Greatest "epic" film you've ever seen

Oh, gods yes. I know some people complained about casting ‘the hobbit’ and that Paul Bettany was “too tall” to be Stephen, by the film was gorgeous. It would have swept the Oscars if not for Return of the King taking everything for the LotR trilogy that year. I really, really wanted to see more adaptations.

Speak of … Lord of the Rings, another beautiful and epic film trilogy. Jackson went into it with a reputation for horror flicks, and the nailbiting of the studio beancounters after his announcement of his plan to film all three movies at once, but it paid off in spades. Stunningly gorgeous, the plot was tight and didn’t ramble (unlike Hobbit), the acting was amazing, just … wow.

Gone with the Wind … A movie with a history almost as fascinating as the history it told. Conflicts with filming of Wizard of Oz, actors who didn’t get along, and yet what we have is still a stunning piece of film.

Titanic – yeah I know, teenage girls threw themselves at Leonardo DeCaprio, and that damn song is still annoying, but the rest. The effort Cameron put into making that film as historically accurate as possible, was amazing. The camera equipment he designed to dive the wreck was top of the line and served to increase our knowledge of the ship in general.

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Absolutely Lawrence of Arabia. I see that’s not an original thought.

Sir Lawrence’s memoir 7/Pillars is one hell of a good read as well (beautifully wrought prose, and a complicated tale in itself) but I suspect many fans of the movie know that as well.

It might even be a slight irony, in that I despise being in the direct sunlight, and enjoy being well hydrated: that movie, as well as the book, is the closest I’ll get to voluntarily spending time in the desert.

I must be either a vampire or an exile from Tatooine or something.

Apocalypse Now was mentioned above: one of my favorite movies, but I don’t think of it as an epic, really. For some odd reason it belongs in the category of The Last Waltz: a broad, enthralling tale full of mythical characters, really. Maybe an Odyssey rather than an Iliad: a kind of romance, in some way.

No, these are just my own categorizations, not very rigorously applied.

However, I would call The Color of Money a sort of epic tale. It’s a small story, with some unfortunate bits of dialogue, but it belongs in that category for some unorthodox reason.

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As I think about this, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon feels pretty epic to me. What a beautiful film

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I’m leaning towards 2001: A Space Odyssey (not a large cast but vast concepts to grapple with, and absolutely staggering visuals), and Amadeus. Salieri’s “We are enemies…” scene sends a chill up my spine every time.

Also, I think you have to count It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World as an epic comedy.

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I’m sort of surprised to see no one’s mentioned Spartacus yet. It’s on my list of movies I absolutely must see before I die, and you can’t argue with it being “epic”; the “I AM SPARTACUS!” scene alone grants it that status.

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BIG YES to both.

Amadeus in particular feels like one of those rare “no other film from that year can really enter the conversation for Best Picture” movies. Perfect from start to finish.

Absolutely.

Slipped my mind, but yeah, that one cooks. Among other things, Alex North’s score is one for the ages.

For people looking to get into Kubrick’s filmography for epics, I’d start with that and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Oh, and if you like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, you’ll definitely want to check out the South Korean take on epic spaghetti westerns, The Good, the Bad, the Weird.

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Ironically, Kubrick DESPISES Spartacus with a passion. I’ve gone into this elsewhere in this forum somewhere, so I won’t get into the details except to say that Kubrick and producer/star Kirk Douglas really butted heads on that film, and that plus several other things (including a disagreement over who would get the writing credit, since blacklisted writer (at the time) Dalton Trumbo was the scriptwriter; Douglas wanted to make it a fait accompli and put Trumbo’s name in the credits, while Kubrick suggested the writing credit just be given to him since he directed it. To be fair, I don’t think Kubrick was doing it out of any real hubris; he just thought it was an easy solution to the problem at hand) have led to Kubrick essentially disavowing any connection to that film.

I’ll post a link to a fascinating blog post about it if you care to check it out: I’m Spartacus! – Miracle Movies

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Huh… how about that? I wasn’t aware of that, but based on all that you’ve said (I can well imagine he and Douglas coming to blows over matters), that’d make sense.

