AudiovisualEpic

Personal Experiences

2009-11-23T03:04:00.000-08:00

This project has been amazing and exhausting.

In other words, it has been epic.

Peter and I have accomplished quite a bit in a very short period of time. We started and mantained a Twitter page, blog, Jimdo website, Wix website, Flickr account, Facebook page and YouTube account. We've studied and learned about some of the greatest stories ever made. It has definitely been a new experience for me, and I am glad I undertook it. Now I know how to use all of these tools of Web 2.0 to the utmost and will definitely take advantage of this power in the future.

Peter has been the ultimate teammate. He has always been reliable and full of great ideas. Whenever we were stuck on something he would simply say, "Let me work on it." We would go home and next time I check there would be some amazing new widget on our wesite that completely fixed the problem.

The biggest practical gain with which I will walk away from this project is a greater appreciation of the internet. In this day and age there is no way to survive as a serious professional or student in the Communications field with a strong knowledge and constant access to this cyber world. Those that try to hide or hinder this fact are fools living in a fools paradise that will crack beneath their feet.

Epics have too many facets for me to honestly say what I have learned the most about them. All I can say is that I enjoyed studying this form of entertainment, and hope to use this knowledge in the future in order to build a few of my own.

In other words, it will be epic...

My experience with AudiovisualEpic

2009-11-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

My experience with this project has been very insightful in several ways. First, it has shown me how to utilize and coordinate the plethora of social media websites with a personal website. In this way, the audience can maximize their experience with the material in the website. The use of social media provides alternative sources to access multimedia information, specifically with images and videos. Secondly, I have learned an incredible amount of information related to epic films and novels. It was particularly interesting to read about the history and the connection between the novel and its corresponding film. The films usually take advantage of the novel to extract as much money as possible in box-office sales, but normally they do justice to the original idea of the book. Because I study film, I was especially interested to learn about the production process of epic films. In general, epic films have some of the largest budgets and are some of the most successful films in terms of profit. Although we couldn't pin down a concrete definition of an epic, it is evident in the film industry that an epic film is produced as large as possible. In this way, the epic becomes larger than life. Thirdly, I enjoyed working in a group context for this project. Many times I needed another opinion to make sure my ideas weren't off target. In addition, it is very difficult to produce a website alone. Having another person to contribute and give advice is extremely helpful. It is important to make sure that the team functions well, and in our case the AudiovisualEpic team was a great match. All in all, the many things I've learned and the many websites and accounts I've created all contribute to a well-rounded experience with the Web 2.0. From here, I hope to learn HTML so I can create websites without the framework of free sites like Jimdo or Wix.

What is an Epic?

2009-11-17T08:27:00.001-08:00

The epic is the ultimate story. Yet is infinitely more difficult to reach a critical consensus beyond this, for nowadays the word has become synonymous with big. As the Iliad goes, what began as an apple has ended in a horse of a different color.

Obviously, the original Greek stories that started the genre can be studied and divided into conventions, but these definitions are no longer valid. For from the very begginning an epic was simply a means or a the mode to capture the imagination of the listener and fatten the belly of the teller. The prose of the poets of old was the served not only to captivate their royal audience, but also to help the teller remember the lines during the age when writing a book was a royal effort. With the advent of the the printing press, the epic was no longer constrained to this oral tradition. The age of the novel had come.

The epic novelists did not replace the poets. They simply added to the genre. What was once constricted to ryhme and memory was freed into a larger world. Homer was not less than Cervantes. Dickens did not surpass Virgil. Yet their stories were equal to the ancients' for they had the same power if captivation and imagination. The novelists were as much heroes and their creations. Their stories are our stories, for they have shaped our culture and continue to do so. The epic novel was continuing to live and grow. Then some thing unusual happened. Mankind decided that they didn't want to read.

The age of film took the epic genre by storm. Never had stories and storytellers been a more premium than the first days of movies. Epics were created for all ages and races, and the DVD made it possible for anyone to watch and understand them. Though there is a danger for the epic poem and novel to be forgetten on a dusty shelf in an unused library, the epic genre is in full fighting form.

