Silent Epics and Spectacles

Large-scale silent films built on vast sets, huge casts and historical, biblical or national subjects, from the Italian Cabiria to the Hollywood Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments and the French Napoleon. A work belongs here when its article calls it an epic. It excludes smaller silent dramas and comedies, which sit in the national and genre groups. Works are placed by what their cited article states about their country, form and period, and each work sits in exactly one group of this subcategory, so a film that fits two traditions goes where its article places it first.