And thanks for the link to the blog post, I very much appreciate that and will be sure to check that out!

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I thought about adding Spartacus to my list. It is the same kind of sweeping style as Ben Hur. Honestly, how can you beat that “I am Spartacus!” scene?

(And I did read the link you posted before. :slight_smile: )

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obligatory swoon of joy upon seeing an M&C mention

My favorite non-sci-fi movie. I fell in love with this for reasons I cannot fully articulate. Saw it 13 times in the theater, own every DVD version, the tie-in books, soundtracks, theatrical posters, and a freaking screen-used prop sword.

I will never be okay that they never made the planned upon sequels…a lot of that stemmed from being released a month before LOTR: Return of the King. (I see I’m not the first to think this - :wave: @LadyShelley ) It vanished in that award tsunami, and even though the studio made back its money, it didn’t make enough profit. I am very sad.

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Schindler’s List is an amazing, sweeping masterpiece, but damn, I felt so bad after watching it.

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Glad you liked the blog! It’s written by a coworker (in the loosest possible sense of the word) of mine who was a student of film history and has written some absolutely fascinating posts on the behind the scenes stuff of a lot of great classic movies. I get most of my movie trivia from him.

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Lord of the Rings - any of them

Jurassic Park
Saving Private Ryan
Forrest Gump
12 Angry Men - may not seem epic with one setting, but what a great group of actors!

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I remember my father saying something like that (the “holy crap” reaction) waaay, way back when he saw it and talked about it.

And then years later when I finally go to it, in his first scene I had the reaction of, “Oh good, Henry Fonda’s here to save the day” – “D’OH!”

In hindsite it was a dumb thought, but that’s how strong the Fonda as ethical, intellegent hero type was imbedded in my mind.

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I’ll go waaaay, way back for this one. Because at my movie blog I named an epic, Caberia (1914) as my first Best Picture winner.

While it has too many characters and too many plot-lines to keep track of, and too many intertitles trying to explain it all. It’s also a dizzying epic, with resplendent costumes, sets, and props so huge they caught the eye and inspired directors like C.B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith. (Martin Scorsese stated that director Giovanni Pastrone invented the historical epic).

Added bonus, it’s the first appearance of the strongman Maciste on film (a character who will pop up in a few MSTed movies).

Also, yes, Ran and Kurosawa, yes!

And a few I don’t recall seeing mentioned…Napoleon (1927), Doctor Zhivago, The Ten Commandments, Aguirre Wrath of God, The Last Emperor (directors cut), Elizabeth

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That’s a very diplomatic take. :wink: It hadn’t occurred to me to consider Caligula as epic, but that does feel kinda right. It’s definitely a film not soon forgotten after one sees it.

I’d say The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is also an epic of sorts. Haunting and deeply cinematic, or at least that’s what my memories tell me.

Also Until The End of the World. I’ve only seen the short version of this Wim Wenders masterpiece, on VHS about 30 years ago, and was thrilled to recently learn the full 4.5-hour version is finally available on Blu ray.

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Definite yes to Cabiria. There was something jarring about seeing the camera moved with a modern sensibility in a movie from 1914, like “that technique can’t have been invented yet!”

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Ooh, that was an abysmal year for the Academy, wasn’t it? The Color Purple got skunked. Out of Africa wasn’t even the best jungle-based movie that year, much less the best movie overall.

King Solomon’s Mines, e.g., was more fun and had better acting. Or maybe The Emerald Forest. Or for those of you who like that sort of thing Brazil. (Well, okay, I don’t think there was a jungle in Brazil.)

1985 was a good year, too: Back to the Future, Tampopo, Witness, Police Story, Return of the Living Dead, Vampire Hunter D, Reanimator, Return of the Living Dead. 'course, none of these are Oscar-fodder except Witness. (And of course Ran.)

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I’m surprised to see no mention of Citizen Kane yet. I remember the first time I watched it, not being especially impressed on the grounds that “it looks like just about every other movie from that time” until I remembered no, that’s not the direction time flows: just about every other movie from that time looks like Kane, and Kane was the first movie to look like that, and finally realized what an actual accomplishment it was.

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