Now, in the digital age the epic continues to develop. The genre is expanding as fast as cyber-space, and there is no end to the content in sight. So instead trying to limit this ever expanding world, the AudiovisualEpic team has chosen nine epics that started as text and have inspired movies to analyze and discover what has contributed to their ageless appeal. We've found that a good story can come from anywhere and be about anyone. We only need a good storyteller behind it. Thus, it is not the actual content that makes an epic; it is how each part in fitted together to make a world of it's own and invite us into itself. We are the judge, so what do you think?

Epic Movies!

2009-11-15T15:48:00.000-08:00

Lord of the Rings (2001-03)

There's not a lot that is different about the LOTR from the moive to the screen. People like Tom Bombadil are gone in order the keep the somber tone, and Awren Evenstar has a bigger role in so as to keep Hollywood happy with a romance. However, the silver screen finally has a something worthy of the original epic book. The Ring of Power has come to Frodo Baggins, who must take in to Mount Doom and cast it into the fire before it is too late. For the Dark Lord Sauron is seeking it, and recovering this great weapon is the his last step to complete a shadow that will cover in all of Middle-Earth in a second darkness.

To see more Lord of the Rings videos visit our LoTR Playlist!

Director: Peter Jackson
Screenwriter: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Talent: Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Liv Tyler, Christopher Lee
Composer: Howard Shore
Budget: $270 million

If you think that watching the movie was an adventure, you should hear what went on while they tried to shoot it! Hobbit feet fell off (they were prosthetic); Christopher Lee, who during his childhood met J.R.R. Tolkien and told him that he was going to be an actor in a LotR movie and play Gandalf (two out of three ain't bad!), couldn't handle the robes; and Viggo Mortensen was almost arrested for carrying his sword around off-set!

Don Quixote

In terms of movie magic, Don Quixote has had a real witch's brew. In other words, when you look around for a movie about the man with the cracked head, it's a real mixed pot. You don't know if you're going to find a diamond or a lizard skin.

That being said the most successful of movie adaptions is a musical, Man of La Mancha (1972). As you might imagine, the plot takes huge liberties with the original story. This time, Don Quixote is a reflection of Cervantes himself, who acts as the knight in a play while locked in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and Lady Dulcinea is a prostitute who is surprised by the old man's attentions. The songs are good, but this story is definitely not Don Quixote.

To see more visit our Don Quixote playlist.

Director: Aurthur Hiller
Screenwriter: Dale Wasserman
Talent: Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren
Composer: Laurence Rosenthal
Budget: $12 million

Many people have tried to capture the complete Don Quixote, but even the movie genius, Orsen Welles, hasn't been completely successful. Welles in particular struggled with his adaption. When he was a booted out of the editing process for a Touch of Evil, he left to Mexico to make a modern day Don Quixote that fought movie screens instead of windmills. It took him 14 years to shoot, but even then Don Quixote de Orson Welles never saw the light of day until 1992 and only then in Spain.

The Kite Runner (2007)

Much of the Original story has been kept from the book. This is a tale about redemption for the hero, Amir, who watched his best friend, Hassan, be raped and yet was too afraid to do anything to help. When Amir leaves his childhood home in Afghanistan to flee to California from Soviet guns, he carries with him the the memory of his cowardice, and even as he works to become a writer the thought haunts him. One day he receives a message from home. Hassan has died and his only child has been taken by the Taliban. Now Amir must find the courage to help the son as he abandoned the father.

To view more view our Kite Runner playlist.

Director: Marc Forster
Screenwriter: David Benioff
Talent: Khalid Adballa, Atossa Leoni
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Budget: $20 million

The Kite Runner has rather ominous backstory. The rape scenes were so intense that local populace treated the young actor, Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, as a defiled outcast. Things got so bad that he was forced to immigrate the the US.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957)

Much like the book, this is a crushing denouncement of war that manages to keep from bludgeoning the audiences skulls' at the same time. In other words, in entertains with a message. Completely set in the war-torn Asia jungles, the movie follows the tale of an idealistic British officer who struggles to keep both his dignity and that of his captured troop though his captors come from a culture that prefers death to imprisonment. They are instructed to build a bridge and set to do so with a desperation of proving their mettle as men, but this comes in direct collision with a small team of fellow countrymen who sneak behind enemy lines to sabotage. In the end, it's all "madness."

