0:00:14 > 0:00:16Big.
0:00:16 > 0:00:17Widescreen.
0:00:17 > 0:00:18Loud.
0:00:18 > 0:00:19Technicolor.
0:00:19 > 0:00:20Long.
0:00:20 > 0:00:21Charlton Heston.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Charlton Heston.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26The Hollywood epic had it all!
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Literally, a cast of thousands.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33People always have to die for epics, don't they?
0:00:36 > 0:00:40The largest sets, the most wonderful locations, the best scores.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43But the epic wasn't finished there.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Like the films themselves, the list of ingredients grew longer and longer.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51The romance, the happy ending, the good moral story.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54I think an epic has got to knock your socks off.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I mean, if doesn't do something that really stretches your eyeballs,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00then, it's not doing its job.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22The glory days of big cinema were the '50s and '60s.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This was the age of Cleopatra and Ben-Hur,
0:01:26 > 0:01:32films so gigantic their very names seem to capture the essence of the epic.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35This was their heyday - when epics entertained the world
0:01:35 > 0:01:41and everyone was drawn into the orbit of their stellar openings.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45Nothing succeeded like excess, and each new film added to
0:01:45 > 0:01:49the lustre of the genre with its own attempt to up the ante.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52Join us as we share with you now:
0:01:52 > 0:01:56The Ten Commandments Of Big Film Making.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11The epic story is always larger than life.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16It has to stage an important event from antiquity.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20It has to show you the fall of the Roman Empire, or the Red Sea parting.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Something vast and violent occurring - the Circus Maximus.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28Maybe, if you're really lucky, some Christians being attacked by lions.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33The setting of choice was the ancient world,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36a place where good and evil faced each other.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Often in open-toed sandals.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Primarily, and I think what most people think of as epics
0:02:45 > 0:02:48were dubbed "swords-and-sandals" kind of movies.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51And these could cross, you know, from Quo Vadis and Spartacus,
0:02:51 > 0:02:56sort of great stories of the Roman Empire or classical Greece.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Often real history, heavily adapted for the movie requirements.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05I ask nothing for myself.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08I humble myself before you!
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Have pity on a proud old man.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16These stories hooked the audience with the epic struggle
0:03:16 > 0:03:18of a charismatic protagonist.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25You choose a hero, who's almost invariably male,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29who has some terrible tragedy befall him,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31and spends a very long part of the film
0:03:31 > 0:03:33trying to recoup his earlier position.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38He usually fights against an Emperor.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42He's motivated by the love of his family.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43He usually has a romance.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49No self-respecting epic was content without a dash of romance -
0:03:49 > 0:03:51of epic proportions.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Oh, what will I do?
0:03:57 > 0:04:00I'm not as strong as I thought I was.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02I have not learnt to live without you.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06In the '50s and '60s, families were going.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08And so, you'd have to give something for everyone,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11as patronisingly as give something for mum, ha-ha!
0:04:14 > 0:04:18There was a reason Hollywood championed epic stories.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Television posed an unprecedented threat.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Cinema's best defence against this upstart was size,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27in every meaning of the word.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31The little box in the living room looked on in envy as the epic grew.
0:04:31 > 0:04:32And grew.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34And grew.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37We attack again tomorrow.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39You will need time to recover your strength!
0:04:39 > 0:04:41Must be tomorrow.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45The enemy will only grow stronger while we grow weaker.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49It's that time when cinema is fighting back against the television,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51and asking, "What can we do that TV can't do?
0:04:51 > 0:04:55"Where can we take the audience where that flickery black-and-white thing
0:04:55 > 0:04:59"in the corner of the living room is powerless to take them?"
0:04:59 > 0:05:01And the answer is, the classical world.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08And tales from the classical world carried their own inbuilt bonus,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10they contained a strong religious element,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14and in more churchgoing times, audiences flocked to see them.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18It was like being inside a Bible story, you know.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22You could read it in the Bible, but my goodness, this brought it to life.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26And these films really did serve that function, I think.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31They were kind of an illustrated Bible.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34The story of Quo Vadis, the first big epic of the age,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38had it all, as its trailer proclaimed.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Witness the infamous revelry of the night in Nero's court.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47You will stand with the Christians in the catacombs.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49See the battle of the giants.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54You'll know the love of Marcus and Lygia.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56The spectacle of Nero's circus.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01The terror of the arena when Ursus stands alone against death.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08One of the great features of Quo Vadis is it's set during the period
0:06:08 > 0:06:10when Nero, you know, set fire to the city.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14So you get a really kind of spectacular burning of Rome.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17# Take now this, Rome
0:06:18 > 0:06:23# Oh, receive her lovely flames
0:06:23 > 0:06:27# Consume her as would a furnace
0:06:27 > 0:06:31# Burn on. Oh, ancient Rome
0:06:31 > 0:06:33# Burn on. Burn on! #
0:06:33 > 0:06:38He's a violent, repressive ruler who destroys people's lives at a whim,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41who erases the city at a whim.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45And yet, we can enjoy the spectacle of the city toppling.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47We can enjoy this falling masonry.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51There's fire everywhere, extras running about all over the place.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Incredible sets being demolished and destroyed before our eyes.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01There's a fantastically spectacular image of a city on fire,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05one that would really be meaningful to an audience in 1951,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07that would still have memories
0:07:07 > 0:07:11and who'd have seen images of the burning of cities in the Second World War.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16Quo Vadis was an instant hit, helped in no small part by the sheer
0:07:16 > 0:07:20variety of spectacle its story offered.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24These lions start pouring out of these pits
0:07:24 > 0:07:26concealed beneath the surface of the arena.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Very cleverly constructed with
0:07:28 > 0:07:30special-effect shots,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33so that the actors playing the Christian victims
0:07:33 > 0:07:36aren't in too much danger, I hope!
