The Top 10 Greatest Epic Movies Ever

You know epic movies if you have ever spent anytime watching movies. These were hugely popular at one time and made the movie companies a fortune. They were also very expensive to make but, during a time when the movies offered the primary means of escape, it seemed like historical epics and epic movies could just not satisfy the hunger for moviegoers.

At some point their popularity faded a bit. People wanted shorter movies and not the bloat and extravagance that was evident in the Hollywood epic. However, they have slowly slipped back into modern movies. They aren't quite the same as they were in their heyday when epics had to be over-acted and with sets so elaborate that they would make the Taj Mahal pale in comparison.

When they are done well, they are powerful and memorable movies. Sometimes it takes a long, epic movie to tell and epic story. Not every bit of history is worth the epic treatment, but some of them positively scream for it. Below, are my Top Ten Epic Movies. You will notice that pretty much all of them (save for one) involve war and fighting. That also seems to be a big part of the epic movie.

10. The Ten Commandments - this is probably the first epic movie you ever saw. That's because even to this day this movie is shown on network television around Easter. This movie has everything an epic should. It has a huge cast. Each major star seems to be trying to "out-chew" the scenery of the other. You have nothing less than the Bible itself as a resource. It has huge sets and massive shots of huge crowds moving as one. It was not the first epic, but it certainly helped set the standard.

9. Gone with the Wind - a movie that manages to take the excesses of the epic to almost ridiculous extremes. This is a movie that is, essentially, a soap opera and yet it manages to have fans both male and female. Set against the Civil War, it also manages to have an entirely Southern set of characters and still be popular in the north as well as the south. The acting is so over-the-top that is borders on parody, and yet it is a movie virtually guaranteed to suck you in, even if you're laughing the entire time.

8. Titanic - there has been a tremendous backlash against this movie since it first opened. Actually, now that I think about it, the backlash started while it was still in the theaters. However, with a little distance, a moviegoer can appreciate this movie for what it is, great storytelling. It tells an epic story about an epic ship that was traveling during epic times. It was a time when men actually thought they could build an "unsinkable" ship. Somehow, despite this epic background, it manages to tell a rather compelling and interesting intimate love story. It also has all of the epic movie staples including ham-handed over-acting, over-the-top sets, a huge cast of extras and action.

7. Dances with Wolves - once again, there is backlash against this movie. In a way, it also makes sense. The movie is some kind of "hippie" revisionist version of man's intrusion into the west and how the white man drove out the Native American. Set in the middle of it all is Kevin Costner, like some kind of soldier savior. Yes, it falls into the standard formula of the white man as savior. However, it also has all of the same grand traditions of the epic movie of old. It has sweeping, gorgeous vistas. It has an epic story that is personalized via the main characters. It also, really, just tells a compelling story. If you put aside some of the pretension, it tells an interesting tale. The main key for the epic movie is that it is long, but holds your interest as the hours fly by.

6. Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List - it was probably on a matter of time before the world's most famous director stepped into the ring and tried to direct epics. He has chosen, as his medium for telling these stories, nothing less than the greatest conflict the human race has ever seen, World War Two. With these two movies he manages to show the way in which war turns humans into monsters, but also how war also manages to bring out the heroes in all of us. They are classic movies telling often disturbing tales. They also manage to get rid of the overacting evident in so many epics. They have terrific sets and huge amounts of extras. They also show brutal and disturbing images, but put you in the heart of each story. Both movies won tons of awards, which is another staple of epic movies, and they deserved them.

5. Braveheart - yes, I know all about how Mel Gibson has gone a little weird to some people these days. I know that there are people out there who cannot stand the man. However, taking a look at this film, you realize what a tremendous filmmaker her really is. This is, essentially, a love story set amidst some of the most brutal battle footage outside of the Spielberg movies listed above, that you are likely to find. Once again, you have huge numbers of extras, and a huge sweeping story line told against the backdrop of history itself. At the center, however, is William Wallace, challenging the entire British Empire because of the loss of the love of his life. Nothing is more epic than that.

4. Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa managed to create one of the greatest epic films ever and not a single word of English is spoken throughout the entire film. It tells the story that you probably know better as The Magnificent Seven, but that just shows you how classic Kurosawa's story had become. It was so classic that Hollywood was able to transfer it into the Hollywood Western without much effort at all. It tells the story of the small village, best by bandits, and the seven samurai they manage to convince to come and defend them. Again, we have huge numbers of extras, an historic background, and huge battle scenes. It is a classic and deserves to be. Yes, it's in black and white and, yes, it is entirely subtitled and over three hours long, but worth every minute spent reading.

3. Dr. Zhivago - this is the movie that is guaranteed to make you feel cold no matter when you watch it. The images of Omar Sharif walking through the frozen tundra, ice hanging off of his chin and mustache, are virtually guaranteed to make you shiver right down to your bones. The story also manages to tell another personal tale set against an epic historical background. Also, a young Julie Christie has never looked more gorgeous on screen than in this movie. It is a powerful movie, chronicling a man's struggle just to find a normal life when the world seems to be coming apart all around him. Summing up this huge movie in such a simple sentence does not do it justice. For any student of film, this is a movie that gets easily added to the "must see" list.

2. Bridge on the River Kwai - this is probably the one epic movie that most men can agree on. This is man's epic. It involves men at war doing manly things like trying to build a very complex wooden bridge across the eponymous river. It still has the huge casts, wide sweeping vistas, and it is set against World War Two. It also manages to have personal stories despite the large cast. Many of the stories are also internal. We watch the British commander struggle with the idea of building a bridge which he wants to build with resolute British pride, but also fears he is helping the enemy. We see the internal struggle of the Japanese prison camp commander as he gives into demands made by his British prisoners in order to get the bridge built. There is an epic battle, at the end, and a huge climactic explosion. In short, it's a great movie told well and told epically.

1. Lawrence of Arabia - the movie that has really, ultimately, set the standard for the big Hollywood epic. This is a movie designed to be seen on the biggest screens possible as the camera shows seemingly endless desert shots. You watch in amazement as tiny dots on the horizon, blurry and indistinct, slowly form into human beings as they near the camera. This movie has more epic battle scenes than your average epic and each of them is thrilling. At the center of it, dressed in white, is Peter O'Toole, as T. E. Lawrence, the British officer who wanted to united Arabia into one nation. This is set against the backdrop of World War One and the battle against the Turks. It is hard to pick a favorite scene, but the attack on Aqaba has to be one of my personal favorites. This movie has everything. It has scene chewing. It has huge set pieces. It has extras galore. It tells an epic story that is, somehow, personalized. It is set against history and it even has individual camera shots that scream EPIC. It also tells a powerful, amazing, compelling tale that manages to carry you through its prodigious four-hour length. If you see only one epic movie, ever, this is the one you should see.