Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: The Return of the Epic
- Part I Epics and Ancient History
- Part II Epic Aesthetics and Genre
- Part III Epic Films and the Canon
- 9 Pass the Ammunition: A Short Etymology of ‘Blockbuster’
- 10 Epic Stumbling Blocks
- 11 The Greatest Epic of the Twenty-First Century?
- 12 The Ramayana and Sita in Films and Popular Media: The Repositioning of a Globalised Version
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
11 - The Greatest Epic of the Twenty-First Century?
from Part III - Epic Films and the Canon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: The Return of the Epic
- Part I Epics and Ancient History
- Part II Epic Aesthetics and Genre
- Part III Epic Films and the Canon
- 9 Pass the Ammunition: A Short Etymology of ‘Blockbuster’
- 10 Epic Stumbling Blocks
- 11 The Greatest Epic of the Twenty-First Century?
- 12 The Ramayana and Sita in Films and Popular Media: The Repositioning of a Globalised Version
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
Between the first and last instalments of this series, an entire generation grew up. Totalling some twenty hours, it is unprecedented in length; it features a protagonist who embodies all the characteristics of an epic hero; it includes many special effects, some of which are filmic firsts; and it tells a mythic story that narrates one of the most common epic themes – the struggle between good and evil. However, there is hardly a breath of a mention of these films in all the critical material on modern epic currently available.
The series? Harry Potter, of course.
Although there is an increasing body of scholarly work in a wide-ranging number of disciplines on the books and their influence, there is virtually nothing discussing the films as an epic. As Diana Patterson eloquently assesses it:
There are many who are dismissive of these books: they are too popular to be of any value; they are long and repetitive; they are childish; they are derivative; they are insufficiently ‘literary’ to be worthy of attention, much less of study. Each of these claims might as easily be made against Dickens. Some still persist against J. R. R. Tolkien.
Admitting Harry Potter to the epic cinematic canon will enable us to examine how the series is unique in being the first epic made for, featuring, and largely made popular by children. Before considering this, however, I want to address the scarcity of academic discussion of the films and speculate about why they have never previously been examined as epic.
- Type
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- Information
- The Return of the Epic FilmGenre, Aesthetics and History in the 21st Century, pp. 188 - 200Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014