When is a movie called an epic


Films that attempt to deal with real or imagined events in a grand, sweeping visual style. Known for casts of thousands and action on a massive scale, these are tales set against a panoramic backdrop dealing with the weighty issues most appropriate to the form, generally the fate of nations, morality, politics, religion, and the struggle between people and nature.

Movies are an ideal vehicle for the epic - the stage simply cannot offer the same kind of physical reality and television screens (and TV network production budgets) are too small to effectively capture the sweep of the genre. There were two periods in American movie history when the epic reigned supreme: the last half of the silent era, from 1915 until the introduction of sound in 1927, and the bulk of the 1950s and the early 1960s. D. W. GRIFFITH brought the Hollywood epic film to life with The Birth of a Nation (1915) depicting the battles of the American Civil War. He raised the epic to even grander heights with Intolerance (1916), a movie that still leaves viewers awestruck by its magnificent sets and colossal tableaux.

If Griffith created the Hollywood epic, CECIL B. DEMILLE made it his life's work, and he, more than any other director, has been associated with the genre. Although none may have been brilliant, most were commercially successful. From his two versions of The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956) to Cleopatra (1934), and from Sign of the Cross (1932) to Samson and Delilah (1949), DeMille gave most of his attention to sin-and-salvation films set in ancient, usually biblical, times.

Despite the fact that films such as Ben Hur (1925 and 1959), Salome (1953), and Solomon and Sheba (1959) are considered typical of the genre, epics need not be concerned with biblical or classical themes. The American West has proven to be a particularly fertile source of epics. Movies such as The Covered Wagon (1923), Duel in the Sun (1946), How the West Was Won (1961), Little Big Man (1970), and even the commercial and critical disaster Heaven's Gate (1980) dealt with the great issues of the frontier in epic proportion.

Big-budget war movies have also contributed to the epic, a few of the more memorable examples being The Longest Day (1962), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), and KING VIDOR's War and Peace (1956). In the same vein as the war epic is the national epic, including such films as El Cid (1961), which depict the heroism that helps to galvanize nations to combat terrible threats against impossible odds.

There have been biographical epics such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), built around the majesty of a single person who changed history. Science fiction epics such as 2001, A Space Odyssey (1968) and Star Wars (1977) offered a view of the future filled with epic themes, which were presented with stunning visual grandeur. Such adventure epics as The Wind and the Lion (1975), fantasy epics such as The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and even such gangster epics as THE GODFATHER (1972) have delighted audiences. Finally, there have been epic love stories, with none more beloved by film fans than GONE WITH THE WIND (1939).

In recent years, it has ultimately become too expensive to produce a true "Hollywood epic." This is not to say that epic films will no longer be made, but when an otherwise simple action film such as Rambo III (1988) can cost $64 million, the epic is no longer cost effective. Epic themes will abound, but epic budgets for massive casts and magnificent sets have already been dealt the same treatment as Samson's hair.

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This article was sent to us by: Alice Lealand at 08122010

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