Subgenre Sampler
Epic: 201 Films to Buy & Rent
- War and Peace (1966)
- Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk
Feat. Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Irina Gubanova
- The definitive version of Leo Tolstoy's gargantuan novel, set during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the early 19th century. Nothing else quite…
- Agony and the Ecstasy, The (1965)
- Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento
- Hollywood portrait of Michelangelo's struggle to paint the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of belligerent Pope Julius II. Rex Harrison fares…
- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
- Dir. David Lean
Feat. Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Omar Sharif
- Omar Sharif plays the Russian doctor exiled for writing poetry during WW1, and separated from his only love. Complex, beautifully conceived epic will…
- Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965)
- Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia…
- Not the greatest movie ever made, however one might get a kick out of spotting all the famous faces in this reverant, picturesque epic about the life…
- Lord Jim (1965)
- Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Peter O'Toole, James Mason, Jack Hawkins…
- War Lord, The (1965)
- Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
Feat. Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth…
- Charlton Heston stars in this muscular historical adventure as an honoured knight who takes over a castle tower in the swampland of Normandy.…
- Becket (1964)
- Dir. Peter Glenville
Feat. Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud…
- Stinging, fact–based epic turns the trusted relationship between King Henry II (O’Toole) and his best friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury…
- Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
- Dir. Anthony Mann
Feat. Alec Guinness, Sophia Loren, James Mason…
- Monumental event is given a proportionate treatment with sets reputed to be the largest ever built and a literate script to boot.
- Zorba the Greek (1964)
- Dir. Michael Cacoyannis
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas
- Keynote role for Anthony Quinn as the title–character of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel, a bawdy, womanising,…
- 55 Days at Peking (1963)
- Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. Charlton Heston, David Niven, Ava Gardner
- Set in the turmoil of 1900 China, during the Boxer Rebellion, this splashy Hollywood epic succeeds on the strength of its stylish visuals and…