There are films and there are films, and then there are EPIC films. You know the ones, they are eighty hours long and have lots of scenery. . .What is your favorite EPIC film?
Panelist: Tennessee Jed
Ben-Hur. Amazing to watch and consider it was made in the 50s. Absolutely amazing filmmaking.
Panelist: ScottDS
Barry Lyndon. It might not have the visual scope of Lawrence of Arabia or The Ten Commandments but it's definitely an epic film, with stunning visuals and great music. I saw it for the first time almost 10 years ago and was simply hypnotized by it... and I'm not exactly known for my love of three-hour costume dramas. It truly is Kubrick's underrated masterpiece.
Panelist: AndrewPrice
I'm going with Doctor Zhivago. Fascinating topic, great characters, interesting story, tremendous scenery and a fantastic score. What more could you ask for?
Panelist: BevfromNYC
I would have to say the Lord of the Rings series of films would have to be my favorite EPIC film(s). Grand in scale, scope, and story line – a tale of band of disparate strangers thrown together on a quest to save their worlds.
Panelist: T-Rav
Maybe a bit predictable, but The Lord of the Rings, specifically The Two Towers. Probably the most panoramic and sweeping of the three, and it's where a lot of the central issues are most clearly and movingly expressed. That movie has a lot of good lines, come to think of it.
Comments? Thoughts?
After looking it up I didn't know epics were so loosely defined.
ReplyDeleteSince that's the case, I'll look past the traditional epics. Thus listing a few others(in no particular order).
Harry Potter films
Star Wars Trilogy(original)
Stargate(movie)
The Mummy
Star Trek(TMP)
The Fifth Element
2001
Planet of the Apes(original)
Forbidden Planet
I can't leave out at least two TV series.
Star Trek(TOS, AS)
Babylon 5(set up as an epic)
I will have to join Bev and T-Rav and say The Lord of the Rings.
ReplyDeleteI would add Ran, Patton, Saving Private Ryan, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Ten Commmandments.
I saw Lawrence of Arabia in a movie theater back in the early 90's or late 80's and it reminded me of a time gone by. They don't make pictures like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteI like Bridge on the River Kwai a lot better, so I will go with that one. Even now I can't believe Obi Wan gives up the good guys to the Japanese at the end...oops spoiler.
Yikes. I don't want to give the same names everyone else does, but nothing comes to mind. I think LOTR is good, I love Lawrence of Arabia. Dr. Zhivago is great too. How about How the West Was Won!
ReplyDeleteLOTR came to mind first, just like it did to others.
ReplyDeleteTo pick one out of the box I'd pick a martial arts movie staring Jet Li "Once Upon A Time In China" which was the first epic martial arts movie I saw and one of my all time favorites.
Scott.
Scott, Hero had the feeling of an epic film as well and I thought that was fantastic. Great scenery, great characters, sweeping plot. Very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteDUQ,
ReplyDeleteYes it does, but I prefer "Once Upon A Time In China" as it came out years before and I think was the first Marital Arts Epic and it is loosely based on a real life character.
Scott.
Scott, That's a good one too.
ReplyDeleteThe first movie that I thought of was Anna and the King. The scenery blew me away when I first saw it! I thought it should certainly win some kind of Oscar for cinematography or something. I don't know, maybe it did.
ReplyDeleteAnd that made me think of The Sound of Music also.
Then I read the comments and thought, duh, of course, The Lord of the Rings. Those were EPIC!
But if I had to spend my Sunday just veggin', watchin' movies (oh wait, that's what I am going to do) I'd rather watch my former, girlier choices.
Max -
ReplyDeleteI don't know if epics are that loosely defined! :-)
Good call on 2001 and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though. Now that I think of it, I only got an "epic" vibe from the last two Harry Potter films which, technically, could be combined into one long five-hour movie.
I can't say I've ever heard The Mummy or The Fifth Element described as epic, but that's just me. Besides, if The Mummy is an epic, then so are its crappy sequels and I don't want to give those movies the satisfaction! :-)
(One day we'll have to do a Babylon 5 article. It's been so long since I've watched the show, but I do have mostly fond memories of it.)
