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The Epic Film - Myth and History (Paperback)
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The Epic Film - Myth and History (Paperback)
Series: Routledge Library Editions: Cinema
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As Charlton Heston put it: 'There's a temptingly simple definition
of the epic film: it's the easiest kind of picture to make badly.'
This book goes beyond that definition to show how the film epic has
taken up one of the most ancient art-forms and propelled it into
the modern world, covered in twentieth-century ambitions,
anxieties, hopes and fantasies. This survey of historical epic
films dealing with periods up to the end of the Dark Ages looks at
epic form and discusses the films by historical period, showing how
the cinema reworks history for the changing needs of its audience,
much as the ancient mythographers did. The form's main aim has
always been to entertain, and Derek Elley reminds us of the glee
with which many epic films have worn their label, and of the sheer
fun of the genre. He shows the many levels on which these films can
work, from the most popular to the specialist, each providing a
considerable source of enjoyment. For instance, spectacle, the
genre's most characteristic trademark, is merely the cinema's own
transformation of the literary epic's taste for the grandiose.
Dramatically it can serve many purposes: as a resolution of
personal tensions (the chariot race in Ben-Hur), of monotheism vs
idolatry (Solomon and Sheba), or of the triumph of a religious code
(The Ten Commandments). Although to many people Epic equals
Hollywood, throughout the book Elley stresses debt to the Italian
epics, which often explored areas of history with which Hollywood
could never have found sympathy. Originally published 1984.
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