the Return of Epic Film: Genre, Aesthetics and History 21st Century in Bloomington, MN

With the success of
Gladiator
, both critics and scholars enthusiastically announced the return of a genre which had lain dormant for thirty years. However, this return raises important new questions which remain unanswered. Why did the epic come back, and why did it fall out of fashion? Are these the same
kinds
of epics as the 1950s and 60s, or are there aesthetic differences? Can we treat
Kingdom of Heaven
,
300
and
Thor
indiscriminately as one genre? Are non-Western histories like
Hero
Mongol
epics, too? Finally, what precisely do we mean when we talk about the return of the epic film, and why are they back?
The Return of the Epic Film
offers a fresh way of thinking about a body of films which has dominated our screens for a decade. With contributions from top scholars in the field, the collection adopts a range of interdisciplinary perspectives to explore the epic film in the twenty-first century.