0:07:39 > 0:07:44As with all epics, the effect would be unimaginable without
0:07:44 > 0:07:46the presence of armies of extras.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04The Persians.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09In big cinema, even the extras demand attention.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13The cast of thousands had an active role to play -
0:08:13 > 0:08:16they are the children of Israel, the people of Rome,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18the slave army.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Hail Caesar!
0:08:20 > 0:08:22Hail Caesar!
0:08:22 > 0:08:24Hail Caesar!
0:08:24 > 0:08:27If you were an extra in an epic, you could expect to be doing
0:08:27 > 0:08:30all sorts of things - galloping around on a horse,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34running away from somebody on a horse,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38breaking rocks at some terrible place of forced labour,
0:08:38 > 0:08:44or cheering as a Christian was disembowelled by a lion.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Making an epic required the same level of organisation
0:08:50 > 0:08:53as waging a small war.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55Or perhaps even a big war.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57Soldiers!
0:08:58 > 0:09:00Citizens of Valencia!
0:09:02 > 0:09:06We have starved you! Now you are weak!
0:09:07 > 0:09:09But we do not wish to attack you!
0:09:11 > 0:09:14We are not your enemies!
0:09:14 > 0:09:17It's a forgotten art, I think, in certain ways,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19that level of crowd scene,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22that level of containment of thousands.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27So your camera is going to... Imagine the amount of aides you are going to have to control, you know,
0:09:27 > 0:09:282,000 people, 5,000 people,
0:09:28 > 0:09:34getting them not to kind of stare into the camera, not to pull a silly face.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37You are the unity which is Rome.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40'When you think there must be someone sticking their tongue out somewhere.'
0:09:40 > 0:09:44Crowds are notoriously difficult to control. You can have someone at the back,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47looking the wrong direction, and they might not be spotted
0:09:47 > 0:09:50when the director is looking through the viewfinder.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52An entire scene can be ruined by people in the back.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56So it is obviously much easier not to have to corral all these people,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00and shout through a megaphone, "You at the back, take your sunglasses off!"
0:10:00 > 0:10:02So I think that I love it when I see that.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05I love seeing all this, cos I like to marvel at it
0:10:05 > 0:10:07and also I like to imagine that I'm really there.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Crowds don't come much bigger than the mass exodus
0:10:17 > 0:10:20in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 version of The Ten Commandments.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25The film's biblical story shows Moses leading the Hebrews out of slavery.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39You have these thousands of extras playing the Israelites,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43flowing through this desert space with sphinxes and everything.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47It's a vast mass of people on the move.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50And, you know, this would have been overwhelming, I think,
0:10:50 > 0:10:51for its original audience.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58Marshalling 20,000 extras and their livestock was a unique challenge.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03So what the special-effects people did was to run hot wires
0:11:03 > 0:11:07down either side of what would be the avenue down which the extras had to walk,
0:11:07 > 0:11:12so that anyone touching it would be forced to move away.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14And in that way,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17they kept a kind of clear track down the centre of the screen.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25For the epic, the sky is the limit.
0:11:25 > 0:11:26Or the sea.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29The Ten Commandments showed Moses parting the Red Sea,
0:11:29 > 0:11:34a scene of typically modest ambition requiring only cutting-edge effects
0:11:34 > 0:11:39and a huge crowd of extras for its impact.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44There's no way you could part the Red Sea and just send the dribble of extras through to do it.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52These are films, these are stories that required casts of thousands.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57In fact, the volume of the cast was something that these films
0:11:57 > 0:11:59sold themselves to audiences with.
0:12:02 > 0:12:07Audiences were compelled by the idea that enormous numbers of people
0:12:07 > 0:12:11had been corralled and marshalled about to make these pictures.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15In 1961, El Cid revealed a Hollywood secret.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19If you want an army of military-trained extras,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21go to Spain to hire them.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25One of the most spectacular scenes in Anthony Mann's El Cid
0:12:25 > 0:12:30is the battle of Valencia, where you see this vast mounted army
0:12:30 > 0:12:33pouring out of the city gates and down onto the beach.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41And these 11th-century warriors are belting down this beach
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and they meet the opposing army.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46And you see a rain of arrows coming down.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57El Cid is the story of a Castilian knight who played a vital role
0:12:57 > 0:12:59in the unification of Spain.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02The film was shot in Spain
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and cashed in on the inexpensive labour of General Franco's army.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11The battle on the beach deployed around 3,000 troops,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13as well as over a thousand mounted police.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16They also brought their own horses.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20One of the advantages of using an army is that
0:13:20 > 0:13:23they're already trained in combat, they're trained in horseback,
0:13:23 > 0:13:28they respond very well to direction from second unit directors and stunt coordinators.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32They do what they're told in ways that ordinary civilians often don't.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36Despite having professionals on hand,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39the battle scenes were still a dangerous place to be.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42I would imagine directing a battle scene
0:13:42 > 0:13:46before the days when you can enhance it afterwards in post-production
0:13:46 > 0:13:48must be the worst job in the world.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53In those old days, you know, Health and Safety were not quite the twin gods of everything as they are now.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57And they're obviously using not real axes, but they're using something.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02They're all hitting each other with something, aren't they?
0:14:02 > 0:14:06There's one moment, if you look carefully in the background of the shot,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10where one of the soldiers is knocked over by Rodrigo's horse
0:14:10 > 0:14:14after he's been wounded as the Cid is riding back,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17with an arrow in his chest, to the castle.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20He runs straight over an extra who gets trampled into the surf.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25I hope he got danger money, but whatever it is, it makes for a great moment.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31To stand out from the crowd, epic stars needed to be larger than life.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37One actor has become synonymous with the genre - Charlton Heston.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Well, that was certainly a pretty hectic ride.
0:14:41 > 0:14:42Did it nearly come off?