I like Scott's pick, Barry Lyndon-- just got to watch that again, recently. The movie was much more accessible than Henry Fielding's book, and it does move along with no dead spots; a rarity for a film of this type. It is my favorite Kubrick. Plus, there is the Schubert piano trio that is used so effectively as a secondary musical theme. I have always wanted to name a dog Lord Bullington because of this film.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you were unable to make a selection, Max--a commentarama tradition ;) Lawrence of Arabia looks great in Blu-Ray, but to be honest, it did drag a bit for me in spots, something Ben Hur and Barry Lyndon never did.Same for Doctor Z. Both great epeic films from my era, but just not my personal fave's.
Outlaw -
ReplyDeleteGreat choices! I haven't seen Kwai in years even though I bought the Blu-Ray set. Ditto Lawrence of Arabia, but that Blu-Ray is coming out soon. I've seen stills form it and it looks beautiful!
You're right - they don't make movies like that anymore, though I'm not sure if you're referring to form, content, or both when you say that.
Content? Probably not. But form? They can still make "epic" movies like that today but not every filmmaker can pull it off and too many filmmakers abuse CGI. (Andrew's written about it before - how many movies feature fake-looking armies numbering in the thousands?)
And I'm not sure if any working screenwriter could pull off a script as intelligent as the one for Lawrence.
Max, I'm not actually sure how to define "epic." I know it when I see it, but I can't quite define it... big, spectacular, well-known, often from a book.
ReplyDeleteHow the West Was Won was originally released in a format called Cinarama. For those too young to know what that was, I won't spoil it here, but let you google it instead (l.o.l.) The first I remember was Windjammer, but Around the World in 80 Days with David Niven and a really young Shirly McLane was the first big commercial success. How the West Was Won had a great cast--Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds (Princess Lea's mom) Carol Baker, and many more.
ReplyDeleteJed -
ReplyDeleteBarry Lyndon was actually based on a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.
And it's also my favorite Kubrick (tied with Dr. Strangelove, actually.) :-)
The soundtrack was never released on CD in this country but I posted on a film score forum that I was looking for it and someone who had actually seen it in a local shop decided to buy it for me. (I still had to pay for it, of course.)
Shawn, I would think LOTR is likely to be a huge favorite today. Good call on Ran.
ReplyDeleteScott, Once Upon A Time In China is an excellent film. I enjoyed that a lot.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, Barry Lyndon would never have occurred to me.
ReplyDeleteOf the others that have been mentioned, probably my pick would be The Ten Commandments. Now there's your classic epic.
Outlaw, Bridge on the River Kwai is one of my all-time favorites.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your take on Lawrence of Arabia as well, it makes me think of them not making films like that anymore.
DUQ, I really like How The West Was Won! Excellent film and very patriotic too.
ReplyDeleteDUQ and Scott, I too enjoy Hero better than Once Upon A Time, but I like them both very much. Hero is probably my favorite Chinese film. It's beautifully shot.
ReplyDeleteCheryl, I'm a bit fan of The Sounds of Music. That is just such a great film and it has such fantastic scenery. I like that one a lot!
ReplyDeleteBev, I--I--I can't believe you didn't pick--you know! I--I--I'm stunned!
ReplyDeleteMy first pick is Walt Disney's Pinocchio. A lot of folks would go straight for Snow White. But for as lavish as Snow White is, Pinocchio totally blows it away with bigger scenes, a broader story, more characters, more ambitious effects, better music, and of course Jiminy Cricket--the prototype for all talking animal sidekicks to follow.
Scott and Max, I personally would not consider the Potter films or Fifth Element to be epics.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Bab 5 until the final season which felt rushed and way too different from the earlier show. An article might be worth it at some point, but I'd need to watch the show again first.
Jed, That's true. Lawrence of Arabia does drag a bit, and Lyndon and Ben Hur really don't.
ReplyDeleteScott, I think the CGI would kill most epics today because you just can't beat natural scenery. That said, I think the bigger problem with recreating something like Lawrence of Arabia is the content. I just don't think films like that are popular anymore -- people want chases and explosions and love triangles or aliens.
ReplyDeleteAndrew -
ReplyDeleteJ. Michael Straczynski thought he was going to be cancelled after the fourth season, so he struggled to wrap everything up, then at the last minute found out he'd have another 20+ episodes to work with.
Scott - you are, of course, 100% correct about Thackery. I almost always incorrectly attribute it to Fielding because of the film "Tom Jones" which brought fame to Albert Phinney and preceded Barry Lyndon. It was based on Fielding's book. Strangely enough, my grandfather had hard copies of both in his library. I tried to read them when the film versions came out and simply couldn't wade through them :)
ReplyDeleteRav - of course Barry Lyndon didn't occur to you. I would be stunned if it had. On the other hand, the recent digital restoration work of Ten Commandments is stunning.
