I Miss Epic Movies

[1srelluc]

Everything about them was grand, no CGI, just exceptional acting, massive sets, casts of thousands, and painted backgrounds.

Even the music was epic.

 

[JoeB131]

Um, have you ever tried to sit down and watch a four hour movie?

I mean, I can be impressed with the technical aspects of the Ten Commandments, but it's kind of a boring movie to watch.

 

[JLW]

Epic movies are a thing of the past. Remember the old movie promo “…with a cast of thousands…” Now it is all CGI. In the near future, movies will all be AI or CGI characters. There was something endearing about the old sets. Of course, that is all passé and gone with with the wind.

 

[1srelluc]

Um, have you ever tried to sit down and watch a four hour movie?

I mean, I can be impressed with the technical aspects of the Ten Commandments, but it's kind of a boring movie to watch.

It was said that at the time the Ben-Hur chariot race scene was the most expensive scene filmed up to that time (1959).

 

[hjmick]

Um, have you ever tried to sit down and watch a four hour movie?

I mean, I can be impressed with the technical aspects of the Ten Commandments, but it's kind of a boring movie to watch.

Try Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). It clocks in at 2:30 and I think it is a better telling of the story.

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) ⭐ 6.0 | Action, Adventure, Drama

2h 30m | PG-13

www.imdb.com

 

[1srelluc]

Even the color pops in the old Epics.....None of the darkened crap you see today to hide the production flaws.

Sure you might see the occasional jet contrail but production values were so much greater then.

 

[Woodznutz]

Even the color pops in the old Epics.....None of the darkened crap you see today to hide the production flaws.

Sure you might see the occasional jet contrail but production values were so much greater then.

And of course there was CinemaScope.

 

[BULLDOG]

Even the color pops in the old Epics.....None of the darkened crap you see today to hide the production flaws.

Sure you might see the occasional jet contrail but production values were so much greater then.

Thank you. It's been a while since I actually took the time to listen to epic music performed as it should be. Those selections certainly added to the movies they came from, but you can't truly appreciate a piece when it is relegated to background. These pieces deserve a full performance without the distraction of actors, or scenery, or all of those other interruptions. I've often said even a deaf person can recognize a great piece of music. Just look at the faces of those performing it. That alone tells you all you know for that particular determination.

 

[JoeB131]

It was said that at the time the Ben-Hur chariot race scene was the most expensive scene filmed up to that time (1959).

Try Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). It clocks in at 2:30 and I think it is a better telling of the story.

I really don't have any interest in the story at all. I mean, 12 years of Catholic School, I pretty much know how it's going to turn out.

Also, Darth Vader is Luke's Father and Rosebud was a sled!!!

Oh, did I spoil the ending for someone?

 

[JoeB131]

I am going to make some comments.

The "Epic" movie such as Ben Hur, Cleopatra, the Ten Commandments, Lawrence of Arabia, and so on were big and gaudy because the output of Hollywood at that point had to be to compete with TV.

Keep in mind a trip to the Theater in the 1950s was a full experience. You saw a Newsreel, a few animated cartoons or short subjects, and then the epic movie. When you could see the same things on TV, the movies had to get bigger!!! But as TV's improved, these were less and less of a draw. Why see a week-old newsreel when you could see a news broadcast in real-time? Why go see cartoons at the theater when you could watch them on Saturday morning?

It should be noted that the last Newsreel was produced in 1967. Warner Brothers and MGM stopped producing shorts around the same time, and Disney went entirely to full-length animated features. (Of substantially lower quality than the ones they produced in the 1940's and 50's)

The other reason why I suspect the Epic movie vanished was because the Studio System was broken up. At one time, the Studios owned many of the theaters or had exclusive contracts. So you could keep the Ten Commandments in the theaters until it made its money back. Not so much now. A movie has to make or break it's money in the first weekend.

 

[1srelluc]

Thank you. It's been a while since I actually took the time to listen to epic music performed as it should be. Those selections certainly added to the movies they came from, but you can't truly appreciate a piece when it is relegated to background. These pieces deserve a full performance without the distraction of actors, or scenery, or all of those other interruptions. I've often said even a deaf person can recognize a great piece of music. Just look at the faces of those performing it. That alone tells you all you know for that particular determination.

I thought the Ben-Hur performance was the most impressive....I've never seen the "sausage being made" for that one before till today.

 

[Resnic]

CGI effects have indirectly been the downfall of a lot of blockbuster movies.

CGI effects made directors lazy because they no longer had to work with stunt crews, set builders, set designers, lighting and filtering experts, and so on because they can shoot in front of a green screen and do everything else later. They used it as a crutch for too long and became dependent on it. Even mediocre directors could be super stars if they had a big CGI budget.

