The Return of the Epic Film: Genre, Aesthetics and History in the 21st Century

ISBN-13: 9780748684021 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 240 str.

B. R. Elliott, Andrew

Opis

What does the new epic film now look like? How is it classified? Why has it returned?
The success of Gladiator re-launched a genre which had lain dormant for 35 years. The Return of the Epic Film is one of the first books to examine this return as a coherent body of films. Studying a range of films from Gladiator to Clash of the Titans, the various essays question how we define these new epics, their aesthetics, their relationship to history, and who decides which films should be in the canon. Over the course of 11 essays by key figures in the field, the book examines in what ways, why, and how the epic film has returned to our cinemas.
By embracing a range of approaches which take into account the production process, and by questioning the canon of films conventionally accepted as epics, this book will inspire Film Studies students and scholars to rethink the epic film.

Spis treści

Introduction: The Return of the Epic, Andrew B.R. Elliott; Part I: Epics and Ancient History; Sir Ridley Scott and the Rebirth of the Epic, Jeffrey Richards; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and America since the Second World War: Some Cinematic Parallels, Kevin J. Harty; There’s Nothing So Wrong with a Hollywood Script that a Bunch of Giant CGI Scorpions Can’t Solve: Politics, Computer Generated Images and Camp in the Critical Reception of the Post-Gladiator Historical Epics: Mark Jancovich; Popcorn and Circus: An Audience Expects, Robert Stow; Part II: Epic Aesthetics and Genre; Colour in the Epic Film: Alexander and Hero, Robert Burgoyne; Defining the Epic: Medieval and Fantasy Epics, Paul Sturtevant; Special Effects, Reality, and the New Epic, Andrew B.R. Elliott; Part III: Epic Films and the Canon; Pass the Ammunition: A Short Etymology of Blockbuster, Sheldon Hall; Epic Stumbling Blocks, Saër Maty Bâ; The Greatest Epic of the 21st Century?, Deborah Bridge; Ramayana and Sita in Films and Popular Media: The Repositioning of a Globalised Version, Aarttee Kaul Dhar.