Historical Epic · Ranked
Best Historical Epics, Ranked by IQ Score
The films that take historical scale seriously, and treat the history as actual subject. Ranked.
Historical epics divide into two registers: works that treat the historical material as actual subject (Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler's List, Barry Lyndon, 1900) and works that use the historical premise as backdrop for romance or adventure plot. The TVI rubric reads the structural difference.
Anchor picks: Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962), the canonical historical epic. Schindler's List (Spielberg, 1993), Best Picture, one of the database's highest-scoring entries. Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, 1984). Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975).
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