17 Must-Watch Epic Movies Many People Haven’t Heard Of

The definition of an epic film is an odd thing to quantify. To some, an epic movie is one of significant size and scope. To others, it's just an exceptional movie.  Often, it's both. While the definition of an “epic” movie may change from one viewer to the next, there are some movies that you'll watch and immediately understand why they earned the title.  

If you're looking to elevate your movie-watching game, you'll need a launching point to get you started on some of Hollywood's most epic and mostly unknown films.

1. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

When you think of a movie from the 1940s, you’re probably not expecting some visual spectacle. And yet that’s kind of what A Matter of Life and Death is, even by today’s standards. Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger put together a finely crafted film that follows a deceased soldier who, thanks to an issue with Heaven’s soul collection, may get a second chance at life on Earth. The movie is praised for its use of visuals and the artistic vision that brings it all to life on screen.

2. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

There have been plenty of movies about the successes of the Roman Empire, but there don’t seem to be many about its downfall. The Fall of the Roman Empire is exactly as it sounds, starring Obi-Wan himself, Alec Guinness, as Marcus Aurelius. The movie starts with the threat of a Germanic invasion and highlights revolts in its individual provinces. The title is one big spoiler, though, as the movie concludes with a voice-over briefly detailing the fall of the Roman Empire.

3. Prince of the City (1981)

Sidney Lumet's three-hour-long character study based on the life of Robert Leuci, an NYPD cop who decided to blow the whistle on corruption within the force, may not be all car chases and gun fights. Still, it is a well-written adaptation of the book of the same name and a real treat for fans of gritty, documentary style, shoot-on-location neo-noir.

4. The Leopard (1963)

Luchino Visconti's adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi's 1958 novel, De Lampedusa, follows the exploits of Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster), one of the last Sicilian noblemen left during Italy's Unification in 1860. As Garibaldi and his Redshirts sweep through Sicily, te Prince finds himself trapped between the inevitability of modernization and his longing for a now unobtainable past.

5. The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Sean Connery and Michael Cane star in John Huston‘s epic adaptation of the 1888 Rudjard Kipling novella about a pair of rogue British NCOs who travel from India to Kafiristan (Northern Afghanistan) in search of adventure. On arriving in the region, one of the soldiers is mistaken for a god by the local populace and makes their king.

6. Gallipoli (1981)

This Australian First World War epic, directed by Peter Weir and starring a young Mel Gibson, follows the lives of a group of Western Australian men who join the Australian Imperial Force sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in the Ottoman Empire. They take part in the disastrous Battle of The Nek, which saw thousands of ANZAC troops cut down by Turkish machine gun fire.   

7. Sorcerer (1977)

Roy Schneider stars in William Friedkin's tense thriller about four outcasts tasked with transporting a dangerous cargo of faulty dynamite across South America. 

8. Giant (1956)

Brock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean star in George Stevens' Western epic about a Texas rancher and his descendants. Although Giant was a massive hit when it was released, it has fallen by the wayside almost 70 years since. 

9. Kagemusha (1980)

Kuwasawa's period drama about a criminal taught to impersonate a dying feudal lord to try and avoid a war may not be one of the Japanese auteur's most well-known movies. But it is one of his best, winning the 1980 Palme D'or at Canne, and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film the same year.

10. War and Peace (1965)

This eight-hour-long Oscar-winning Russian adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's iconic novel, directed by Sergey Bondarchuk, is an absolute feast for the senses. The film, funded by the Soviet Government to show useless Yanks what an actual epic looked like, features the largest battle scene ever committed to film, rumored to have included 120,000 extras. Although Bondarchuk later denied this in an interview with National Geographic about the making of this oft-overlooked epic.

11. The Big Red One (1980)

Samuel Fuller's hard-hitting, autobiographical World War II epic stars Lee Marvin alongside an ensemble cast including Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, and Siegfried Rauch, follows the exploits of an American 1st Infantry Division Sergent and his squad as they face the horrors of the Second World War from the Allied invasion of Sicily to the D-days landing, and the liberation of the Falkenau concentration camp. 

12. Once Were Warriors (1994)

This New Zealand drama about the devastating effect of British colonization on the Māori people and the survival of their culture against the odds by Lee Tamahori chronicles the lives of the Heke family, who live in poverty in South Auckland. Unflinchingly violent and dealing with themes including addiction and domestic abuse, Once Were Warriors is not an easy watch, but one that is certainly worth your time,       

13. 1900 (1976)

Bernardo Bertolucci's epic about the rise of Italian fascism in the early 20th century stars Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, and Donald Sutherland in a tale of two boys born on the same day; one into wealth and luxury and the other into extreme poverty.  

14. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Scorsese's controversial biblical epic stars Willem Defoe as Jesus Christ as he struggles with temptations, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust.

15. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

This historical epic, directed by Ridley Scott, presents a heavily fictionalized account of the events that led to the Third Crusade and stars Orlando Bloom as Balian of Ibelin as he fights to defend a besieged Jerusalem from the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin.

16. The Last Emperor (1987)

This award-winning epic biopic about the final Emperor of China, Puyi, written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and adapted from Puyi's 1964 autobiography, follows Puyi's life, from his ascent to the throne as a small boy to his imprisonment and ‘political rehabilitation' by the Chinese Communist Party. John Lone stars in the eponymous role, and it was the first Western film the People's Republic of China authorized to film in the Forbidden City in Beijing. 

17. Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman stars in Arthur Penn's Satirical Western epic about the life of a white man raised by members of the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century and his attempted integration into American pioneer society. One of the Earliest revisionist Westerns, Little Big Man was one of the first films to depict Native Americans in a sympathetic light while exposing the criminal practices of the United States Cavalry.