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Fortunately not, or I wouldn't be here.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51It's very easy to be have it turned into a...sort of a
0:14:51 > 0:14:54turgid minestrone of
0:14:54 > 0:14:59extras running around waving torches or, in this case, spears.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03And principle actors running around waving swords.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07And, as I said earlier, I was determined, if I did this,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11not to have it just a series of sword fights, all of which I want.
0:15:11 > 0:15:12Heston is, of all actors,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15the one most closely identified with the epic form.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20And Charlton Heston himself defined the epic as any film that he was in.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Your colours are no longer black.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31He had a kind of formidable quality, an authoritarian quality,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34but also one of a kind of moral authority.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41If you are forsworn, may you die such a death as your brother did.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Struck from behind by the hand of a traitor!
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Say Amen!
0:15:48 > 0:15:50You press me too far, Rodrigo.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Say Amen.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Charlton Heston is your man, because he looks so imposing.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02He's got an amazing physique, and actually, an old-fashioned physique.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Not like the kind of gym-toned, bodybuilder physique
0:16:05 > 0:16:08that all American male actors have to have now.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Those days, he just looked like he played a lot of sport, which
0:16:11 > 0:16:13it's so much more true, probably, to the time,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16when he was playing a gladiator or whatever else.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19I mean, he wasn't always the best actor in the world,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21but he was a great star.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Come! We'll look for your hidden place
0:16:26 > 0:16:29before the others find it.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34And it wasn't just the stars who were big, the screen itself
0:16:34 > 0:16:36was bursting its bounds.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53The epic helped change the shape of cinema.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58Until now, the choice for visual entertainment had been limited to either the black-and-white
0:16:58 > 0:17:03of the television screen, proudly expanding to 10 or even 12 inches,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07or the equally cramped, almost square screen of the cinema.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Like proud parents, the studios sought ways to show off
0:17:12 > 0:17:14their shiny new epics.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17They began to develop rival screening technologies.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Widescreen cinema was born.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24Because size mattered.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31The huge curving screen is adjustable to accommodate any picture show.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35Widescreen, cinemascope. In fact, everything.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39The new cinema is the perfect house to show, in all their splendour,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44those epic spectacular films which are today the pride of the cinema.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49In 1953, 20th Century Fox became the first studio
0:17:49 > 0:17:53to release a dramatic film in their own widescreen format -
0:17:53 > 0:17:56CinemaScope.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01A huge Technicolor epic was needed to do justice to the vast size of the screen.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05And they chose The Robe.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09The Robe is the story of a Roman military tribune, played
0:18:09 > 0:18:13by Richard Burton, who commanded the unit that crucified Jesus.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Fox hyped the opening of The Robe.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21But then, they were expanding the audiences' horizons.
0:18:21 > 0:18:27The first shot of The Robe, the first CinemaScope film, is of a massive red curtain.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Very much like the curtain that would just have parted
0:18:30 > 0:18:33in the auditorium itself where the audience were seeing the film.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The red curtain carries the opening titles of the movie,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39and, after the end of the titles,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43the curtain on the screen parts.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57Rome, Master of the Earth, in the 18th year of the Emperor Tiberius.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00The screen gets bigger,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02and bigger, and bigger,
0:19:02 > 0:19:04and BIGGER!
0:19:04 > 0:19:07And before you know it, the screen is enormous.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10And you're in the middle of a gladiator arena.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The sound is loud, it's stereo.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16There's speakers all over the cinema, it's coming out of everywhere.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20And you hear Richard Burton's booming voice telling you
0:19:20 > 0:19:22this is the height of the Roman Empire.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25I think the experience would have been extraordinary.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31The makers of The Robe pulled out all the stops to create
0:19:31 > 0:19:35a splash with their new format - they even cheated a little
0:19:35 > 0:19:39in post-production by adding shots from another film.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44The opening shot of the gladiator arena,
0:19:44 > 0:19:45that wasn't from the film itself.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49It was actually from Demetrius And The Gladiators, the sequel to The Robe.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53And they just thought, "Hang on, we need a really big image,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56"big kind of epic scene to begin with.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00"Let's just stick this shot from the sequel in, to kind of like..."
0:20:00 > 0:20:03There isn't... That shot with the gladiator arena...
0:20:03 > 0:20:06There isn't a gladiator arena in the rest of the film.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08It just appears in that one shot.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Fox believed that the experience of watching The Robe in CinemaScope
0:20:19 > 0:20:24should be more immersive, like watching it in 3D but without the glasses!
0:20:24 > 0:20:27And some critics thought it would be more honest
0:20:27 > 0:20:29and more realistic cinema
0:20:29 > 0:20:32because, as a spectator,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34you would be able to pick out for yourself
0:20:34 > 0:20:36what you would be looking at.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40So when you get something like this sort of slave market scene.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45And has the protagonist kind of walking along through this scene,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48and really observing Roman life,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51I think the idea was that you could, as a spectator,
0:20:51 > 0:20:55find the position almost for yourself in that screen.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00Look here, look here! A singer, a dancer, a companion for a noble lady, or a noble gentleman.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Stop, gentleman!
0:21:03 > 0:21:06A priceless gem for your household.
0:21:06 > 0:21:07Look here...
0:21:07 > 0:21:10The Robe was a winner for 20th Century Fox.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15The Robe was a box office hit, it was the biggest hit of the year.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19CinemaScope has come. Widescreen is the future of cinema.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Following this success, the other studios scrambled to
0:21:22 > 0:21:27create their own widescreen formats such as VistaVision at Paramount.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34The vast expanse of these new bigger screens needed filling with
0:21:34 > 0:21:37something that would convince the audience that
0:21:37 > 0:21:40what they were watching was actually happening.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Rome wasn't built in a day.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55And neither were the sets that anchored these extraordinary stories in reality.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58They may not have been historically accurate,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02but, God, they felt authentic.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07When one looks back on these films and, for example,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11you see stills from them or stills of the main sets,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14you are just amazed, really, by the vast, the sheer scale of them.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22It's a very important factor, I think,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25that the money is spent on creating those sort of backgrounds,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28cos it gives a veracity to the whole thing.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35To entice viewers away from the telly,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39the studios dangled their remarkable sets like a carrot.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43Senators of Rome!