To view more visit our River Kwai playlist.

Director: David Lean
Screenwriter: Micheal Wilson, Carl Foreman
Composer: Malcom Arnold
Talent: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Budget: $3 million

Based on true events, the real Bridge over Kwai took over 12 months to build and claimed the lives of 12,000 POW's. (source: Imdb)

Ben-Hur (1959)

Like the Lord of the Rings, the original story for this book was many hundreds of pages long. No movie could possible contain everything from such a book. However, this epic takes the best of the book and places it gloriously on the screen. Set in the Ancient Roman Empire, Ben-Hur is wealthy Jewish nobleman who is wrongly fully accused of assaulting a Roman official by his childhood best friend, Messala. The Romans send Ben-Hur to die in the gallows and his parents to die in prison, but our hero vows revenge. Paralleling this tale of violence is the story of the last of the three wise kings, Balthazar, who is searching for the Messiah he adored at the first Christmas. By a strange work of fate, Balthazar and Ben-Hur meet and carry out their quest for blood and blessings together.

To view more Ben-Hur visit our playlist!

Director: William Wyler
Screenwriter: Maxwell Anderson, S.N. Behrman, Christopher Fry, Gore Vidal, Karl Tunberg
Composer: Miklós Rózsa
Talent: Charlton Heston, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd
Budget: $15 million

Contrary to popular myth, the famed chariot scene did not claim the life of anyone at all, though Heston's double came close when he jumped over a stationary chariot on his moving chariot. However, the scene really did take over a year to shoot!

Epic Films part 1

2009-11-14T11:00:00.000-08:00

As we continue our epic research, I'm posting the following films on the website with the following information:

Out of Africa (1985)

The film, based on the autobiographical writings of Karen Blixen, centers around the young Blixen, new to Kenya, who runs a coffee plantation with her husband. Over time, she comes to focus on her love affair with Denys. Her husband, Bror, and Karen become increasingly polarized until they decide their marriage cannot last. The film is told through Blixen's poetic narration based on quotes directly from the text. At one point, Blixen contracts siphyllus from her husband and returns to Denmark for treatment. When she returns, she pursues her relationship with Denys but begins to realize that he is too hard to tame. Towards the end, Karen's life begins to tumble out of control and her very plantation is put in jeopardy.

To see more video clips visit our Out of Africa playlist!

The film adapts many of the book's scenes into the script. However it also leaves out parts of the book, like the locust swarm, and also significantly downsizes her plantation and workforce.The film takes liberties with the romance between Karen and Denys, opting to base the film as a romantic epic rather than a 'life of' epic. For the most part, the film does a good job of capturing the mood of the novel and getting incredibly talented actors to play complex characters.

Recreating a film from a book has its curve balls. In the shooting of Out of Africa, Denys was supposed to be British. However, because Robert Redford couldn't perfect the accent, the director changed his character to an adventurous American-type that Redford plays well. In addition, Streep wasn't originally intended for Karen's character, as director Sydney Pollack thought she didn't have enough sex appeal. Apparently, when she showed up to the interview with a low-cut top and push up bra she surprised the producers and got the job.

Director: Sydney Pollack
Screenwriting: Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Judith Thurman, Kurt Luedke, Errol Trzebinski
Featuring: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford
Composer: John Barry
Budget:$31 million

O Brother Where Art Thou? (The Odyssey) (2000)

O Brother Where Art Thou? is an epic film based on Homer's Odyssey. Despite the number of made-for-TV films of the Odyssey, O Brother is one of the first successful film adaptations. Set in the Deep South in the 1930's, O Brother creates an interesting rendition of the epic poem. The film follows Everett Ulysses McGill (Ulysses was the Roman name given to Odysseus in the Odyssey) and two companions as they escape from prison and try to get home to his wife, Penelope (also the name of Odysseus' wife in the epic poem). On their journey home, they cross a slew of oddball characters that mirror the characters from the Odyssey, like the one-eyed Bible salesman, the three river sirens, and the blind prophet.

