Epic!: History on the Big Screen - Hardcover

While this "study of themes and variations, with history . . . as the theme"sic sounds promising, and the 250 black-and-white and color photos recall the genre's grand scope, Searles's ( Films of Science Fiction and Fantasy ) breezy text suggests neither a devotion to time past nor a critical eye for the movies. Shallow synopses--"France in the late eighteeenth century was in a bad way"; the American colonies are dubbed "thirteen ministates"--reduce the past to cocktail chatter, while film analysis is often limited to the charms of an actress (Jean Simmons is cited five times), lavish costumes and worn encomiums (" The Captain of Castile is deservedly a classic"). Epic westerns and space epics ( Heaven's Gate , Star Wars ) are for the most part excluded; the author's discussion of Lawrence of Arabia goes no further than to note that the film is "long for the limited attention span of modern audiences." Too arch for true fans, too skimpy for students, this glib pastiche misses both of its potential audiences.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.