0:22:43 > 0:22:47The fact that the sets are huge is endlessly publicised
0:22:47 > 0:22:50in the sort of pre-film publicity.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54So a lot of the advertising that was enticing people
0:22:54 > 0:22:58to come into the cinema was kind of telling them,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02how much money was spent on the sets the costumes, the set designs.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07So, partly, making these elaborate sets is about creating
0:23:07 > 0:23:13a sense of anticipation, creating a sense that what you're going to see is an event in itself.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18Epics had been made since the beginning of cinema itself.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22Silent classics like DW Griffith's Intolerance
0:23:22 > 0:23:26had all the scale of the Technicolor epics, only in black-and-white.
0:23:28 > 0:23:34In 1916, in Hollywood, Griffith builds Babylon, full size,
0:23:34 > 0:23:39a city actually built to contain
0:23:39 > 0:23:42hundreds and hundreds of extras.
0:23:42 > 0:23:48You could drive a chariot along the walls of the Babylon set.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53He shot it with this phenomenal kind of early crane,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58whereby the camera could move towards the set and through the set and down,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02so that you get this sense of being like a bird flying
0:24:02 > 0:24:05above this vast city in which there's continual movement.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11And the sheer size of it, the elephants holding up the roof,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13the vastness of the design,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16the beauty of the way the patterning had been done in the walls and so forth,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20is saying continuously, "Look at the money we've spent."
0:24:27 > 0:24:32In 1959, MGM chose to remake a silent classic.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Ben-Hur became the archetypal epic, sweeping the board at the Oscars
0:24:36 > 0:24:41including the ultimate prize in cinema - Best Picture.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48The film tells the story of Ben-Hur being sent into slavery by Messala.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53The defining moment is when the two men square off in a chariot race.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01It's like seeing a sporting event, cos you're actually looking at a stadium.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04And it's been built for you, and some sport is laid on for you, you know.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06It's a...imagine that!
0:25:08 > 0:25:11If hearts were set racing by the speeding chariots,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15the eyes were dazzled by the set of the circus.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18It was an enormous set.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21I think it was, it was something like 2,000 feet long
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and 650 foot wide.
0:25:26 > 0:25:32I remember that shot where the chariots are lining up at the start of the race.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36It's against such a massive entrance, and it's been shot and edited so logically,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39it feels that they are not showing you a huge bit of set,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41it really is a stunning shot.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Those wonderful statues, they still have some copies of them,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05which I've never seen in any antiquity any statues like that.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Yet, they seem perfectly right, they really look terrific on the screen.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15The scale of the sets of Ben-Hur sometimes had a surprising effect on the audience.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21I must have been about eight or nine when I saw Ben-Hur in a cinema - the State Cinema in Grays.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25What I remember particularly was that I wasn't scared by
0:26:25 > 0:26:29the close-ups or the violence or anything like that.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33I was scared by the big stuff, the huge sets gave me a kind of vertigo,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36which I actually found quite difficult to watch,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40and I had to keep the rest of all the heads of the audience
0:26:40 > 0:26:43in my field of vision, but quite often I was just sitting
0:26:43 > 0:26:48there like that, and almost all the way through I was sitting like that.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52With Ben-Hur safely Oscared, the epic now reached for new territory.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59For David Lean's Doctor Zhivago Moscow rose again in 1965,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01just outside Madrid.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06The seasons were cast aside as a snow palace was prepared.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Unfortunately, it didn't snow that year, and they waited,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14and waited, and waited.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17And no snow fell. A little bit of snow fell, but nothing like enough.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19So they had to get to work with all
0:27:19 > 0:27:25the devices of, you know, laying carpets, spraying things, simulating snow.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Nobody, of course, who sees the film doubts for one moment
0:27:28 > 0:27:31that this is not the depths of snowy Russia.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34It is magnificently done, and it's probably one of the great
0:27:34 > 0:27:39pieces of trompe l'oeil, of making us feel that we are in a freezing Russia.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Turning a dusty Spanish plain into a winter wonderland was
0:27:47 > 0:27:49a masterclass in production design.
0:27:51 > 0:27:57Zhivago is interesting because of the techniques that were used to
0:27:57 > 0:27:59create this winter.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02They did sort of the icicles in fibreglass and then coated them
0:28:02 > 0:28:06with paraffin wax, so the appeared to be melting.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09And then, I think, they had some winter trees in the foreground,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14and that gave the impression of a huge winter landscape.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16This is the lie that cinema tells,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19but would it be any better, if it had been done somewhere else?
0:28:19 > 0:28:25I don't think so. It doesn't matter. It what it looks like, and it looked absolutely amazing.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27With so much on offer, there could be only one outcome
0:28:27 > 0:28:33in the small matter of the duration of these films.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42One of the things about epics is they are really, really,
0:28:42 > 0:28:44really long.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46Four hours, you know, they can be four hours long.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49If it's less than two hours, it's not an epic.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52It's just a film with some Romans in.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Over two and a half hours.
0:28:55 > 0:28:56Over three and a half hours.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59It's possible with an intermission.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04Ideally, with the first cut by the director that was about five hours long,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07the studio laughed out of the screening theatres.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11Long running times made the audience feel
0:29:11 > 0:29:13they were getting their money's worth.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16And cinemas cashed in by selling more refreshments.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22And I do remember that, you know, you chew your way through,
0:29:22 > 0:29:24continuously, these films.
0:29:24 > 0:29:30And quite often, there were epics about people having trouble finding anywhere or any food to eat.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33And there you are, stuffing yourself.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38There's somebody crawling across the desert, starving, towards you.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43Or, you know, entire crowds of people crying out for bread.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46And you're sitting there, thinking, "Oh, poor love, terrible."
