Epic Cinema: Defining our Terms

Studies in epic cinema have flourished in the past decade, but one senses that scholars take the term to be self-explanatory, without considering its literary origins and the variety of films that can be placed under the rubric of the epic. Furthermore, the question of epic style has received less scholarly attention. In this article, I propose that in order to define epic cinema we need to look at literary, philosophical, and film theoretical discussions of the epic. In doing so, we will be able to appreciate that epic cinema is an exceptionally expansive umbrella term that covers many and diverse film practices, including films (1) with epic subject matter but not epic style, (2) with epic subject matter and epic style, (3) with epic style but not epic subject matter, and (4) films which can be placed under the rubric of the modernist epic.