To see more O Brother clips visit our playlist!

Because O Brother is not directly trying to copy the events from the Odyssey, it takes many liberties with the adaptation. The plot is loosely based on the poem, but the rest is an artistic rendition of 1930's Mississippi. The focus is not on Greek mimicry, but rather how well it fits in within it time. The music plays a huge role in creating the effect of originality. In some ways, the music was one of the more successful aspects of the film. It's soundtrack was immensly popular (certified eight times platinum - over 7 million copies sold) and fomented a Southern music fad when it was released.

An interesting aspect of the film was its post-production process. It was rendered digitally from the original negative for color replacement. The digital conversion was then reprinted on a positive film reel. O Brother was the first Hollywood feature to use this process. This digital process gave the film its larger-than-life look, helping it to resemble a journey epic moreso than a drama of a chain-gang returning home. The colors are vivid and very precise. The film in general is a spoof that tries to be serious. It references other films, mostly The Wizard of Oz and The Evil Dead,

Director: The Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan
Screenwriting:The Coen Brothers
Featuring: George Clooney, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Jon Turturo, Tim Blake Nelson
Music Supervisor: T-Bone Burnett
Budget:$26 million

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Gone With the Wind, besides being one of the critically recognized epic films, is also the highest grossing domestic Hollywood film in history. It follows Scarlett O'Hara, daughter of a plantation owner, during the Civil War and its aftermath. Her resilient attitude and her fiery relationship with Rhett (Clark Gable) make Scarlett's character one of the best known film characters in Hollywood. The film follows Scarlett from a youth to a young adult during the course of the Civil War. Her live is punctuated by visits from Rhett in wartime, various accidents, and emphatic Southern family dynamics.

To see more clips, visit the Gone With the Wind playlist!

Apparently, Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With the Wind, had issues with the set production. She wrote that the sets were too grandiose. Her image of the setting was much more modest and less rich looking. She remarked at how the Tara house had columns, and how Twelve Oaks would look like Grand Central Station. Of course, Hollywood was creating a blockbuster epic, and their decision to make the sets as lavish as possible dismayed the original author.

The famous quote from the film "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" was voted #1 Best Movie Quote by American Film Institute. Screenwriter Sidney Howard, who took the line almost directly from Mitchell's book, originally wrote a screenplay that would last 5 1/2 hours on screen. The process of widdling down the screenplay was a major obstacle for the development of the film. Because of its southern context, the producers tried carefully not to recreate Birth of A Nation, the huge hit film that came out before Gone With The Wind. For this reason, the writers took out the Ku Klux Klan.

Director: Victor Fleming, George Kukor, Sam Wood
Screenwriting: Sidney Howard
Featuring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel
Composer: Max Steiner
Budget: $3.9 million

Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Last of the Mohicans follows the life of Nathaniel (Daniel Day Lewis) as he and his fellow Mohican friends navigate through the French and Indian War in 1757. Various alliances form and crumble, and the general feeling of chaos is near. Nathaniel, joining the British militia forces with the colonists, escorts the general's daughters, Cora and Alice, to a new post. However, they are ambushed by a Huron Indian tribe and forced to find a new path. During this time, Nathaniel and Cora begin to fall in love and their relationship follows the same fate of the war. In the meantime, the French are coming close to victory and the British are forced to retreat, along with Nathaniel, Cora, Alice, and the other Indians. In their retreat, they are once again ambushed by the Hurons and forced into the wilderness. The rest of the film follows what happens to this group as they are hunted down one by one by the Huron group.

To see more Mohican videos visit our playlist!

The film is based on Cooper's original novel, although it borrows from other sources as well. The film has historical accuracy but it doesn't match the novel's events scene by scene. Much care was taken to reproduce costumes and props. The combination of historical accuracy with an artistic liscense to change the novel makes this film a Hollywood classic. The soundtrack was also an accomplishment, as it won an Academy Award for Best Sound.

The authenticity of Last of the Mohicans gives it a great deal of credibility. Daniel Day Lewis prepared for shooting by living in the wilderness several months prior to shooting the film. In addition, people smoked real tobacco in the shooting, something rare in film shoots. Many weapons were direct period replicas, like Hawkeye's rifle.

