I have to say I really love historical and fantasy epic films. There’s a quality to that genre that no other genres possesses. A genre that has existed since the birth of cinema itself. I’ve seen some of them and it has become one of my favourite genres. Be it the scale, story, characters/actors, acting, score and the set pieces.

In the last number of years I’ve really seen the genre wane. I personally think it’s down to some historical epic films failing in the box office domestically in the US as they didn’t recoup the cost of the budget. They are Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy, Oliver Stone’s Alexander and Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. Alexander got more negative reviews compared to the other two films. Also all three have received Directors Cuts as well. I have seen both the Kingdom of Heaven’s Theatrical and Extended Cut (on Blu-Ray) and I have to say Kingdom of Extended Cut is a modern masterpiece in my opinion, I absolutely love the film. I also possess the Extended Cut of Troy on Blu-Ray which I’m really looking forward to watching.

Also earlier this year Duncan Jones Warcraft movie was released and it failed domestically and received mixed reviews. Much like the other three I mentioned above. It received complaints that regular film goers couldn’t understand the story of the film.

I can see why the big film studios don’t produce them and seeing them as very risky projects because they fear making a loss no matter if the film does good or bad critically. Which is such a shame as it’s a very fascinating one of a kind genre. After the success of Lord of The Rings I could see why the studios would bankroll epic films, but unfortunately it backfired on them. I can’t really pinpoint why they failed in the first place but I think the Extended/Directors Cut releases are something to do with it.

Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings Trilogy (Theatrical) made over two billon dollars in the box office. Still Peter Jackson released Extended Cuts on the home video market because some scenes had to be completely removed or trimmed down to lessen the running time of film. The Extended Cuts filled in some of the blanks (like how the Fellowship get the Elven Cloaks after the Mirkwood scenes) Peter Jackson has said on many occasions that the Extended Cuts are his true vision of the film and what he originally intended to release. Of course he was part of the editing process for the theatrical cuts.

A few years later Troy, Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven were released. Not at the same time or anything like that but a year or so between each. All of them failed domestically. Sometime after home video releases of the films, they announced Extended Cuts of the films would be released on home video all of which longer than their Theatrical Releases. More so Kingdom and Troy. Both these Extended Cuts have got some high praise.

I think that the studios felt that they could cut down the original running times for Kingdom and Troy to a more cinema friendly running time because it worked so well for Lord of The Rings. But it didn’t work, upon these films theatrical releases people complained about pacing, development issues and etc. Word of mouth spread both online and off which turned people away from seeing the films.

In recent years there’s been a number of Extended/Directors Cuts of films being released such as Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America and Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. There’s probably more but I don’t know much about them. Though it can be safely said that Directors Cuts are the directors true vision of their films.

I personally believe that why epic films fail domestically at the box office is solely at the feet of the film studios for editing a film without the director having any input in that process. This is why I think they don’t produce them because they don’t trust the director and what they envision. The director sees’ the film more than a project to make some money, it’s a story they want to tell and believe they are the right one’s to tell it and they want to create something that stands the test of time. In recent years the studios are taking much tighter grips on filmmakers which is a subject for an article which I’ll go into in the near future.

I really do love the epic film genre, I just wish studios gave them more of a chance.