0:29:47 > 0:29:51Epic films were SO long that the audience required a break.
0:29:53 > 0:29:54The human bladder has limits.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59The cinematic intermission was born, endowing the epic with a sense of grandeur.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05The intermission says this film is really long, right?
0:30:05 > 0:30:09It's like a theatre play. This is, I think, what the intermission is all about.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12It gives the illusion that you are actually at the theatre,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16so it makes it posher and better, because all theatres have intermissions,
0:30:16 > 0:30:17all plays have intermissions.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36During the intermission, the audience could discuss the film,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39including what the leading ladies were wearing.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55For epic extras, costume was a case of "one size fits all".
0:30:58 > 0:31:01I've seen a few kind of battle scenes being done,
0:31:01 > 0:31:06and the efficiency with which sets costumed their extras is a marvel to behold.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10There are kind of these really long tents. There's a queue lying on one end.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12And a queue going out the other.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15In plain clothes, there's kind of normal people stepping on one end,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18and out the other end come Romans.
0:31:18 > 0:31:24There's a certain identikit, kind of toga/ancient Roman costume,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26kind of "one-size-fits-all" kind of effort.
0:31:28 > 0:31:33But when it came to the stars, nothing was impossible.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38For Cleopatra, 20th Century Fox had to dress the biggest star of the day,
0:31:38 > 0:31:39Elizabeth Taylor.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46Both the actress and the character were flaunted in the publicity material.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, Siren of the Nile.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Her stunning beauty and notorious intrigue
0:32:00 > 0:32:02turned the tide of civilisation.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Cleopatra's lavish costumes became famed for both quality and quantity.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13The film won an Oscar for costume design,
0:32:13 > 0:32:18and Taylor held the Guinness world record for most costumes changes.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22I'm sure that the studio were very keen that Elizabeth looked sexy.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24It would have been pointless making the film
0:32:24 > 0:32:26if she'd looked like Old Mother Frump.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31And Cleopatra, of course, prettiest woman in the world, and all those things.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33So there had to be some bosom on display,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35there had to be the marvellous swan neck.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37That had to be the profile.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Then accept it, Caesar.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44I have never before settled for half a victory.
0:32:44 > 0:32:45Nor will you now.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47Caesar, mighty Caesar...
0:32:47 > 0:32:50All I can say to you is what you've taught me:
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Take a little, then a little more
0:32:52 > 0:32:54until finally you have it all.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Crucially, to emphasise Elizabeth Taylor's rather ample cleavage,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01they keep putting a slit in her costume.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03That's absolutely not an ancient Egyptian,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05that's Elizabeth Taylor.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08Although they were set in the past,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12canny epics ensured they tapped into a modern zeitgeist.
0:33:14 > 0:33:20Elizabeth's costumes look very much of the 1960s.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25Some are more successful than others. They were an awful lot of them, 65.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31And I read that 40 costumes, in addition, were never actually used.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34"Liz Patra" became a fashion icon -
0:33:34 > 0:33:37women everywhere wanted to get the look.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45In magazines, it was sold the idea of the Cleopatra look.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49Hairstyles, kohl eyeliner, Egyptian style,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52sort of art-deco-ish kind of costumes.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56And these were all items that you could go out and you could buy,
0:33:56 > 0:34:01and in particular the make-up and the cosmetics really took off as a style.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05Eyeliner, you know, I don't know which came first,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08but the heavy kohl eyeliner of Cleopatra.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12The wacky eyeliner became very, very fashionable in the '60s.
0:34:12 > 0:34:18Now, today the girls are going for the Cleopatra look, including Holly Elwis.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22I have with me David Aylott, who was in charge of all the make-up
0:34:22 > 0:34:25on the film Cleopatra when it was being made in this country,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28and did, in fact, make up Elizabeth Taylor herself.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31I'm going to be a guinea pig, and perhaps you will be kind with
0:34:31 > 0:34:36the help of our assistant, Claire Wallace, to make me up as Cleopatra.
0:34:36 > 0:34:37Let me see how you do it.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Well, there you are - Cleopatra.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51My, my... Hollywood, here I come!
0:34:56 > 0:35:02Cleopatra's costumes had to be up to making a grand royal entrance.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07Cleopatra's entrance to Rome is one of the great spectacular sequences.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10Through the Arch of Constantine, which, by the way,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13wasn't built until 250 years later, never mind.
0:35:13 > 0:35:14Through the Arch of Constantine,
0:35:14 > 0:35:17pulled on this giant sphinx mobile, you know,
0:35:17 > 0:35:23a huge sphinx on wheels pulled by countless Nubian black slaves.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25She sits on this sphinx, in this gold costume,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30with the sun disc on her head, covered in sort of gold leaf.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48And then, when she actually gets there, after all this pomp
0:35:48 > 0:35:53and wonderful music, you know, fanfares and marches, she winks.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58So we are not being that pompous - we're being Elizabeth Taylor as well.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00It's one of the great spectacular scenes in epics.
0:36:00 > 0:36:06To stand out from such a spectacle, designer Irene Sharaff
0:36:06 > 0:36:09had to create a costume that was a cut above.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13In the world of the epic, the logical answer was a dress
0:36:13 > 0:36:16fashioned from 24-carat gold.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Incredibly elaborate, beautifully made.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24I've held it, and it's amazingly light.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28It's an applique on to a
0:36:28 > 0:36:33virtually transparent black net,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36And it's like scales.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41It must have taken a whole gang of ladies to embroider.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44You know, weeks and weeks of work.
0:36:44 > 0:36:50And then, at the end of the film when Cleopatra kills herself,
0:36:50 > 0:36:56of course, that's what you would kill yourself in. I mean, it's quite logical, isn't it?