Director: Michael Mann
Screenwriter: Phillip Dunne (1936 version screenplay), Michael Mann, Christopher Crowe
Featuring: Daniel Day Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig
Composer: Randy Edelman, Trevor Jones
Budget: $40 million

5 Epic Novels

2009-11-09T06:05:00.000-08:00

Lord of the Rings

-Takes Place in the mythical world of Middle Earth.

“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”

The one ring has come to the little Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, and as time grows short and shadows slip over the world, he realizes he must go to Mordor himself to destroy it. Along with him go his kinsmen, his gardener, an Elf, a Wizard, a Dwarf, a crownless King, and an un-serving steward. Together they are to destroy the ring, an evil all the armies of old failed to destroy. This is the story of ancient British mythology, where victory comes not through vanquishing the enemy, but by conquering your own will, for only then can you be the Lord of the Rings.

Great Quote:“I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

J.R.R. Tolkien was an immense intellect and skilled enough to create his own language. His colleagues never forgave him for creating a fantasy, and we still love him for it.

Don Quixote

-Takes place in the heart of old Castilian Spain.

When Don Quixote, a likable old noble who has done nothing is entire life but read books of Romantic heroes, decides that it is time to become one himself, the countryside is turned upside down. Upon making himself a knight, he enlists the aid of his foolish neighbor, Sancho, and rides out to combat evil. His horse is bony, his armor is fake, and most of all in the early 17^th century there is no one to fight, but none of this makes any difference to the old man. Much like the rest of Castile, he simply conjures up mythical enemies within the depths of his own imagination. This is the story of man who wants desperately to be heroic in a world that no longer has room for his definition of heroism.

Great Quote:“There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.”

At first, Miguel Cervantes was a failure. He had lost his arm in the battle of Lepanto and then his freedom still later to the Turks, but he returned to his homeland with stories that would make history. We are forever indebted to his failures.

Ben-Hur

-Takes place in Israel while it is caught within the orbit of Rome.

This is epic follows two stories. The first is the search of the three wise Kings for the Messiah, and the second is the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a prince of captive Isreal. He is accused of sedition by his own childhood friend, Messala, the commanding officer of the Roman legions. Ben-Hur is sent to slave in the mines while his family is sent to the leprosy caves. This epic deals with Ben-Hur’s road to revenge up till it crosses the road of last of the Three Kings.

Great Quote: "Be it so. Eros is dead, Mars reigns!”

Lew Wallace was a Civil War general who fought for the Union. His paragraphs at times become long and pretentious, but he was a story teller of epic proportions.

Last of the Mohicans

-Takes place in the frontier wilds of the English American colonies.

The Deerslayer, otherwise known as Natty Bumppo, and his loyal friends Cingachgook and son Uncas, who are the Last of the Mohicans, become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. At the same time the Deerslayer is charged with protecting the beautiful Munro sisters, only to see them abducted by hostile savages exactly as the eldest succeeds in capturing Uncas’ untamed heart. This is the story of three friends’ struggle to survive and the thrilling events that lead to the final confrontation between rival war parties. Uncas will stop at nothing to get Munro back, and the Deerslayer uses all his skill in effort to save them all. He knows if anything should happen to Uncas, it would be end for the Mohicans.

Great Quote:"'Nothing but vast wisdom and onlimited [sic] power should dare sweep men off in multitudes,' he added; 'for it is only the one that can know the necessity of the judgement…”

James Fenimore Cooper was a man whose talent as a writer was far overshadowed by his talent as a story teller. The tales he created for the famous Natty Bumppo captured the heart of a young country.

Gone with the Wind

-Takes place in the civil war and reconstruction-torn United States’ south.

Scarlett O’Hara is an untamed Irish beauty overshadowed by forces beyond her control. First, she cannot stand the pretentious expectations of her beloved culture for her gender, and second that very culture is falling apart. A new wind is in the air, blown in by the force of Union guns. However, Scarlett knows what she wants- to be rich, in a South that has lost all its riches, and to marry Ashley Wilkes, a man that does not wish to love her. Courage unabated she bends her mighty will to the task. Everything, from marriage to unknown men to hiring and beating convicts into submission, is bent to this task. She is heedless to the pain she causes around her, especially to the poor men she conquers. All of them are helpless in her hands, except one, Rhett Butler.

