D. W. Griffith’s classic The Birth of a Nation (1915) is popularly considered the first epic American film. But it was preceded by this.
Update: Congratz to reader tyree, who not only got it, but got one over on me (see comments).
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Only early film I can think of is The Great Train Robbery.
While still an important and inovative film, The Great Train Robbery was only a 10 minute one-reel job.
A Shakespear play, Richard III I believe.
While it seems an oxymoron, there were actually several silent films of Shakespeare made.
But, to the best of my knowledge, none of them were epic films.
Correction: I’ve done a bit of research on this. And you are arguably correct, tyree. The recently discovered Richard III (1912) qualifies as America’s first feature film; but is it epic?
I’m going to leave the question open.
OK – on further research, I find the NYTimes categorizes this as a “historical epic so I have to give it to you. Congratz, tyree.
The answer I was looking for was D.W. Griffith’s Judith of Bethulia (1914).
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