0:36:56 > 0:37:01You would wear your best, because that's how you wanted to be remembered.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05And the Roman asked, "Was this well done of your lady?"
0:37:07 > 0:37:11And the servant answered, "Extremely well."
0:37:12 > 0:37:18As befitting the last of so many noble rulers.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36There's no question, the epics looked the part...
0:37:36 > 0:37:38so the music had a lot to live up to!
0:37:49 > 0:37:51There's a remarkable amount of music in these epics.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Sometimes scores that last 100 minutes.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56I mean, an incredible amount of music.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00And they give an extra kind of grandeur to what
0:38:00 > 0:38:03you're seeing on the screen - an extra sense of scale.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25To infuse the epic with a sense of occasion,
0:38:25 > 0:38:28the studios stole another idea from the theatre.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32The overture warmed the audience up for the forthcoming entertainment.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38Now, Ben-Hur, for instance, had a massive overture,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40specially written,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43which contains most of the themes you'll hear later on in the film.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46So it's doing what an overture will do for any opera.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It unspools over about eight minutes.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51During that time, it's on the soundtrack on the film,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53but there's no pictures on the soundtrack.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56So the film is actually starting in the projector,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59and what you get is eight minutes of music with the curtains closed.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03It think this was... This made sense if you'd already announced
0:39:03 > 0:39:06to people there would be an overture of so-and-so.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10But when I went to see Ben-Hur, I think I was amongst a whole audience of people who couldn't
0:39:10 > 0:39:14understand why the curtains weren't open, because the film had started.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16Well, actually, no. What we were treated to
0:39:16 > 0:39:19was the equivalent of the orchestra in the pit,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22giving us the music we were going to be getting later.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25And then, the curtains open, off it goes.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28I'm sure there were projectionists out there who just cut off that
0:39:28 > 0:39:31eight minutes of leader film.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36The rest of the film was full of dramatic scoring
0:39:36 > 0:39:38to heighten the action.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41DRAMATIC MUSIC
0:39:51 > 0:39:54Hollywood invented the sound of ancient Rome.
0:39:54 > 0:40:01What we think of as Roman music is really 19th-century classical music,
0:40:01 > 0:40:05filtered by geniuses, particularly like Miklos Rozsa,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08who scored Quo Vadis, scored Ben-Hur.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12And kind of came up with a chord structure
0:40:12 > 0:40:16which sounds like it could be ancient, it sounds like,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19it starts sort of "pum-pum-pum, pum-pum-purum" sound.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23It sound like what we think Rome ought to have sounded like.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34It's probably about as unlike the ancient world as you could possibly get.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40But not all epics were set in the pomp of Rome.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50And a new setting required the search for a new sound.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53As David Lean found with Lawrence of Arabia.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Seeking out the score for Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean
0:40:58 > 0:41:01had an idea in his head that he could never vocalise to anyone.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05He said, "I know what score I want. I need someone to give it to me".
0:41:05 > 0:41:09And they went through a lot of the big composers of the time,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13and David would sit there and the composer would say, "This is what I thought of..."
0:41:13 > 0:41:17And he'd shake his head and go, "Yeah, it's nice, but I've heard it before."
0:41:17 > 0:41:22And he couldn't find it, until these various networks of people said,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26"There's this young French guy, you know, he's just starting out,
0:41:26 > 0:41:28"you should give him a try.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30"His name is Maurice Jarre."
0:41:30 > 0:41:34He comes in and David Lean goes, "Who is this young child?"
0:41:34 > 0:41:38And he sits down at the piano and he wipes his hands,
0:41:38 > 0:41:43and he begins to play the great, you know, Lawrence of Arabia theme.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58Lean stands up, puts his hand on his shoulder, and goes, "You've got it."
0:42:02 > 0:42:07Jarre sounds expensive and glamorous.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10And that I think it's part and parcel of what the epic is.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15This must have a terrific amount of money spend on it. It's a Faberge egg,
0:42:15 > 0:42:19and the music sounds like it is coming from somewhere very luxurious.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22And in that wonderful scene, when Lawrence blows the match out
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and kind of blows the song up over the desert,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28you give this build of music.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30Bild-bild-bild-bild-bild-bild, and then a cut.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Push! To a full summer light.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39MUSIC BUILDS TO CRESCENDO
0:42:57 > 0:43:02And it's like, "We are in the desert, and it's gorgeous.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06"It's not hot, it's not killing, it's nothing of those things, but it will be later."
0:43:06 > 0:43:10But for now, we're in the Hollywood desert.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12I remember buying the piano music of Lawrence,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15and also learnt how it worked.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18That sweep of sound.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22That's something that could really have come from the movies, I feel.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25Everything about the epics was rich and lavish.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Rich, lavish and expensive.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49In the war against TV, Hollywood had waged a no-expense-spared campaign.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54When they made epics, they went for broke. Almost literally.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57The budgets of historical epics, I think, are governed by a whole
0:43:57 > 0:44:02different area of mathematics that doesn't apply with other
0:44:02 > 0:44:06forms of calculation, because they always got massively out of hand,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10and that, weirdly, they became one of the appeals of them to an audience.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12When you remember in the 1950s,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15the average cost of a movie,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18of a major studio Hollywood film
0:44:18 > 0:44:21was around a million or million and a half dollars.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24And a film cost 13 and a half million dollars,
0:44:24 > 0:44:28as The Ten Commandments did, or 15 million dollars, as Ben-Hur did.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31These are huge, huge sums.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35None had a bigger budget than Cleopatra.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39At an estimated cost of 44 million dollars,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42it was the most expensive film ever made.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46Adjusted for inflation, it still is today.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Nobody could have really foreseen the problems with Cleopatra.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53They built the sets in this country,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56but unfortunately, Elizabeth Taylor wasn't well.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58She had a tracheotomy or something.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00They had to stop production, actually close it down.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05This is just unthinkable - the amount of money they wasted,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07and then they moved it to Italy and rebuilt it in Rome.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10They basically built the sets twice.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13Now, that sounds like a lot of money wasted to me!
