# Best Epic Movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312 "2005-04-08T00:43:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/1 "2005-04-08T00:43:41Z")
I’ve just finished \*El Cid \* and I have _The Greatest Story Ever Told_, \*\*Ben \* \* Hur, and \*Lawrence of Arabia \* on my netflix que. What do you consider to be some of the other great epics? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/2 "2005-04-08T00:47:15Z")
[Exodus](http://imdb.com/title/tt0053804/)…the founding of the State of Israel. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/3 "2005-04-08T01:17:34Z")
Gone With the Wind. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/4 "2005-04-08T01:24:15Z")
Stanley Kubrick’s _Spartacus_ is worth a look. Not great Kubrick, but it’s certainly watchable. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/5 "2005-04-08T01:24:43Z")
Point Break. 😛 …by which I meant **The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly**. Honest mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/6 "2005-04-08T01:25:58Z")
_Dr. Zhivago_ The script is little more than glorified soap opera, but the cinematography is spectacular. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/7 "2005-04-08T01:37:07Z")
_The Godfather, Part I & II_. (Good thing they never made a third one.) _Gettysburg_ is quite good, as is _Patton_. It’s overdone and people are going to roll their eyes, but _Citizen Kane_ is still seminal. Does _The Great Escape_ count as epic? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/8 "2005-04-08T01:44:30Z")
**Ran** **Titanic** (I know it gets a lot of flak, but overall, it’s a vastly entertaining epic). **Red River** ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/9 "2005-04-08T01:59:08Z")
Luchino Visconti’s [**The Leopard**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057091/), Laurence Olivier’s [**Henry V**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036910/), Emir Kusturica’s [**Underground**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114787/), Akira Kurosawa’s [**The Seven Samurai**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047478/), Buster Keaton’s [**The General**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017925/), Mikheil Kalatozishvili’s [**I Am Cuba**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058604/), Max Ophuls’ [**Lola Montes**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048308/), and Michael Mann’s [**The Last of the Mohicans**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104691/) for starters. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/10 "2005-04-08T02:17:50Z")
DW Griffith’s \*\*Intolerance \*\* is pretty good, considering that it was released in 1916. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/11 "2005-04-08T02:59:24Z")
You can’t tell me Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” wasn’t epic! and yeah “The Great Escape” was epic, at least in faithfulness to source material, and in number of good actors involved. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/12 "2005-04-08T03:30:06Z")
_Intolerance_ (1916), _Napoleon_ (1927), _The King of Kings_ (1927), _All Quiet on the Western Front_ (1930), _Mutiny on the Bounty_ (1935), _The Good Earth_ (1937), _San Francisco_ (1937), _In Old Chicago_ (1937), _Henry V_ (1944), _Ivan the Terrible_, Parts I and II (1944-46), _Quo Vadis_ (1951), _The Ten Commandments_ (1956), _The Longest Day_ (1962), _Cleopatra_ (1963), _Andrei Rublev_ (1966), _The Bible … In the Beginning_ (1966) (not great as whole, but the Creation, the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel, and Noah’s Ark are memorable segments), _Hawaii_ (1966), _Doctor Dolittle_ (1967), _The Adventures of Baron Munchausen_ (1988). _Citizen Kane_ is an epic? Where are the crowd scenes? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/13 "2005-04-08T04:00:30Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > _Citizen Kane_ is an epic? Where are the crowd scenes? I was thinking more of the time period over which it takes and the scope of Kane’s life. YMMV. But now I realize that I’ve entirely neglected several great directors, particularly one of my favorites, Akira Kurosawa. _Kumonosu jô (Throne of Blood)_, _Kagemusha_, and his ultimate masterpiece, _Ran_. Sergi Eisenstein’s _Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin)_, _Oktyabr_, _Aleksandr Nevskiy_, and his double film, _Ivan Groznyy (Ivan the Terrible) I & II_ are great films. You’ll not find them in any video store or (most likely) on Netflix, but Leni Reifenstahl’s _Olympiad_ and _A Triumph of Will_ are groundbreaking “documentaries” that used an epic scope since widely emulated in film and advertising. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/14 "2005-04-08T04:02:58Z")
A lot of my potential suggestions have already been mentioned in this thread, so I’ll just name the ones that haven’t been mentioned yet. [Gandhi](http://imdb.com/title/tt0083987/). Ben Kingsley is simply outstanding in the title role. [Apocalypse Now.](http://imdb.com/title/tt0078788/) I’m actually quite partial to the “redux” version that was released a few years ago. [Henry V](http://imdb.com/title/tt0097499/). The Lawrence Olivier version was mentioned earlier in this thread. I’m gonna mention the Kenneth Branagh version here, which I think is just an excellent adaptation of the Shakespeare play. [2001: A Space Odyssey](http://imdb.com/title/tt0062622/). Maybe not epic in the sense of having huge quantities of people on screen, but certainly epic in time and space. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/15 "2005-04-08T05:56:04Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > But now I realize that I’ve entirely neglected several great directors, particularly one of my favorites, Akira Kurosawa. _Kumonosu jô (Throne of Blood)_, _Kagemusha_, and his ultimate masterpiece, _Ran_. > > Sergi Eisenstein’s _Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin)_, _Oktyabr_, _Aleksandr Nevskiy_, and his double film, _Ivan Groznyy (Ivan the Terrible) I & II_ are great films. Having those Japanese and Russian titles is handy for those video stores that alphabetize in Japanese and Russian. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![bclouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@bclouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bclouse)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/16 "2005-04-08T10:12:44Z")
Man, I’m going to be bashed for this one, but when I watched _Superman: the Movie_ recently, I was surprised how epic it felt. Especially the first half - the Krypton scenes and the growing up years in Smallville. It falls apart in the second half when Christopher Reeve shows up. It’s still enjoyable but a little too cartoony for my tastes. When you look at what Mario Puzo was trying to do with the first movie and _Superman 2_ (which I don’t care for at all, Richard Lester? What the hell?!?) it feels incredibly epic-like. Too bad they couldn’t sustain what they accomplished in the first hour. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-epic-movies/298312/17 "2005-04-08T11:04:29Z")
There aren’t better war epics than Glory. Henry V, (Brannagh’s version), is excelent. Spartacus gets an honorable mention