Religious Epic
An epic film made about a religious, usually biblical, story with all the pomp and spectacle one would expect of such subjects. They tend to be graced with extravagant sets and costumes, lavish production values, and attention to detail which can sometime dwarf the actors or story itself. Some of the very first feature-length films were religious epics, with the Italian production of Cabiria, aspects of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, and the original productions of The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur pushing the limits of what narrative cinema could accomplish in visual terms. The development of Cinemascope in the 1950's produced a format perfect for the resurgence of the religious epic, with films like The Robe, King Of Kings, and remakes of The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur getting the royal treatment. Like many subgenres of big-budget origins, the religious epics quietly slipped away from the public forum of the theater screen, only to occasionally reappear in the form of a TV miniseries. In the '80s and '90s, Martin Scorsese tried to resurrect the religious epic with films on the life of Jesus Christ and the Dalai Lama, respectively, but failed to revive public interest in it despite critical praise.
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