Then more laziness followed. Like sound. No movie anymore has any memorable music. Used to every movie had some memorable music. Raiders of the lost ark, star wars, predator, aliens and hundreds of others had this really great music.

Even sound effects are no longer creative and memorable. Nothing in the past 10 years can match the sound of Indy's whip, a lightsaber, or the predators noises. Even guns anymore sound like generic shit. Commando had dozens of guns each with a unique sound that gave it personality, all the guns from the past 10 years in movies don't sound as cool as commando or even RoboCop.

Technology made epic movies lazy, sterile, generic and boring. I fall asleep during all the new movies.

 

[JoeB131]

CGI effects have indirectly been the downfall of a lot of blockbuster movies.

CGI effects made directors lazy because they no longer had to work with stunt crews, set builders, set designers, lighting and filtering experts, and so on because they can shoot in front of a green screen and do everything else later. They used it as a crutch for too long and became dependent on it. Even mediocre directors could be super stars if they had a big CGI budget.

I think the problem with CGI is that it allows directors to create laughably unrealistic action, to the point where the characters are no longer believable.

Then more laziness followed. Like sound. No movie anymore has any memorable music. Used to every movie had some memorable music. Raiders of the lost ark, star wars, predator, aliens and hundreds of others had this really great music.

Perhaps. But when you think about the great music scores, you think about three guys. Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and John Williams.

Goldsmith and Horner are gone, and Williams is 91.

I do think the biggest problem isn't music, or sound effects or CGI, the biggest problem is scriptwriting.

A lot of these scripts just aren't very good.

Take the Latest Trilogy of Star Wars movies. The music was fine, the sound effects were fine, and the special effects actually looked pretty good, because they used more practical effects than the Prequel Trilogy did.

So what was the problem? The problem was, "Been there, done that." It just repeated the story beats of the previous movies, even dragged the guy who played the Emperor out of whatever retirement home he was in.

 

[1srelluc]

.....even dragged the guy who played the Emperor out of whatever retirement home he was in.

LOL.....So I guess Joe Biden has something else to forward to other than a book tour in '25.

 

[JoeB131]

LOL.....So I guess Joe Biden has something else to forward to other than a book tour in '25.

Again, unlikely, given how crazy Trump is acting, he's not getting put back in.

 

[Flopper]

It was said that at the time the Ben-Hur chariot race scene was the most expensive scene filmed up to that time (1959).

The casting office in Rome for Ben Hur selected 50,000 people to appear in crowd scenes and minor roles. Can you image the cost of that today. Even if you disregard casting cost, just creating the scenes would cost more than most movies today. This is why you will not see another movie created like this. Any movie like this would rely heavily on CGI.

The second problem is epic movies such as this are not designed for home screens. Lastly it would be very difficult to develop the hype that surrounded these productions which was an essential part of their success. When it was declared that this is the greatest epic every create people believed it and it was probably true. People waited in long lines to get a ticket and for days every seat was sold in every showing.

 

[1srelluc]

The casting office in Rome for Ben Hur selected 50,000 people to appear in crowd scenes and minor roles. Can you image the cost of that today. Even if you disregard casting cost, just creating the scenes would cost more than most movies today. This is why you will not see another movie created like this. Any movie like this would rely heavily on CGI.

The second problem is epic movies such as this are not designed for home screens. Lastly it would be very difficult to develop the hype that surrounded these productions which was an essential part of their success. When it was declared that this is the greatest epic every create people believed it and it was probably true. People waited in long lines to get a ticket and for days every seat was sold in every showing.

I remember that my grandmother had a coffee table book on the movie. They published them so people would go see the movie.

The last one I saw do that was for A Bridge Too Far.

 

[Flopper]

I thought the Ben-Hur performance was the most impressive....I've never seen the "sausage being made" for that one before till today.

The Wheel of Time series on Prime which claims to be an epic production cost more per episode than the entire Ben Hur movie. It has a cast of maybe a hundred, not thousands. It used CGI extensively and many indoor scenes were shot with very low lighting to reduce the cost of scenery.

 

[Flopper]

I remember that my grandmother had a coffee table book on the movie. They published them so people would go see the movie.

The last one I saw do that was for A Bridge Too Far.

I thought a Bridge Too Far was better movie than Ben Hur despite all the hype.

 

[ActionJackson]

Modern movies are pure shit.

Deliverance
The Sixth Sense
Silence Of The Lambs
Under The Volcano
Pale Rider
Outlaw Jose Wales
High Plains Drifter

Etc.

Enough with the woke, agenda-driven crap!