A pompous orchestra, monotonous acting, endless love scenes, glassy glances to the horizon, and everyone in short skirts. You can wake me up for it! Not because the plot is so strong, or the actors play so well, but because the Hollywood spectacle movies are history in themselves.
Antiquity is hip. Hollywood filmmakers must have thought so too. Over the past 10 years, Hollywood has released a variety of films with a nod to Classical Antiquity, including Gladiator, Alexander, 300, Troy, and most recently Clash of the Titans. But did you know that these stories have all been filmed before? In the 50s and 60s of the last century, Hollywood set a trend with the so-called 'spectacle films'.
Spectacular films
Hollywood lost viewers to the emerging medium of 'television' during this period. In an effort to win back followers, the industry came up with widescreen, a picture format that lent itself perfectly to movies of epic sizes. Going to the cinema would again become an experience that television could not match. It was during this time that films such as 'The Robe', 'Quo Vadis', 'The Ten Commandments', 'Ben-Hur', and 'Spartacus' saw the light of day. These films had an unprecedented budget, an amazing set, and literally thousands of extras. These films harked back to Classical Antiquity, and were always laced with a touch of Christian morality. This says more about the time in which the film was made than about the time that the filmmakers want to portray. Because it wasn't all 'historically justified'.
Spectacular in the 50s
In the heyday of the spectacle films – the 1950s/60s – people were just recovering from the Second World War, when the Cold War was already on its way. Although the West had won the victory, it was not doing well economically and socially. The people longed for an identity to be proud of again – as usual. While the devastated masses wanted to legitimize their identity at the origins of Western civilization, there was also a need for a kind of 'good cop - bad cop' scenario. For example, in many post-war films the Romans are inspired by Nazis or Communists, while the oppressed masses symbolize a tidy Western society with Christian moral virtues. The Hollywood spectacle films thus actually formed a kind of mirror of society, an outlet for the collective consciousness. A special image of the zeitgeist, and an absolute must to sit down for a rainy Sunday afternoon!
Classical Antiquity in Movies Today
But how are we supposed to see the current trend of Hollywood's interest in Classical Antiquity? Not least of course as a gap in the market. Since Ridley Scott re-entered Antiquity with 'Gladiator' and achieved enormous success with it, many filmmakers have followed him. But the reason for that success is partly to be found in escapism, the escape from the daily grind. For many, such films offer a temporary solution to a longing for the past. It also offers moral clarity, something that is not always clear in everyday life. As in the 1950s, historical films above all offer a sense of a shared cultural heritage. While the borders are fading in Europe, we are constantly looking for a foothold to hang our cultural identity on. Historical films have this function because they remind us of a time when 'we' were heroes.
See further
- Hollywood goes to war