0:45:13 > 0:45:16One of its interesting features for us now
0:45:16 > 0:45:19is that you can read all the letters backwards and forwards
0:45:19 > 0:45:26from the studio in America and the producers in Italy at the time,
0:45:26 > 0:45:31saying how the huge cost of sustaining Elizabeth Taylor
0:45:31 > 0:45:34in her villa outside the city of Rome.
0:45:34 > 0:45:40She was described as having "cushions and furnishing covers
0:45:40 > 0:45:44"that had to match the cigarettes she smoked each day."
0:45:44 > 0:45:48That kind of cost is clearly going to spiral out of control,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51as indeed, it did.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55Taylor became the first ever film star contracted to earn
0:45:55 > 0:45:58a million dollars for a single film.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Elizabeth told me that she was quite proud of the fact that
0:46:02 > 0:46:07she was the highest-paid film star of that time and I think that
0:46:07 > 0:46:12the original fee that was negotiated was for a million dollars,
0:46:12 > 0:46:16which in the early '60s must have been an enormous sum of money,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19but I think she eventually earned seven million
0:46:19 > 0:46:22because of overages and because it went on for so long.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29Hoping to replicate the success of Ben-Hur, 20th Century Fox
0:46:29 > 0:46:31threw good money after bad.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34But this was the tipping point.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36Cleopatra nearly bankrupted its studio.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40It was so expensive that, even with packed houses, it took years
0:46:40 > 0:46:43to return its investment.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47Then, in 1964, came Samuel Bronston's aptly-named
0:46:47 > 0:46:50The Fall Of The Roman Empire.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54The choice of title proved fatally prescient.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58The Fall of The Roman Empire is the last of the big epics
0:46:58 > 0:47:01of the post-war period.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04One of the reasons for that is the huge amount of money
0:47:04 > 0:47:07that it invested in its spectacle,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10the spectacle, particularly, of the Roman Forum.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15And what we see is the Emperor Commodus, in triumph,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18moving through the Roman Forum set.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22So you get a very strong sense of the money
0:47:22 > 0:47:27that was spent on creating a full, huge set of this kind.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34The set that was built for it still holds the record
0:47:34 > 0:47:37of being the biggest set ever constructed for a motion picture.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41It has a cast of thousands of extras
0:47:41 > 0:47:43and not enough people went to see it.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47This is the moment when the bottom falls out for the epic.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51When audiences develop a kind of fatigue and don't want to see
0:47:51 > 0:47:54Romans any more and don't want to see the classical world.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01The Fall Of The Roman Empire cost 16 million to produce,
0:48:01 > 0:48:02God knows how much to market,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06and it grossed less than 2 million at the American box office.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18The public just got sick of epics, because there were too many.
0:48:18 > 0:48:25I am leaving with my husband, and soon I'll be far from this city.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27I think it's like having a rich banquet, really.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31You can't have three rich banquets in a row. You need a little snack.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37It wasn't just familiarity that had turned cinema-goers away.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41By the mid '60s, the cinema audience had changed.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43Whereas in the early '50s, going to the cinema
0:48:43 > 0:48:45was a family experience,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49by the mid '60s, there had developed a suburban life,
0:48:49 > 0:48:55DIY had taken over from cinema-going for the adult community
0:48:55 > 0:48:59and it was largely teenagers who were going to the cinema
0:48:59 > 0:49:03and what they wanted to see was their own lifestyles on screen.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07So, we get the teen flick, the horror films, much more violent,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11much more sexually explicit cinema.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17'This was the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23'A great civilisation is not conquered from without
0:49:23 > 0:49:26'until it has destroyed itself from within.'
0:49:30 > 0:49:32Which is what the epic had seemingly done.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38Traditionally, when people write the history of the epic,
0:49:38 > 0:49:40they draw a line under The Fall Of The Roman Empire
0:49:40 > 0:49:43and say, "See - that was the fall of the epic".
0:49:43 > 0:49:44And in a way, it was, for a time.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48But the epic is always ready to bounce back and although it did mark
0:49:48 > 0:49:51the end of a period of epic production,
0:49:51 > 0:49:53it was only a temporary halt.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08Hollywood may have turned its back on the epic,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12but other countries were ready to take up the reins.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18So the epic moved eastwards and it shifts to countries
0:50:18 > 0:50:22where you can afford a large army, where you've got crafts skills,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25where you've got a landscape that doesn't have telegraph poles
0:50:25 > 0:50:29so you can have a 360 with the camera without examples of modern civilisation.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37Epics don't have to be Judeo, Christian, Roman.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39They can be other things, too
0:50:39 > 0:50:42and there are some very interesting epics made in other cultures.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46An international tradition of epics had grown alongside
0:50:46 > 0:50:48the Hollywood version.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53The Russian War And Peace featured 120,000 Red Army troops,
0:50:53 > 0:50:57temporarily distracted from their day job of global domination.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08The film was so long, it had to be released in four parts.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15Japan's Kurosawa was in the epic game by 1985.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19Ran, the most expensive film made there to that date,
0:51:19 > 0:51:23retold the story of King Lear, set in feudal Japan.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Ran does what all the best epics do.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32It transports us back to a barbaric past and it does so
0:51:32 > 0:51:34on an epic scale.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38It's got fantastic costumes, a marvellous sense of the movement
0:51:38 > 0:51:41of armies and, of course, they're more exotic for us
0:51:41 > 0:51:46than the Roman armies that we're used to in many epics.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56Like its Hollywood predecessors, Ran treated the audience
0:51:56 > 0:51:58to spectacular set pieces.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Most memorable is the burning of the castle.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05This was reminiscent of Rome in flames in Quo Vadis.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09They build a castle and they set fire to it
0:52:09 > 0:52:12and you get the destruction of the castle in shot.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29So, Ran is an example of conspicuous production
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and with conspicuous production, you get conspicuous destruction.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36It's like car chases. They like watching car crashes.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39You can't do it in real life, but you can enjoy it vicariously in the cinema.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41You can't burn down a castle in real life
0:52:41 > 0:52:43but it's great to watch it on the screen.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53More recently, Russian Sergey Bodrov filmed the epic Mongol
0:52:53 > 0:52:57in remote locations in Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02The idea of making a film about Genghis Khan, who conquered
0:53:02 > 0:53:10most of Europe in the 13th century, is a story just waiting to be made.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15The great thing about making an epic about the Mongols
0:53:15 > 0:53:18in Kazakhstan is that you're in a land
0:53:18 > 0:53:23where feats of horsemanship are still running in people's blood
0:53:23 > 0:53:27and so, I think, what Mongol has to draw on
0:53:27 > 0:53:29is the great tradition of eastern horsemanship
0:53:29 > 0:53:31and you do see it on the screen.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34This is horsemanship of a kind that we haven't really seen
0:53:34 > 0:53:37since the great days of Hollywood epics in the 1950s.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49It actually gets to the heart of what made the Mongols so successful.
