historical epics in hollywood were basically the marvel movies of their time – existing stories a lot to most people knew at least something about that had never been realized in spectacular live action vision before. So I’d argue its not quite right to look at them through the lens of “historical” as oppose to “pre-existing IP”
I think you’re looking at the answer: Troy was the only Brad Pitt movie I’ve seen and not liked. There were other epics around that time, notably Gladiator. Then folks got tired of them after Troy. Now they’re back, for a few years now really. Just cycles
The original cycle in the 50s and 60s was because of TV and film studios having to compete with that. Hence you had the cast of thousands and overblown spectacle. But movies like *Fall of the Roman Empire* (1964) and *Waterloo* (1970) helped to kill off the trend. Along with a changing society, which had largely tired of these films.
Later in the revival period (and a bit earlier with movies like Braveheart and Titanic), you had *Gladiator* and *LOTR* succeeding and spawning a new cycle of epics. But later on, some movies from Alexander to King Arthur to Robin Hood, recieved mixed recviews and thus you had the petering out of this second wave.
Basically, it’s a trend, much like other genres. For instance, superheroe movies seem to do well as of now, but this success will definitely end at some point in the future (i.e. when some movie fails at the box office).
Feminism happened. There can be no movies to represent men heroes with men characteristics where they act and talk like men while women act and talk like women, especially if men are of european origin, that is white. Blonde haired men heroes (not satirical antiheores) don’t have a place in the woke/inclusive/wicked studios of Hollywood.
History was written mostly by white men and cradle of civilisation is Europe, hence you don’t get Historical Epics because they would be forced to make movies about white men acting like men, hence giving them also a credit for their contribution to the world we live in now.
Hence fantasy movies that can whitewash history and make black men Earls of Sussex and androgynous women daughters of Achilles that can singlehandedly kill 10 muscle pumped men without breaking a sweat.
They are trying really really hard not to represent white heterosexual men as heroes in any form, except perhaps as martyrs or old white beard men that represent a bygone era (when men were men and women were women).
Several things to say: one is that to label historical epics as “escapist” is, to my mind, a misunderstanding of that term. Just because a piece of storytelling is immersive and transportative, does not make it escapist.
An escapist film is one that allows you forget the troubles of the real world. The better historical epics are anything but. Look at a film like Braveheart: yes, it does teleport you to the Medieval Scottish highlands, but its hardly some escapist place like the Galaxy far-far away. Rather, its an awfuly bleak, despairing place, full of death, pestilence, tyranny and the worst possible things.
Also, talking about box-office adjusted for inflation and mentioning Gone With the Wind… I mean, people forget that that film was made before home video, and so it played in theaters for decades on end, so its position at the top of the box-office is kinda cheating.
So the YouTuber mentions epic fantasies towards the ends, but didn’t make the connection…a lot of folks who loved historical epics are watching epic fantasies. They have a lot of the same components and thru-lines, only one involves magic and dragons. You still get the battles, political intrigue, beautiful landscapes, and epic-ness of a historical epic. This is supported by another comment the YouTuber made that said producers want to avoid controversies with White-Washing so they make movies with aliens (science fiction, super hero), but this is also why epic fantasies work as well. Complete fictional universes where anything can be true, but still fits in the genre.
I like watching white Europeans in historical epic movie. Alexander the Great was blonde and so was Achilles. No studio in Hollywood can change the fact that Europe was and will be the center of the world.
Trends come and go. Nothing happened.
I mean we just got the woman King…..that was pretty epic.
historical epics in hollywood were basically the marvel movies of their time – existing stories a lot to most people knew at least something about that had never been realized in spectacular live action vision before. So I’d argue its not quite right to look at them through the lens of “historical” as oppose to “pre-existing IP”
I miss epics so much; I feel like they are so hard to do right though. I don’t think they are done, I just think someone needs to do them right
I think you’re looking at the answer: Troy was the only Brad Pitt movie I’ve seen and not liked. There were other epics around that time, notably Gladiator. Then folks got tired of them after Troy. Now they’re back, for a few years now really. Just cycles
RRR.
The original cycle in the 50s and 60s was because of TV and film studios having to compete with that. Hence you had the cast of thousands and overblown spectacle. But movies like *Fall of the Roman Empire* (1964) and *Waterloo* (1970) helped to kill off the trend. Along with a changing society, which had largely tired of these films.
Later in the revival period (and a bit earlier with movies like Braveheart and Titanic), you had *Gladiator* and *LOTR* succeeding and spawning a new cycle of epics. But later on, some movies from Alexander to King Arthur to Robin Hood, recieved mixed recviews and thus you had the petering out of this second wave.
Basically, it’s a trend, much like other genres. For instance, superheroe movies seem to do well as of now, but this success will definitely end at some point in the future (i.e. when some movie fails at the box office).
Feminism happened. There can be no movies to represent men heroes with men characteristics where they act and talk like men while women act and talk like women, especially if men are of european origin, that is white. Blonde haired men heroes (not satirical antiheores) don’t have a place in the woke/inclusive/wicked studios of Hollywood.
History was written mostly by white men and cradle of civilisation is Europe, hence you don’t get Historical Epics because they would be forced to make movies about white men acting like men, hence giving them also a credit for their contribution to the world we live in now.
Hence fantasy movies that can whitewash history and make black men Earls of Sussex and androgynous women daughters of Achilles that can singlehandedly kill 10 muscle pumped men without breaking a sweat.
They are trying really really hard not to represent white heterosexual men as heroes in any form, except perhaps as martyrs or old white beard men that represent a bygone era (when men were men and women were women).
Don’t need to watch the video, it was a fad that didn’t last
Also seemed like way too many
Several things to say: one is that to label historical epics as “escapist” is, to my mind, a misunderstanding of that term. Just because a piece of storytelling is immersive and transportative, does not make it escapist.
An escapist film is one that allows you forget the troubles of the real world. The better historical epics are anything but. Look at a film like Braveheart: yes, it does teleport you to the Medieval Scottish highlands, but its hardly some escapist place like the Galaxy far-far away. Rather, its an awfuly bleak, despairing place, full of death, pestilence, tyranny and the worst possible things.
Also, talking about box-office adjusted for inflation and mentioning Gone With the Wind… I mean, people forget that that film was made before home video, and so it played in theaters for decades on end, so its position at the top of the box-office is kinda cheating.
So the YouTuber mentions epic fantasies towards the ends, but didn’t make the connection…a lot of folks who loved historical epics are watching epic fantasies. They have a lot of the same components and thru-lines, only one involves magic and dragons. You still get the battles, political intrigue, beautiful landscapes, and epic-ness of a historical epic. This is supported by another comment the YouTuber made that said producers want to avoid controversies with White-Washing so they make movies with aliens (science fiction, super hero), but this is also why epic fantasies work as well. Complete fictional universes where anything can be true, but still fits in the genre.
I like watching white Europeans in historical epic movie. Alexander the Great was blonde and so was Achilles. No studio in Hollywood can change the fact that Europe was and will be the center of the world.