Jed, I loved the original Around the World in 80 Days and just recently read the book actually -- very well written!
ReplyDeleteThe film process for How The West Was Won was interesting, but also sort of annoying because it ended up creating those lines on the film where the different prints come together.
Jed -
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read, may critics thought they were getting a Tom Jones-esque film when Lyndon was released and, as usual, Kubrick proved them all wrong.
And from what you said earlier, now I want a bulldog just so I can call him Lord Bullingdon!
(Too bad I'm more of a cat person!) :-)
I would define an Epic as a journey of mind, body, and/or soul of the protaganist in which he/she
ReplyDeletecan never return and is forever changed Sound good?
Scott, In the old days... before the net, you would need to find an import store to buy something like that. We used to travel to Denver every so often because there was one up there. We would end up paying 3-4 times what we paid for regular CDs, but sometimes, that was the only way to get it.
ReplyDeleteI would go with The Shining as my favorite Kubrick film.
T-Rav, The Ten Commandments is totally a classic epic. It makes no bones about it either, i.e. it doesn't try to hide as just a movie. I like that one a lot!
ReplyDeletetryanmax, LOL! I know, you would think Bev would have picked GWTW, but she seems to save that pick for questions like greatest science fiction films. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've never thought of cartoons as epics, but now that I think about it, it makes sense actually. Huh. And yeah, Pinocchio is a great choice!
The amazing thing about Pinocchio is that, watching it, you get the sensation that you've been with the characters for a very long time, but it only clocks in at 88 min.
ReplyDeleteI would say very few cartoons rise to epic proportions, and they're probably all Disney features. Besides the two I've already named, I would only add The Lion King to the list. So yeah, there's only three in my book.
We'd better send somebody to go check on Bev, make sure she's not sick.
Modern, wide-screen favorite: Lawrence of Arabia.
ReplyDeleteClassic favorite: The Good Earth.
Andrew - you are right about Cinerama. The lines would drive us nuts today, but back then, it was the state of the art wide screen technology. As Joe Biden might have said, it was a BFD! In those days, epics were shown in the grand old movie palaces, and they were events. O.K., O.K., I'm waxing nostalgic (sigh)
ReplyDeleteAnother one that's really ambitious, though I'm not sure if it counts as "epic" is the 1974 film Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.
ReplyDeleteScott, I knew that and it really destroyed the show. It ended up rushing the show and cutting all the story arcs, and then suddenly the show continued and it felt like they were just struggling to find filler to complete the series. That was too bad.
ReplyDeleteJed, Are you saying there's a generational gap with Barry Lyndon?
ReplyDeleteJed, is that a generational dig at me? :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to say it qualifies as an epic and suggest the first Narnia movie. It meets the guidelines Bev put out above--protagonists are profoundly changed by their adventures, plus it's kind of a quest thing, and there's a battle between good and evil, etc. The two sequels aren't as good, but "Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe" is pretty solid.
You want EPIC?!
ReplyDeleteHow about The Battle of Midway? Directed by John Ford
Had it all....heroes, battles, oceanic vistas, awesome war machines.....and true !!
Hey! I would have chosen GWTW, but then you'd think that it is the only movie I know. But now that you mention it, GWTW IS an Epic, so I will add it to my list...
ReplyDeleteBev, That sounds like a decent definition. It also sounds like you swiped it from the dictionary! LOL!
ReplyDeleteFor me it would have to be the Magnificient Seven.
ReplyDeleteNot as much scenery as Ben Hur and not a sweeping broad universe in scope setting such as Star Wars.
However the film is a remake of the Seven Samarai in a western setting and so it juxstaposes the Western characters in old Mexico with roving banditos with the ethics of the self sacrifice of the Japanese culture.
They manage to convert the story to the western setting with western characters with western vaklues but they still tell a story that has as the basis if its moral fabric the code of Busihido.
This was story telling very well done so I would say this is my favortie Epic film.
tryanmax, She might have been replaced by a clone? ;)
ReplyDeleteOn your point about Pinocchio, I think that's the hallmark of an excellent film, when it feels like you've been with the characters much longer than the film itself. I think that's a classic sign of well-written characters.
"No one throws me my guns and then tells me to run"
ReplyDeleteLawhawk, LOL! Lawrence of Arabia doesn't really qualify as "modern" anymore. It's a classic by now.
