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More Than Just Long MoviesMary Shafferand Jerry Bunin Telegram-Tribune Epics. They are grand, sweeping visions of families, villages, nations, cultures and whole planets at crossroads, when every human fate depends on a decision some solitary soul must make. Some decisions end in triumph and others in tragedy. In his monumental silent classic ''Napoleon'' (1928), French filmmaker Abel Gance described the epic as ''fragments of a great event seen from a tiny room.'' From the oral tradition of Homer to the novels we read and the films we watch today, the epic tradition tells a broad story by focusing on the hero's personal journey. From Odysseus and Jesus Christ to George S. Patton and Forrest Gump, epics blend fact, fable, history and myth to tell variations of the same story for different societies and times. In a crisis, can a single person find unexpected strength and wisdom, revealing the noblest traits a culture embodies, whether it is rugged individualism, the inner light of spiritual peace or the collective strength of slaves and peasants rising against tyranny? Epics combine action, spectacle, romance and drama. They can focus on a single event like ''Gettysburg'' (1993) or on entire lifetime like ''Little Big Man'' (1970). They are far longer than most films and use casts of thousands, huge sets, a wide-screen and even broader landscapes and ideas to inspire and show us who we are and what we might become. These cinematic conventions were already evident in silent films like ''Birth of a Nation'' (1916) and Cecil B. DeMille's ''The Ten Commandments'' (1923). The genre peaked with DeMille's remake of ''The Ten Commandments'' (1956), ''Spartacus'' (1960) and ''El Cid'' (1961). It even survived ''Cleopatra'' (1963), one of Hollywood's biggest and most expensive flops. But the movie epic faded in the 1970s, resurfacing as TV miniseries like ''Roots'' (1977) and ''I, Claudius'' (1975). Suddenly this summer, the epic is reappearing. Two films about Scottish freedom fighters are playing: ''Rob Roy'' stars Liam Neeson as an 18th century clan leader defending his honor and wife Jessica Lange, and Mel Gibson produced, directed and stars in ''Braveheart,'' a 13th century tale. Arnold Schwarzenegger is contemplating films about the Crusades and Attila the Hun. And ''First Knight,'' retelling the story of King Arthur and Lancelot starring Sean Connery and Richard Gere, will be released later this summer. ''Knight'' will have trouble topping ''Excalibur'' (1981), John Boorman's stylish, dark, earthy and brooding take on the Arthurian legend and magician Merlin's attempts to mold Arthur to lead the world from chaos towards reason. Arthur accepts his fate: ''I was not born to lead a man's life, but to be the stuff of future memory.'' Epics have often been used to stir emotions and memories and to examine the present through the past. On the eve of World War II, Sergei Eisenstein's whipped up Russia's patriotic fervor with ''Alexander Nevsky'' (1938), his legendary and much imitated story of a 13th Century Russian hero who repelled a German invasion. The film, now remembered for images of the monstrous Germans callously dropping babies into bonfires and for a stunning climactic horseback battle on the ice, was removed from theaters early in the war after Germany and Russia signed a peace treaty. Laurence Olivier used Shakespeare's ''Henry V'' (1945) to boost English courage late in WWII. Kenneth Branagh used the same play in 1989 to paint a grimmer, more realistic vision of war. Director David Lean uses war differently in his masterpiece, ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), about an enigmatic British adventurer who united the Arab tribes despite or because of his own personal demons. Lean shows that extraordinary circumstances sometimes make heroes of damaged men. Other men were simply destined to lead. ''Patton'' (1970), a film President Richard Nixon watched twice before ordering the invasion of Cambodia, follows another brilliant, erratic will bending history to find his spot in it. From its opening image of Patton dwarfed by a huge American flag to its last line (''All glory is fleeting''), it is one of the most perceptive and absorbing screen biographies ever made. But not all epics are about winners. Some, like ''The Last Emperor'' (1987), follow men who find wisdom only when they lose everything. All empires and emperors eventually do. After directing ''Patton,'' Franklin Schaffner made ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' (1971), tracing the downfall of the last Czar and his family during the Russian Revolution. Schaffner shows how Nicholas' personal flaws and chaotic private life ended a dynasty and started the Soviet Union, an individual tragedy that altered millions of lives. Epics like ''Ben-Hur'' (1959) and ''Gandhi'' (1982) also show how one man can change someone's beliefs or the fate of the world. Fate takes Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) from prosperity to slavery Fate takes Ben-Hur (Charleton Heston) from prosperity to slavery and back again in a quest for vengeance that leads to the famous chariot race. But his journey doesn't end until his path crosses Christ, whose death brings peace to Ben-Hur. Gandhi would cringe at being compared to Christ. But the figure the world knew as ''a little man in a loin cloth'' also relied on spiritual power and moral certainty to shape secular history. He freed India and inspired people around the world to adopt his philosophy and methods of peaceful, non-violent change. He was a hero to his people and the world. Epics maybe re-emerging today because the world's stage today seems singularly short of such heroes.
Mary Shaffer works at Cal Poly. Jerry Bunin is a Telegram- Tribune reporter. They met in English classes studying the role the epic vision played in American literature. Filmmography
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