Great Quote: “My dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Margaret Mitchell was a writer both humongously talented and unabashedly racist. This, her greatest work, is a magnificent triumph of human talent and failure to humanity at large.

4 Epic Novels to read

2009-11-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

Out of Africa (1937)

Out of Africa is a beautifully written autobiographical epic about a Danish woman and her husband who move to Kenya to start a coffee plantation. The book discusses her reflections on colonial life in British East Africa and the many people and places that she observes. Most of all, the book focuses on the timeless paradise of Kenya and her reflections on isolation in a foreign land.

Quote:"The relation between the white and black race in Africa in many ways resembles the relation between the two sexes."

Author: Isak Dinesen, aka Karen Blixen (1885-1962)

The Kite Runner (2003)

The Kite Runner is a modern epic tale about the life of a boy named Amir in Kabul, Afghanistan. His life is told next to the cataclysmic events of the Soviet Invasion, the refugee movement to Pakistan and other countries, and the rise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The story follows his life as he moves to the United States as a refugee, becomes a successful writer, and eventually returns to Afghanistan to save a family member from the Taliban.

Quote: "One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I'd just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn't have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples."

Author: Khaled Hosseini (1965-)

The Odyssey (cerca 700BC)

The Odyssey follows the life of Odysseus (Ulysses in the Roman version) as he comes home after the Trojan War. The epic splits into two stories, Odysseus’ journey home and his wife Penelope’s search for a suitor in his absence. Because he is gone for so long, Penelope assumes that he is dead while Odysseus winds through many strange and dangerous situations on the journey home to his wife. The Odyssey is perhaps one of the second known epic ever created, the first being the Iliad. Homer’s epic tale was originally a spoken story, but later written down on paper and translated to many languages.

Quote: “It is tedious to tell again tales already plainly told.”

Author: Homer (cerca 800-700 BC)

Bridge over the River Kwai (1952)

Bridge over the River Kwai is an acclaimed fiction novel that tells the story of British prisoners of war forced to build a bridge for the Japanese war effort in Southeast Asia. Although it is fictional, it’s content was based on the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43. Boulle’s epic is an examination of the power dynamics between the captor and the prisoner, officials and lower-ranking officers, and the meaning of war. Because war is an epic game of survival, Boulle’s writing has a Darwinist undertone that is illustrated in the British effort to show their strength through the construction of the bridge.

Quote: "Monkeys dressed up as men! The way they drag their feet and slouch around, you'd never take them for anything human."

Author: Pierre Boulle (1912-1994)

Epic Books and Films

2009-11-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

Here are some examples of epic films and movies:

Some epic books:

http://www.amazon.com/GREAT-EPIC-NOVELS-CLASSICS-SOON/lm/1MCN9NXPDKKWS

http://hss.fullerton.edu/english/jgass/epic_novel.htm

The Odyssey, Homer
Ulysses, James Joyce
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
Ben-Hur, Lew Wallace
Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Texas, James Michener
Last of the Mohicans, James Fennimore Cooper
Out of Africa, Isak Denisen
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Color Purple, Alice Walker

Some epic films based on books:

http://www.filmsite.org/epicsfilms.html

The Odyssey
Ben-Hur
Don Quixote
Gone With the Wind
Out of Africa
Last of the Mohicans
The Grapes of Wrath
Lord of the Rings
The Color Purple
Robin Hood
Mutiny on the Bounty
Bridge Over the River Kawi
Spartacus
The Kite Runner
Into the Wild

Ten Websites about Epics

2009-11-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

We couldn't do a movie project without this database.

Good site for epic book quotes.

Another quote site.

Good site for finding info on epic authors.

Great Ben-Hur site.

Amazing site for learning about epics books.

Web site with info on epic films.

J.R.R. Tolkien website.

James Fenimore Cooper website.

This is an impressive sight that has many of online book versions of epics we are studying.

TEST POST

2009-10-29T08:32:00.001-07:00

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