ReplyDeleteJed, I accept the lines because I've gotten used to them as part of the film. But I wouldn't want to see new films using them.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I don't count that as an epic... ditto on "Death On The Nile." But I do very much enjoy both films.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, I would take it as a generation dig.... bah, you kids today! ;)
ReplyDeleteIf LOTR counts, then I would think the Narnia films would count too.
Patriot, Especially if you watch the longer version which includes the Battle of the Coral Sea. Then it's definitely an epic!
ReplyDeleteAndrew - Well, I have always dreamt of being a great writer of dictionaries and that's the proof! I will add it to my portfolio...;-)
ReplyDeleteBev, I'm pretty sure we all already believe that is the only film you know! LOL!
ReplyDeleteIndi, Magnificent Seven was truly an excellent film. I also enjoy the original, Seven Samurai.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Westerns, I think the list would not be complete without The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!
Bev, LOL! Now I can say I know a great writer of dictionaries! :)
ReplyDeleteAndrew: I know I'm showing my age, but that's why I added modern wide screen. Lawrence of Arabia is a classic, but I tend to differentiate "modern" from "classic" by wide screen (Cinerama, Cinemascope, Todd-A-O, etc.) versus pre-wide screen. I don't really mean "classic" as in "old." By my standard (which is admittedly very loose), the original Ben Hur would be a classic, where the wide screen version would be a "modern" classic.
ReplyDeleteNice, nice topic. Some of my favorites have already been named: "How the West Was Won" and "The Two Towers."
ReplyDeleteCouple of foreign entries:
"Stalingrad," a 1993 German film about the battle from the viewpoint of a squad of common German soldiers. While the makers go to pains to emphasize that it's not a pro-Nazi movie, the story, acting, etc. are great, especially the harrowing 1st combat scene.
"Arn: The Knight Templar" is a darn good Swedish epic based on a trilogy of novels about the first king of Sweden. Takes a little getting used to the multiple languages (Swedish, English, French, Latin and Arabic) but it's well worth it.
I would name "Battle of Britain," but it drags a lot and is often dry as dust, even for this history nut.
I do like Barry Lyndon -- especially the period music selections. It's a great score if you can ever find it.
ReplyDeleteBen Hur is my all-time favorite... saw it on the big screen a few years ago and the chariot race is the finest thing ever put on film.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with Patton and Barry Lyndon...
Two Arthurian... Excalibur has epic elements though I'm not sure if it wholly qualifies. In mock epic territory I have Monty Python and the Holy Grail... definitely in a line with Alexander Pope's "mock epic" tradition.
DeMille's The Sign of the Cross is a great pre-Code epic and Metropolis, Wings, and the Ben Hur -- great silent epics.
Also -- The Longest Day
Lawhawk, I understand. For me though, they are both classics.
ReplyDeleteBig Mo, Stalingrad is a fascinating film. It's very well done and it's amazing to think of the number of casualties suffered on both sides.
ReplyDeleteFloyd, Ben Hur is fantastic. I've seen it several times over the years and it always holds up.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually not thrilled with Metropolis. I know that's a sin in movie circles, but it just doesn't do for me somehow.
RE: Definitions, IMO, for a film to qualify as "epic" there needs to almost be something epic in the very making of it in addition to tackling epic themes. If the film isn't more ambitious in scope than the average film, it's just a genre piece.
ReplyDeleteAnd for foreign film... Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein is a great epic -- especially The Battle on the Ice.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, You mean that if the film crew doesn't suffer, then it's not epic? LOL!
ReplyDeleteFloyd, That's true, that's quite an epic!
ReplyDeleteDoctor Zhivago, greatest epic of all time, bar none!
ReplyDeleteI agree with every movie mentionied! I haven't seen Barry Lyndon though. I better get my hands on it asap. It's sad, hollywood doesn't make good epics anymore...
Snape, There are a lot of excellent movies listed here!
ReplyDeleteAndrew, LOL! That might be a little much--although it does seem to be the case quite a bit. All I mean is that I'm much more likely to consider a film "epic" if the filmmakers took some risks in making the film more than the typical offering. Usually, those risks entail enormous budgets that make the studio heads squirm--but I don't mind if they suffer. LOL!
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I'm fine with their suffering. ;)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, it seems like every epic has stories of tortured conditions, insane budgets on the edge, and near-total chaos. So I guess you do need to suffer for your art?
