.48am HBOF

Art House/Independent: Whiplash (Drama-Music), 11pm HBOS

Biography: American Sniper (Thriller), 9pm MaxP; Patton, 2.05pm FoxClas

Children/Family: Shrek (Animated), 5.15pm FoxFam; Holes (Drama), 5.37pm HBOF

Classic: Three Men and a Baby (Comedy), 1.15pm MaxU

Comedy: *Shallow Hal (Dark), 5.30pm FoxCom; A Million Ways to Die in the West (Stoner), 2pm MaxP

Rom-Com: 27 Dresses, 9pm FoxCom

Drama: Apollo 13, 9pm Stun

Foreign: Les Intouchables (Bio-Drama), 11pm Gldn

Horror: **Final Destination 2, 12.20 midday HBOP

Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Star Trek (Eric Bana), 6.50pm FoxFam; *Lucy (Thriller), 8.40am HBOP;

Thriller: *The Matrix (Sci-fi), 10pm TCM

War: The Hunt for Red October, 9pm FoxClas

*Starred films have been chosen in the last two years. ** Double-starred films have been chosen in the last two months.

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