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Stefan Yarleque

Professor Jesse Hunter

530-314-DW Film Theory section 01

13th December 2021

Genre Theory: What Makes an Epic?

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north, general

of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered

son, husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance in this life or the next” (Scott).

This quote is known by many and may even make people remember the name of the movie it

comes from: Gladiator. Like this quote, many aspects can be seen in a movie that can make it be

a part of one or many film genres, as the music score, cinematography, and even the story of the

movie. In this essay, we are going to look at the genre of the Epic and through examples of two

different movies, Gladiator and Braveheart, we are going to define what an Epic is.

One of the aspects that make an Epic are its main characters’ story. In Gladiator, the

protagonist, General Maximus Decimus Meridius, has his son and wife killed by orders of the

antagonist, Commodus. He is then hunted down by the emperor’s (Commodus) men, and to be

able to have his vengeance upon the emperor, he becomes a gladiator and has to climb the stairs

of popularity to go to Rome and have his face-to-face with him, he then is involved in a plot to

overthrow him as Emperor because Commodus’ sister, Lucillia (Scott). Another example of

similar motivations is seen in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart with its main hero, William Wallace.

Wallace is a Scottish peasant who lives peacefully in his town until some English soldiers try to

rape his wife (because of Prima Nocta it was legal). Wallace sees this and stops them, but on a

second attempt, they capture and kill her. After this, Wallace has revenge by killing the soldiers
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that killed his wife, and he then starts a rebellion against the English from his town which then

escalates to overthrowing the English outside of Scotland because without them, his wife would

not have died on the first place (Gibson). In both examples it is seen that the heroes’ love interest

is killed because of some powerful people: in Gladiator his wife is killed by Roman soldiers

because of orders from Commodus, and in Braveheart she is killed by English soldiers who

firstly would not have even tried to rape her if it wasn’t because of Prima Nocta (the right of

monarchs to have sex with a man’s wife on her wedding night), but still, they killed her. The

stories of these characters are primarily based on revenge, they also involve standing-up to

people of power by either a plot to overthrow the emperor or a rebellion against the English king.

One of the main characteristics of an Epic is the spectacle, which would mean big battles

with a lot of extras and practical effects, that are involved in them. In Gladiator, there is a big-

scale battle at the beginning between, which is depicted as the final between the Romans and the

Germanic tribes, but there are also many gladiator battles, although not all of them are

necessarily big, during the course of the movie. At the end you also have the battle between

Maximus Decimus Meridius and the Emperor Commodus, which is a big deal because it is the

climax of the movie, and it is in the Roman Coliseum with a ton of extras playing as Roman

citizens who are spectating the match (Scott). In Braveheart almost all of the battles are big-

scale, except for the first two. Most of the battles in Braveheart are between the Scottish rebels

and the English army, definitely a lot of extras acting as soldiers, no CGI to replace them

(Gibson). In both of these films there is at least one battle between armies: in Gladiator, the

Germanic tribes versus the Roman army, and in Braveheart, the Scottish versus the English.

In conclusion, Epics have main characters’ stories that resemble each other, either by

their motivations, or by their story. Epics also have a lot of spectacle be it by having big-scale
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battles between armies or having gladiators fight in the Roman Colosseum. Although many

Epics have these points in common, they are some that do not, but still remain Epics for example

Ridley Scott’s latest movie (before House of Gucci), the Last Duel, does not have a similar story

like Epics normally do, in fact, it does not even have a main character, but what it does have is

spectacle and, as other aspects that were not covered in this essay, it is based on a true story and

in a historical time. 773 words

Works Cited

Scott, Ridley. Gladiator. DreamWorks LLC and Universal Studios, 2000.

Gibson, Mel. Braveheart. 20th Century Fox (Studios now), 1995.

Scott, Ridley. The Last Duel. 20th Century Studios, 2021.