I would say Saving Private Ryan kinda qualifies as an epic, since we're talking about war movies, but large parts of it suck. So.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wouldn't say Private Ryan is an epic. It doesn't seem grandiose enough to me.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of calling any of Kubrick's films "epics" strikes me as a bit odd, for what it's worth. I guess maybe you could say it about 2001, but as Andrew has pointed out, so much of it is sterile and not, well, epic-like. The only things uplifting about it are the music and that 20-minute acid trip at the end, and neither really hinges on the story itself. So I'm going to have to nix that one, too.
ReplyDeleteKubrick's films have always struck me as too narrow in focus to be considered epics -- they really zero in fast and don't ever look beyond the moment.
ReplyDeleteI did look up "Epic Films", it has many categories.
ReplyDeleteUnder sci-fi epic, the Fifth Element was near the top of the list.
Now we could argue about it all day, but epic has a different definition for everyone.
I would not call LOTR an epic, mainly because I was bored out of my mind, watching the first movie. With the thought, quit going on about the damn ring already. I never was a Tolkien fan.
So I look at the subject how would I define an epic. Simple a movie that is grand in scope, with photography and story to match.
Which is why I brought up the Mummy, they matched shots and locations to LoA. Plus the opening really did hit the epic scale. Nothing beats the pyramids for epic. I did thing the second film was fun, but not on par with the first.
Other movies I would add,
The Bond Films under Albert R. Broccoli.
Tora Tora Tora
Midway
There is one animated Japanese series that was so epic, that's the only word I would use to describe it.
Heroic Age
I had to go out for a while, folks. Rav, it wasn't so much a generational dig as that I like to tease you since I know you can take it in the right spirit :)
ReplyDeletewhen I think of the term "epic" I think of terms like lengthy, grandiose, and heroic. Whether or not a particular epic has some boring qualities is a different (albeit valid) question. That said, there was just a hint of truth in the "generational" nature of my earlier tease. I think generational issues effect everybody when it comes to questions such as "what is your favorite" (fillin the blank.)
ReplyDeleteTotally OT: Whoever posted about "Tucker and Dave vs Evil" - I downloaded it on spec. Thanks! Great fun movie.
ReplyDeleteBack on topic: I was probably dragged along to too many "Epic" movies and told to "Sit Still!" to really appreciate such slow overly dramatic monumental bores like Dr. Zhivago, Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia. I did like "The Great Race" though, does that qualify?
Max, It sounds like the topic is rather undefined. I guess we should have looked at the definition before we asked the question!
ReplyDeleteJed, That's what I think of too when the word epic comes up, something much larger than just another film.
ReplyDeleteK, I'm not sure if it qualifies or if it fits in some other category like epic comedy or something? That said, I enjoy that one as well as Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machines.
ReplyDeleteAndrew -
ReplyDeleteIf comedies count as epics, then we need to include The Great Race, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World, and maybe even The Blues Brothers. (It's a stretch, I know!)
Scott, I don't know if they should be included or not. And no, I wouldn't count Blues Brothers. I would only count comedies with a huge cast in some big adventure, like Mad, Mad World.
ReplyDeleteBroke in my new wide-screen TV and Blu-Ray player with How the West Was Won, specifically the "Smilebox" version for the Cinerama-dome experience -- for someone who had never seen it, wow on every level. Epic indeed.
ReplyDeleteFor a non-nominated suggestion, I'll go with 300 and, a little off the charts, Traffic. The former bad-ass on so many levels, and the latter remains a movie I can't not watch if I stumble across it while channel-surfing. Fortunately, I own them both, too.
Re. Blues Brothers, Andrew, how does an adventure doubling as a mission from God not qualify? Also, you trying to tell us that cast isn't epic, especially when it includes James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker (however cameo), Aretha Franklin, Carrie Fisher, John Candy, the entire Blues Bros. band, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Charles Napier, Frank Oz and Paul Reubens (again with the cameos)? How much more do you need, man, how much??? I'm starting to think John Landis tinkled in your cornflakes.
Scott - I thought about It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I think it's epic just for the cast alone.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the greatest comedy epic of them all is Blazing Saddles. :) :)
Eric, I'm not sure comedies really count as epics and I don't think The Blues Brothers is that different from other comedies to merit calling it epic. It's great, but not an epic.
ReplyDeleteBig MO, If comedies count, then I would absolutely count Mad, Mad World.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be The Sound of Music.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Vin Diesel in The Pacifier:
"A nun leaves her habit for a man in uniform. I see nothing wrong with that."
