The Essential War Collection

Box set containing eight classic war movies. 'Full Metal Jacket' (1987) details the dehumanising effect of military combat, as experienced by a bunch of Vietnam conscripts under the training of the sadistic Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R.

Lee Ermey). The second half of the film follows one of the recruits, Joker (Matthew Modine), onto the battlefield as he is thrown into the war at the height of the Tet offensive.

In 'Where Eagles Dare' (1968), during World War II, seven Allied agents are selected to rescue an American general from the impenetrable German fortress Schloss Adler.

In charge of the team is British Major Smith (Richard Burton), with American Lieutenant Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) as second in command.

Parachuting into the enemy territory in German uniforms, the squad discover one of their number dead on arrival, and Smith suspects that he may have a traitor amongst his unit.

In 'The Dirty Dozen' (1967), in 1944, twelve Death Row convicts are selected by Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) for a suicide mission.

With the aid of his assistant, Sergeant Bowren (Richard Jaeckel), Reisman gradually moulds his gang of murderers, rapists, thieves and psychotics into a tough fighting unit.

He leads them into occupied France in an attempt to infiltrate a chateau where the Nazi top brass are holding a summit. 'We Were Soldiers' (2002) stars Mel Gibson as Colonel Hal Moore.

The year is 1965 and Moore's men arrive in the highlands of South Vietnam ready to carry out a search-and-destroy mission.

But thanks to a fault in military intelligence, they disembark near a large North Vietnamese army base and soon find themselves surrounded.

What follows is a three-day battle resulting in massive casualties for both sides.

In 'Kelly's Heroes' (1970), during World War Two in occupied France, a group of soldiers led by Kelly (Clint Eastwood) capture a German general.

He reveals the location of a bank housing 14,000 bars of Nazi gold, which Kelly and his men set out to steal.

The only problem is that the bank lies thirty miles behind enemy lines.

In 'Memphis Belle' (1990), the crew of the USAF bomber 'Memphis Belle', stationed in Britain during World War II, are preparing for their record-breaking 25th daylight mission.

The mission will be as dangerous as ever, but if they survive they will return to the States as heroes. 'Battle of the Bulge' (1965) is a historical film account (starring Henry Fonda and Robert Shaw), of Germany's last major European offensive of WWII at the Ardennes in Belgium, in December 1944.

Germany, under the command of Hessler, plans an attack with the secret panzer division, but they are desperately short of fuel and their immediate objective is to capture a big allied fuel deposit, without the allies knowing.

Finally, 'Escape to Victory' (1981) is set during World War II and focuses on a group of Nazi officers who come up with a propaganda event in which an all-star Nazi team will play a team composed of Allied Prisoners of War in a Football match.

The prisoners agree, planning on using the game as a means of escape from the camp.