0:53:49 > 0:53:50They were great horsemen.
0:53:50 > 0:53:55Mongol was filmed in the east, where extras were cheaper.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58But the budget could still only stretch to some 1,500 people.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01A far cry from the glory days of the Hollywood epic.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04But this was a 21st-century production.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06Mongol could expand its crowd scenes
0:54:06 > 0:54:11with the occasional use of Computer Generated Imagery. CGI.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14The very technology that invited Hollywood
0:54:14 > 0:54:17back into the world of the epic.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27Ridley's Scott's Gladiator was the first classic
0:54:27 > 0:54:30Hollywood epic for decades.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33It was greeted as a long-lost friend.
0:54:33 > 0:54:3840 years after Ben-Hur, Gladiator swept the board at the Oscars.
0:54:38 > 0:54:43Once more, an epic was awarded Best Picture.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47Gladiator is one of those landmark films that led everybody to say,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51"Where has the epic been? It's come back!"
0:54:51 > 0:54:55Director Ridley Scott was able to make Gladiator on an epic scale
0:54:55 > 0:54:58as he recreated Rome through CGI.
0:55:00 > 0:55:05Rome still wasn't built in a day, but it WAS built in a computer.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08When everyone was waiting to see what CGI could do
0:55:08 > 0:55:12for the reconstruction of past worlds, and in his film,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17we finally get to see the Coliseum, but we see it with the gladiators
0:55:17 > 0:55:23on ground level, as the camera moves in a 360-degree circle
0:55:23 > 0:55:27and they are amazed and aghast at the images they see before them.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37All they did was build half a Coliseum and then,
0:55:37 > 0:55:40using computers, build the top tiers
0:55:40 > 0:55:45and it was one of the early examples of building crowds with CGI.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47An interesting use of crowd technology,
0:55:47 > 0:55:51so the top two tiers of the Coliseum aren't real people,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53they're CGI versions.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56The spirit of the resurrected epic had also spread
0:55:56 > 0:55:58to the work of other directors.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03James Cameron's Titanic employed set-building on a scale
0:56:03 > 0:56:04not seen for 30 years.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08But seamlessly integrated CGI helped sink the ship.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18Most recently, Cameron has taken it one step further,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21restyling the epic in Avatar.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28I think Avatar is basically how the epic is going to become.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33It's going to show, "Let's do CGI to build huge worlds virtually,
0:56:33 > 0:56:35"in a virtual environment.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38"It's not going to be new sets, nothing physical,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41"let's just make it in the computer
0:56:41 > 0:56:44"and our only limits are our imagination."
0:56:44 > 0:56:48The climax of Avatar may be a virtual 3D image,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52but this well-choreographed battle scene is highly reminiscent
0:56:52 > 0:56:56of the scale of the battle of Valencia at the end of El Cid.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07We have the most extraordinary sensation of going into battle
0:57:07 > 0:57:10against this great machinery of the Earth forces
0:57:10 > 0:57:13who are trying to conquer the Na'vi
0:57:13 > 0:57:18and I think it delivers that sense of being on the weaker side,
0:57:18 > 0:57:21who will triumph because they're fighting for their livelihood
0:57:21 > 0:57:22and their beliefs.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28The qualities that set the epic apart were many years in the making
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and this heritage will continue
0:57:31 > 0:57:35to contribute to our cinema-going experience.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38They aimed for the stars, and we loved them for taking us beyond
0:57:38 > 0:57:43our imagination...even if they did try a bit too hard at times.
0:57:44 > 0:57:49But it's those elongated entertainments of the '50s and '60s
0:57:49 > 0:57:53when film makers did it the hard way that will always hold
0:57:53 > 0:57:55a special place in the epic hall of fame.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02In these films, you can see the blood, sweat and tears on screen.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06It is the 11th unwritten commandment that makes them truly epic.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10"Thou shalt keep it real."
0:58:12 > 0:58:17It's interesting. Digital film can do anything.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20You know, you can paint in a million Orks
0:58:20 > 0:58:24or you can paint in the Titanic or whatever, and in a funny way,
0:58:24 > 0:58:28it's taken a step back from the point of view of suspension of disbelief.
0:58:28 > 0:58:33There's something about knowing that, physically, that set was built,
0:58:33 > 0:58:37that there really were thousands of people there, that makes you
0:58:37 > 0:58:41suspend your disbelief and really get lost in the story.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44It's like "Do you believe in Walt Disney cartoons?"
0:58:44 > 0:58:48No, you can admire them, you can enjoy them, you can cry, but they're not really happening.
0:58:48 > 0:58:50Whereas these epics were really happening.
0:59:12 > 0:59:14Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:14 > 0:59:16E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk