Film is a distinct social medium as it is a popular art aimed at entertaining, and making movie is a collaborative artistic endeavor. There is no widespread concurrence on which films are and are not ‘epics, because the epic genre is most uncertain one. Ben-Hur the most successful motion picture of 1959, having opportunity to dazzle audiences with lavish spectacles, which made inroads into movie industry’s profit prompted the film makers of 1950s to incorporate epic form in films. Though many motion pictures of epic dimension have been produced after Ben-Hur, the films based on epic stories of Iliad could not succeed in box-office. The success of 1997 movie Titanic is worth admiring, yet the Titanic would be considered as a great epic is challenging for every rational and critical film admirer.
According to D.W.Griffith, the “father of film technique”, “the man who invented Hollywood” and “the Shakespeare of the screen,” “a film is a cooperative effort between the director and the audience. A director shows a bit of human emotion; the audience fills the rest. The better the film, the greater the cooperation between the director and the audience” [D.W. Griffith quoted by Santas, p.1 ][IMDb: The Internet Movie Database, Biography for D.W. Griffith. It is argued that “most films accurately and authentically reproduce reality,” although film is an imitation of reality, so it comes closer to reality than anything else does (Santas, p. 17). Santas, Constantine.
Film genres are classified according to their forms and categories, which help to familiarize and recognize the particular patterns and techniques adopted in making a film. Any film genre may comprise settings, content and subject matter, themes, mood, period, plot, central narrative events, motifs, style, structure, situations, recurring icons, characterizations, and stars. Main film genres are classified as Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime/Gangster, Drama, Epics/Historical, Horror, Musicals, Science Fiction, War, and Westerns. An Epic include costume dramas, historical dramas, war films, medieval romps or ‘period structures’ that often cover a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrops. Epic take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, high production values, and a sweeping musical score. (Dirks, Tim. Film Genres).
The word ‘epic’ is of Greek origin and probably used in relation to long narrative poems like Iliad and Odyssey. Aristotle defined the ‘epic’ as a lengthy story narrated by a live voice, while the tragic and the comic were representations of actions on the stage, and the divisions of narrative distinguished by Aristotle ‘became the basis for film genres today” (Santas, p.30). An epic film would have production value, good period authenticity, costumes, sets, and linguistics and should meet a historic or legendary setting, rather than expensive costumes, and sweeping musical scores, including events of massive scale using many extras. Film epics are basically popular fare centered on action, and they tend to discourage subtle thought.” (Santas, p.35).
Ben Hur, 1959 screen versions of Lew Wallace’s novel that recounts the tale of Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) went on to win 11 Academy Awards. When Ben-Hur refuses to help his childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), an ambitious Roman tribune, to round up local dissidents on behalf of the emperor Ben-Hur was tried for charge of attempting to kill the provincial governor. Ben-Hur was condemned to the Roman galley, who was adopted by commander Quintus Arrius, while his mother and sister were imprisoned. The highlight of the film is its legendary chariot race, which took which was filmed when the cinematography was in its nascent stages and no computer assisted animation or picture manipulation was available. However, Ben-Hur’s eleven Oscar hauls included Best picture, Best Director, Best actor, etc. and remained undisputed Oscar champion until James Cameron’s Titanic tied its tally in 1997. It is worth noting that most of Titanic’s statuettes went for technical merits that were not established categories in the Oscar race in 1959.
Wolfgang Petersen’s movie ‘Troy’ is an adaptation of Homer’s great epic ‘Iliad’. The film follows the assault on troy by the united Greek forces and chronicles the fate of the men involved. Set in the year 1250 B.C, the king Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson)of Sparta,, assisted by his brother Agamemnon Brian Cox), set off with 1,000 ships carrying 50,000 Greeks to rescue his wife Helen (Diane Kruger), Queen of Sparta who was taken away by Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom). With the help of faster, stronger and more deadly Achilles (Brad Pitt), the Greeks are able to fight the strong and never before defeated Trojans. The movie ‘Troy’ shows their battle struggle and the foreshadowing of fate, and straightens the “more heterodox aspects of the pre-Christian world, while attempting a vaster narrative canvas than in Homer’s Iliad”.
The screenplay of ‘Troy’ by David Benioff and directorial skill of Wolfgang Petersen are widely acclaimed for eliminating the presence of immortal gods above, presiding capriciously over the humans’ fates and disputing among themselves, which is prominent in Homer’s Iliad. It is opined that “Persen’s movie is competently put together, doesn’t drag and manages its unwieldy story reasonably well, and the narrative focus is diffuse”. (Bradshaw, Peter. Guardian film of the Week: Troy. 2004).
Titanic, both the most expensive film ever made and most successful in box-office, by Director-Producer-Screenwriter James Cameron is based on the fictionalized account of the 1912 White Star Line cruise-ship disaster. The film’s story is spun around sinking of Titanic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, interspersed with a love story.
Titanic had 14 academy ward nominations and eleven Oscar wins, it failed to win Best Original Screenplay. The widely popular Titanic, with its combination of spectacle and romance, testifies to the perennial vitality of the epic film genre. Santas’ opine that style and content of epic form undergone transformation from the period of making ‘Ben-Hur’(1958) and the ‘Titanic’ (1997) and between these two films “forty years passed, and yet the two films are in some way similar. Both have appealing central stories: the loving son returns who returns to avenge his mother and sister, and the loving, though spoiled, rich girl who returns to a sinking ship to die with her poor but worthy lover. Both films have climactic, spectacular endings—BenHur’s famous chariot race and Titanic’s sinking of the world’s greatest ship”.. (Santas p.34).
In the words of film critic David Walsh Titanic “is a bad piece of work—poorly scripted, poorly acted, poorly directed” and its success is due to increased curiosity on the part of general public, “spurred on by the media attention”. Every element in the movie is presented in a clichéd and predictable manner (Walsh, David January 30, 1998. Why are the critics lauding Titanic? World Socialist Web Site.
Walsh argue that Titanic is a mediocre and predictable work, with caricatures instead of characters, and dialogue worthy of television soap opera”. It is true that the plot of Titanic interspersed with adventure and splendid chemistry of love between the stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, and Kate Winslet as Rose, apparently appeals to young people. But, each character depicts predictable individual personality and behavior traits, which are easy to fathom and remain unchanged throughout the film, showing that neither thought nor sensitivity was employed in portraying the characters. The success of Titanic may be directly attributed to favorable judgment of film critics, mass popular appeal particularly among youth, the publicity stint that the story is based on popular tragic ship-wreck of the century, aided with most modern cinematography, rather than its artistic value or breathe taking plots. In the opinion of Walsh(1998) “the praise for Cameron’s film will be remembered primarily as a symptom of an intellectually impoverished era whose passing very few will mourn”. Modern film industry is more inclined to make profit than creating intelligent entertainment and majority of world’s cinemas have been monopolized by blockbusters. As film viewers are conditioned by the time, place, society, or institutions which they inhabit, their responses and interpretations of visual medium, such as film, are influenced by these factors, either consciously or unconsciously. These influences on film appreciation are unavoidable, and classification of Titanic as epic is reflection of the diverging views.
References
Responding to film: A Text Guide for Students of Cinema Art. Rowman & Littlefield. Web.
www.filmsite.org
www.wsws.org