This is the tenth and last article in our examination of the AFI’s Ten Top Tens. You can read the introduction here, the first article in the series on animation here, the second article in the series on romantic comedies here, the third article on sports movies here, the fourth article on mysteries here, the fifth article on westerns here, the sixth article, on fantasy films, here, the seventh article, on science fiction films, here, the eighth article, on gangster movies, here, and the ninth article, on courtroom dramas, here.

Image Credit: Digiology

Epic is always a funny word for me to write.  Whenever I say it or write it, it seems as though I’m speaking a different language.  An ancient language.  I pick the book up from the earth and wipe the dust off the giant thing.  I blow the remaining dust off and see it etched it gold foil: Epic.

This is exactly the image I make when thinking of the Epic genre.  The movies in the genre are ancient civilizations in themselves.  They are big, with unique artifacts, and they last centuries.  This is what I think of when I contemplate the genre.  Let’s see what AFI has to say. According to them, Epic means “a genre of large-scale films set in a cinematic interpretation of the past.

And what movies does the AFI consider to be the best under this definition?

Rank	Film	Year
1	Lawrence of Arabia	1962
2	Ben-Hur	1959
3	Schindler’s List	1993
4	Gone with the Wind	1939
5	Spartacus	1960
6	Titanic	1997
7	All Quiet on the Western Front	1930
8	Saving Private Ryan	1998
9	Reds	1981
10	The Ten Commandments	1956

Okay, first, let’s define the definition.  What exactly is a large-scale movie anyway?  Big budget?  Lots of extras?  Grandiose sets and locations?  Sure, I guess this is the beginning of it.  I also think that time-expanse makes something large-scale also.  The movie has to span a significant period of time.  And not just in the number of years, but in its historical significance as well.

The first to not meet this requirement is rather obvious.  Titanic.  Interesting, I know.  There are probably only one or two films that I can think of that are actually “bigger” than this movie.  For instance, it had an enormous budget for its time eclipsing $200 million in the mid 1990s.  To put it into perspective, The Dark Knight’s production budget was reportedly $185 million.  A note should be made that production budgets don’t actually reflect the full costs of movies.  Advertising budgets are usually completely different animals.  You can pretty much guarantee that advertising can add tens of millions to the total cost of a film.  So, that’s just more money to add the huge stack already spent.

Also, the set required for the film was enormous.  I remember watching a History Channel movie special on it, or some other television special, and James Cameron described the set of the film, the deck of the ship that is, as something like 85% the size of the real Titanic.  The rest of the money not spent on set construction went to some very innovative computer effects technology.  Like he did in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, James Cameron continued his quest to find the latest and greatest techniques with which to capture an image.  He should be given a lot of credit for this.  He looks to do it again in the highly anticipated Avatar which has taken years to develop the 3D technology.  (Press passes would be much appreciated, James!)

But, unfortunately, this really doesn’t necessarily qualify the film as epic.  Why?  Well, the voyage of the Titanic was really rather historicaly insignificant.  Pop culture and sensationalist journalism aside, there wasn’t anything about the Titanic sinking that really did anything to affect history in any real substantial way.  That’s not take away from those personally affected from the tragic event.  Yet, by this logic, the Titanic sinking is as important as The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald or the sinking of the Andrea Gail.  Indian train wrecks and airline flights have been equally as tragic, but none are decidedly important to history.  And neither is the Titanic.

What I was surprised not to see on the list, perhaps instead of Titanic or Reds.  Reds?  Really? Who cares about a communist journalist?  Or Warren Beatty?  It didn’t even win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  Not that to do so would is required, but it lost to Chariots of Fire.  Not really an impressive feat.  Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, the one I was surprised not to see on the list is Ghandi.  It certainly has size, awards, and historical significance on its side.  I don’t really like it, but whatever.  I think I would have rather seen it on the list than the other two I mentioned.  It can be justified in the very least.

My other big beef is with Gone With the Wind.  “But, why?” you say.  Sure, adjusted for inflation, it is the largest grossing picture ever.  And, given its subject matter, it easily passes the historical importance test.  So, what’s wrong with it?  Um, it’s sort of an apologist version of the Civil War.  Yes, you remember.  That little military conflict on U.S. soil that costs hundreds of thousands of lives.  Oh, and did I mention that one side was fighting for freedom and the other was fighting in defense of the institution of slavery?  Gone With the Wind sympathized with that side.  And that’s what’s wrong with it.  What’s more, the film’s point of view is not just Confederate–it’s the point of view of a rich, bratty, spoiled slave-owner’s daughter.  I couldn’t think of anything worse.  Let’s celebrate Nazis next!  And for those of you who don’t actually believe the Civil War was over slavery, you’re an idiot.

Instead of honoring enslavement and brutality, we should honor the brutal costs associated with its end.  Glory is an oft forgotten masterpiece of the Civil War that follows a freed black Massachusetts regiment into battle and all of the racist struggles they endured while even fighting on the right side.  Another great, maybe greatest film about the struggles against tyrannies, is Braveheart.  Mel Gibson’s masterpiece is important in every way already mentioned.  One way not spoken of I saw mentioned in the Wikipedia article where it points out how Braveheart inspired a resurgence in the historical epic.  The list includes some fine films.  Perhaps none greater than its little brother, Gladiator.  In addition, Braveheart had one of the most salable film scores ever in James Horner’s music.  No pretty southern belle, sinking ship, or commie can claim such a thing.