A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics looks at Hollywood’s biggest screen spectaculars from all sides, including the genre’s beginnings, literary adaptations, great epic directors and actors, the challenges of making big-budget movies, classic set-pieces and epic music scores. The special also looks at how the genre fell out of favor with audiences and filmmakers in the ‘70s and ‘80s, only to be reborn with more recent films like Gladiator, and Dances with Wolves trilogy. Throughout, the special is packed with classic scenes and behind-the-scenes images from such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Gone With the Wind (1939), Samson & Delilah (1949), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), El Cid (1961), King of Kings (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965).
20th December 2009
16 years ago
58 minutes
Finishes at 1:00am


Movie data last updated 2 years ago on 12th May 2024 at 3:10am (BST). Ratings last updated 1 year ago on 28th September 2025 at 9:32pm (BST). All film data including images and actor information is provided by the TMDb API, but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb. Film ratings provided by OMDb. IMDb, IMDb.COM, and the IMDb logo are trademarks of IMDb.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All product names, logos, trademarks and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.