How to Make an Historical Epic

Hello, my name is SB and I am an historical epic addict. This is truly a sad thing to be as it is but rarely that a good one comes along, and then more often than not, only in the form of the director's cut. As an overly interested spectator, and a person hoping one day to work on the production end of such a film, I have been creating, over the years, the criteria necessary for a successful historical epic. And so I shall share it with you now. A historical epic, to be worthy of the name must include most of the following; (a) a moral and often unwilling leader (the man who does not crave power will be the least likely to misuse it when it is given to him) and one possessing convincing charisma, (b) a villain with at least a modicum of intelligence of wily wit who possesses all of those traits - greed, desire for power, lack of concern for the human condition - that make him the opposite of the protagonist, (c) a theme which goes beyond the stories of the character themselves, speaking to the human condition and, if the film is to be truly great, creating a parallel between then and now so that we may draw from it some greater sense of enlightenment about the times we now live in, (d) approximately three fights, each revealing important information about the characters, whether it be tactical skill, betrayal, surviving against all odds, a willingness to surrender riches and power in order to save human lives, (e) a driving motivation for the protagonist which comes prior to the cause for which he will later be fighting, such as the death of the woman that he loved (this is always a good motivator and shows that even a man who seems barbaric in battle has a soft, loving side), (f) a suitable number of characters that we like need to die, not everyone can live when they're cleaving each other with battle axes and the like, and it is often good if the protagonist himself dies at the end, as in christ dying for our sins - the martyr's achievements go down in history, (g) standard british should typically be used as this makes up for the fact that often the characters that we are watching would actually be speaking a different language, or would be speaking in a way that would not allow for the eloquence with which the script writers would like their characters to speak, and besides, when things are said in british they just sound more epic, (h) no expense should be spared when it comes to production design for, no matter how great everything else is, if the film does not look epic, then it won't be - costume the characters correctly, do not make them look too pretty (people didn't bathe so much in the past and don't forget it, also, when on a long journey without a caravan it is unlikely that people would be able to shave everyday or keep a neat and closely sheared beard), that is except for the women, for, unless they are warriors themselves, they should have such beauty as would drive men into battle and create such deep love as is necessary in an epic, (i) and lastly don't cast Colin Farrel as the lead or kill Lancelot before he can betray Arthur with his love for Gwenefyar. 

Some of the above listed need no further illustration. For the others, I will broaden their definitions and provide examples. Clearly, the leader, or protagonist of an historical epic must be spot on, or all else is for not. Simply casting a man who is pretty is not enough. In fact, generally the leader should not be pretty as a warrior should be manly. The only exception to this that I can proffer is the unexpected success of Orlando Bloom in the role of Balian in Kingdom of Heaven (though I did notice that the production designers went to a great deal of effort to make him often look dirty and we careful to put him in the least feminine clothing they could).  Men such as Mel Gibson or Russel Crowe are more generally the desired type. While the leader should look savage in battle, he also must be able to show depth of emotion, an almost innocence which can make one believe that he seeks only to do the right and does not want for power. Mel Gibson's baby blues looking up at his betrayer The Bruce are, to my mind, the quintessential illustration of this. Generally, he must love some woman, often one who dies at the outset of the film, as with Wallace's wife, Maximus' wife, and Balian's wife (Braveheart, Gladiator, and Kingdom of heaven respectively). At some later point in the film another woman must arise who will be a help and inspiration to the leader, and there must be some sense of romance between them. Finally, he must have a good voice for yelling in order to muster legions without sounding like a fool.

And here, for today, I will leave off, with greater expansion to come.