Mycroft, LOL! Nice quote! :)
ReplyDeleteTHE DARK KNIGHT SAGA
ReplyDeleteHEAT: An epic crime movie.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Giant. GOne With the Wind too... both epic in scope and about bigger than life places and times.
ReplyDeleteI also think the great miniseries are epic.... Roots, The Holocaust, Lonesome Dove The Winds of War all had epic qualities and scope.
Dances With Wolves was epic... and while the plot hasn't aged well, the buffalo hunt and the score plus the cinematography make it in the top 10.
ReplyDeleteKit, I've never heard of this Dark Knight? Is that about the Middle Ages? ;)
ReplyDeleteFloyd, Bev always mentions Gone With the Wind by default, but she didn't this time. It's very strange. LOL!
ReplyDeleteA lot of the miniseries definitely do qualify as epics, and The Winds of War certainly comes to mind.
I agree that Dances With Wolves was an epic. I think it was beautifully shot and a decent movie. I think the plot would have done better if it hadn't been so blatantly copied by Tom Cruise in Dances With Samurai and by James Cameron in Dances With Smurfs.
A recent epic would be Schindler's List.
ReplyDeleteAnother great old one would be Big Country. Can't go wrong with Gregory Peck, Charleton Heston and Burl Ives.
A question for the panel.
ReplyDeleteDo The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now count as epics? The Deer Hunter clocked in at 182 minutes and covered before,during and after the Vietnam War.The Russian Roulette scene is unforgetable and it featured Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken and Robert DeNiro before they were household names.
Apocalypse Now is still a cultural reference point.
Just wondering,
GypsyTyger
On Pinocchio, the donkey scene would freak me out as a kid. Still freaks me out. "Mother! MOTHER!"
ReplyDeleteLION KING definitely had an "epic sweep" to it, just look at "Circle of Life" and the Stampede scene. Add a truly epic Hans Zimmer score. I loved that movie as a kid. I think it was the first I saw in theaters.
"Remember who you are. . . "
I still get chills hearing Zimmer's score.
Other epic animated movies:
-Beauty and the Beast: Epic Love Story. Probably my favorite Disney princess-ey couple.
-Snow White: The original animated movie.
Live Action:
-Wizard of Oz: Why has no one mentioned this yet? It and Snow White are the two original fantasy epics.
-Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet: Seen most of it and it looked pretty epic. It also lacks a certain Freudian complex. Thank God!
Mycroft, Big Country is a solid film. Very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteGypsyTyger, I have no idea. We don't seem to have a consistent definition of epic. Interesting, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteKit, I'm still not sure animation qualifies as epic. It could be, but I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteJ. Michael Straczynski thought he was going to be cancelled after the fourth season, so he struggled to wrap everything up, then at the last minute found out he'd have another 20+ episodes to work with.
ReplyDeleteSeptember 23, 2012 10:35 AM
As I remember it, B5 aired on the PTEN network, which was Warner Bros. first effort at getting a network going. Wikipedia says that it existed for 5 years, but I only remember it surviving for 4 years. B5 looked like it wouldn't get it's 5th season, until TNT stepped in and green-lit the final season and 3 made for tv movies.
funny - the first film I thought of as "epic" was Braveheart - not mentioned by anyone else...
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Pinocchio in years, so I'll defer judgment; but Lion King should qualify.
I've seen most of Lawrence of Arabia over the years - def. epic!
GWTW - even though I don't care for it, yep
LOTR - good choice. My parents love/loved Big Country...
I really like 5th Element, but I don't consider it "epic"...
I'm surprised that I didn't see The Searchers, Gladiator, or Chariots of Fire listed by anyone...unless I missed them. As for comedy epics...The Naked Gun series has to be in the conversation.
ReplyDeleteShawn, That's how I remember it too.
ReplyDeleterlaWTX, I absolutely don't see Fifth Element as an epic either.
ReplyDeleteVoz, I keep meaning to go back and watch Chariots of Fire. I saw it maybe 25+ years ago I just don't remember it.
ReplyDeleteGreat choices! Is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly an epic?
ReplyDeleteSure feels like one.
Also: Yojimbo is definitely epic, and the American remake, For a Fistfull Of Dollars could be called epic, since it was a change from the westerns of those times.
Ben, I think The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is an epic. :)
ReplyDelete