The Fall and Rise of Ancient Epic Films

An interesting article on Shadowlocked traces the revival of the ancient historical epic in modern cinema to the 1990s film Dances with Wolves. There's a certain sense to this. The last proper ancient historical epic was of course, appropriately enough, The Fall of the Roman Empire in 1964, and in between then and 2000's Gladiator there was genuinely nothing set in the ancient world on the same scale apart from spoofs, scriptural films, scriptural spoofs, and of course fantasies. In the meantime, it took the blockbuster to revive Hollywood itself in the late '70s and '80s, and then the modern historical epic only really broke through again with Kevin Costner (who followed up his Indians with Robin Hood - and indeed JFK - which isn't exactly historical, though it's certainly epic). After Gladiator, however,

Troy followed, exceeding Gladiator’s own commercial success, and although King Arthur and Alexander failed to shine, 300 affirmed the box-office potential of films set in antiquity. This appears to have culminated in 2010’s release of Clash of the Titans, Centurion, The Eagle of the Ninth, and even Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, as well as the TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, following in the footsteps of HBO’s Rome.

On the surface then, the ancient historical film looks set to continue. Or does it?

Centurion received a disappointingly small cinematic release, and it will be interesting to see how the similar Eagle of the Ninth will be received. However, Clash of the Titans was a commercial hit (although probably not on the levels the studios were hoping for), despite incredibly poor reviews, and the release of Spartacus: Blood and Sand may well be a telling sign. With its heavily 300-influenced visuals, along with Clash of the Titans’ mythological story, it may be that the serious historical epic, like Gladiator, has now had its brief revival. Unless there is a highly successful, mature historical epic over the next couple of years – Robin Hood appears to have disappointed – then the future of the ancient historical film seems to rest in the blockbuster, fantasy-aesthetic of movies such as Clash of the Titans and 300.

Of course the ancient epic genre today is nowhere near home and dry yet, and given that even Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, back together again, have been unable to save the new Robin Hood (the first since Costner's) it may be touch and go with it for a while.

The real problem is still that although the ancient world is still a decent setting for an epic, its appeal for film-makers surely is that it lies outside of the educational boundaries of the average Joe. If anyone made a WWII drama with a similar plot to Rome he would be ridiculed (Tarantino's recent rubbish notwithstanding).