10 Best Pictures: The Essential Collection

Fourteen-disc set includes: Wings (1927)Thrilling aerial combat scenes highlight director William Wellman's silent WWI saga, winner of the first Best Picture Academy Award. Richard Arlen and Charles "Buddy" Rogers are small-town best friends, in love with the same girl, who enlist in the Army Air Corps to fight in Europe. Clara Bow is a France-based ambulance driver from back home, and Gary Cooper-in an early role-plays a cocky cadet. 144 min. Silent with music score. BW/Rtg: NR My Fair Lady (1964)George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion," about the wondrous transformation of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) into a refined woman of society by linguist Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), was combined with such unforgettable Lerner and Loewe songs as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live," and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," and the result was this winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Co-stars Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway. 172 min. C/Rtg: G The Godfather (1972)Director Francis Ford Coppola's landmark adaptation of Mario Puzo's best-selling novel of Mafia life in 1940s New York earned Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor. Marlon Brando stars as aging mob boss Don Vito Corleone, who weighs the appointment of a rightful successor to head his "family business" from among his three sons: hot-headed first-born son Sonny (James Caan), weak-minded Fredo (John Cazale), and college-educated war hero Michael (Al Pacino). With Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Richard Castellano 177 min. C/Rtg: R Terms Of Endearment (1983)Follow the lives and loves of a mother and daughter over the years, and the special bond they share, in this poignant comedy-drama, based on Larry McMurtry's novel, that garnered five Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor. Shirley MacLaine is feisty mother Aurora Greenway; Debra Winger, her independent daughter Emma; Jack Nicholson, the womanizing ex-astronaut who lives next door. With John Lithgow, Jeff Daniels, Danny DeVito; directed by James L. Brooks. 131 min. C/Rtg: PG Forrest Gump (1994)Winner of six Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor, Robert Zemeckis' modern-day "Candide" stars Tom Hanks as the simple-minded but good-hearted Forrest, whose life is a series of accidental encounters with the memorable people and pivotal events of the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Endearing mix of comedy and drama also stars Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field as Mama Gump. 141 min. C/Rtg: PG-13 The English Patient (1996)In a ruined Italian monastery-turned-Allied hospital in World War II, an amnesiac, severely burned plane crash victim is cared for by a devoted young nurse. Through flashbacks of the man's past, a tale of wartime intrigue and forbidden love in the sands of North Africa unfolds. Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Willem Dafoe star in director/scripter Anthony Minghella's lush drama; winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress. 162 min. C/Rtg: R Titanic (1997)Director James Cameron's epic blockbuster, at the time the most expensive movie ever, won a record-tying 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. As an undersea expedition explores the remains of the RMS Titanic, a survivor of the doomed ship relates her account of the 1912 voyage, when, as a young socialite, she had a life-changing romance with a handsome steerage passenger. Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Gloria Stuart star; includes Celine Dion's hit "My Heart Will Go On." 194 min. C/Rtg: PG-13 American Beauty (1999)Five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor, went to this lacerating, darkly funny look at family decay in contemporary suburbia. Magazine editor Lester Burnham's (Kevin Spacey) midlife frustrations threaten his troubled marriage to real estate agent Carolyn (Annette Bening) and lead him to an infatuation with his teenage daughter Jane's (Thora Birch) friend, cheerleader Angela (Mena Suvari). Director Sam Mendes' and scripter Alan Ball's debut film work also stars Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper. 122 min. C/Rtg: R Gladiator (2000)Winner of Best Picture and Best Actor Academy Awards, director Ridley Scott's stirring spectacle stars Russell Crowe as heroic Roman general Maximus. Chosen to succeed ailing emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), Maximus is marked for death by the scheming imperial son (Joaquin Phoenix). After being sold into slavery, Maximus emerges as the empire's greatest gladiator and seeks vengeance in a showdown at the Colosseum. With Oliver Reed, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou. 155 min. C/Rtg: R No Country For Old Men (2007)Four Academy Awards-including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor-went to the Coen Brothers' riveting adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. When hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) happens upon a drug deal gone bad, he winds up with a suitcase containing $2 million in cash. Now, Moss must engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a ruthless hired killer (Javier Bardem) out to retrieve the money, while the local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to stop them both. With Woody Harrelson. 122 min. C/Rtg: R