Epic History on the big screem – Baird Searles – Abrams – 1990 – Dura

**Epic History on the big screem**: From Quest for Fire to The Last Emperor, Epic! History on the Big Screen presents the history of the world as seen through the mmovies. It´s all here in this lavishly illustrated book, 20,000 years of life as we know it best -as recorded on cellulloid. Proceeding chronologically from prehistory through antiquty, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance up to twentueth century, author Baird Searles examines more than 150 films devoted to re-creating the many discoveries, adventures, coronations, abdications, wars, love affairs, and cultural events that have formed our collective past. All the great spectaculars are here -including Cleopatra, Ben Hur, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Ivan the Terrible, Orphans of the Storm, Abel Gance's, Napoleon, War and Peace, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia -as are many smaller, more personal stories about those men and women whose lives changed the course of history.
The text analyses each film on its own artistic merits and in relation to its actual historical context. And the 250 fascinating photographs, many of them never before published, bring to life the stars who themeselves brought history to life on the big screen -Bette Davis as The Virgin Queen; Theda Bara as Salome; John Wayne as Genghis Khan; Lawrence Olivier and Kenneth Branag as Henry V; Sarah Bernhardt as La Reine Elisabeth- as well, of course, as the casts of literally thousand of extras.