The 20th century is the century in which cinema was born, so it's hardly surprising that those hundred years produced several films that were both epic in scale and storytelling. From biblical dramas and sweeping period films to horror classics, beloved fantasies, and more, many of the greatest epics in cinematic history first hit screens in the 20th century, and the best of them are still widely loved landmarks of popular culture.
Of course, the relative greatness of these movies is a matter of personal opinion, but there’s no denying the fact that all of these films played a key role in shaping the world of cinema as we know it today. They’re not just popular; they practically invented pop culture, laying the foundations for everything we see today at the movies. So with that in mind, here’s our ranked selection of some of the greatest epic movies of the 20th century.
10 ‘Ben-Hur’ (1959)
Image via MGMDirected by William Wyler, Ben-Hur is a remake of the 1925 silent film, which was originally adapted from Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Starring Charlton Heston as the titular hero, the film follows Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jewish prince in Judaea, who is falsely accused of treason and seeks revenge while enduring slavery by the Roman Imperials and the death of his family. Besides Heston, the religious epic also stars Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith, and Martha Scott.
“Majestic, magnificent, awesome, and enthralling” are some of the words often used to describe the exemplary scope and scale of Ben-Hur as a historical drama. It narrates an epic tale of betrayal, revenge, and redemption through spectacular visuals, including a nine-minute chariot race, which became one of the most famous action sequences in Hollywood history. With a record win of 11 Academy Awards and a career-defining performance by Heston that won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, Ben-Hur is a 20th-century Hollywood landmark and a cinematic legend that’s still beloved decades later.
9 ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939)
Image via Loew's IncorporatedA Hollywood Golden Age classic directed by Victor Fleming, Gone with the Wind is an epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. Set during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, the film tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), a strong-willed Southern belle who gets her family through the aftermath of war while navigating her complicated love life. The movie also stars Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel, and Olivia de Havilland in key roles.
Though the film may not have aged well and certainly has a complicated legacy, the pervasive influence of Gone with the Wind on cinema and culture is undeniable. Despite ultimately being a product of its time, the historical epic romance continues to win acclaim for its striking production values, phenomenal cast performances, and memorable dialogue even today. The film also set new records in its day, bagging 10 Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, with Hattie McDaniel becoming the first Black actor to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
8 The Dollars Trilogy (1964–1966)
Image via UnidisAn iconic Spaghetti Western trilogy directed by Sergio Leone, The Dollars Trilogy centers on an anonymous drifter and mercenary, aka The Man with No Name, played by Clint Eastwood, in what became his career-defining role. Set mostly around the American Civil War, the trilogy follows his escapades as he travels through the wild west, becoming a lone drifter, a bounty hunter, and eventually a treasure hunter. Besides Eastwood, all three films also star Mario Brega, Aldo Sambrell, Benito Stefanelli, and Lorenzo Robledo in different roles.
One of the most iconic film trilogies of all time, The Dollars Trilogy established and popularized the spaghetti western genre with its gritty, stylish, and antihero-driven aesthetic. Each of the Dollars Trilogy films is regarded as the best among Western films, and they’re still celebrated for their staging, iconic musical scores, and gunfight sequences. The trilogy has since been recognized for its profound influence on Westerns and action thrillers and has expanded to include spin-off book series and graphic novels.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
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02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
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03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
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05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
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06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
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07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
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08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
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09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
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10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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7 ‘King Kong’ (1933)
Image via RKO Radio PicturesA pre-Code horror adventure film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, King Kong follows a film crew who travel to a mysterious island, where the film’s lead actress, Ann, is offered as a sacrifice to the titular giant prehistoric ape. Ann is rescued, and Kong is captured and taken to New York City, but that’s when the real chaos begins. Fay Wray stars as Ann, with Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, and Victor Wong in significant roles.
1933’s King Kong is one of the most thrilling Hollywood classics ever made and marks the first entry in what eventually became a legacy multimedia franchise. The monster horror film is remembered for its groundbreaking production style, combining live-action sequences with special effects like stop-motion animation, rear projection, and miniature models, inspiring the future of the genre. King Kong was also the first film to feature the then-new Empire State Building, establishing the structure as a cinematic icon that would later become a common motif in films.
6 ‘The Godfather’ (1972)
Image via Paramount PicturesAn epic gangster film by Francis Ford Coppola based on Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather chronicles the intergenerational story of the Corleone mafia family, run by patriarch Vito Corleone, a major figure in American organized crime. Following an attack on Vito, his son Michael undergoes a gradual transformation from reluctant successor to ruthless crime boss. Marlon Brando immortalizes the character of Don Corleone, with Al Pacino starring as Michael. The film also features James Caan, Diane Keaton, Richard Bright, Talia Shire, and Robert Duvall in other lead roles.
Not just a masterpiece of gangster cinema, The Godfather is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of the New Hollywood era. The first in the film trilogy, The Godfather was a massive commercial success as much as it was a critical darling at the time of its release, and it’s been an internationally loved classic ever since. A historic film in many ways, The Godfather has been widely praised for its exceptional writing, direction, acting, cinematography, and background score, all of which have had a profound impact on its genre.
5 The Star Wars Original Trilogy (1977–1983)
Image by Jefferson ChaconCreated by George Lucas, the Star Wars Original Trilogy comprises the first three Star Wars films, which launched the world’s biggest sci-fi franchise, making them a pop culture landmark for 50 years and counting. Beginning with Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, the trilogy explores the ongoing Galactic Civil War between the oppressive Empire and the Rebel Alliance, following young Jedi Luke Skywalker as he faces off against the evil Darth Vader and learns the way of the Force. All three films star Mark Hamill as Luke, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, and Harrison Ford as Han Solo, with Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Peter Mayhew, and more in other important roles.
While Star Wars: Episode IV set the foundation for the franchise and is the most successful of all the first three Star Wars films, the trilogy collectively defines the latter part of the 20th century, fundamentally transforming the way movies are made. They evolved into a worldwide pop culture sensation that’s still alive and kicking decades later. But though there have been several sequels, prequels, and spin-offs, the original trilogy remains the best of Star Wars, with its art design, tone, costumes, themes, and action sequences setting benchmarks for the genre.
4 ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)
Image via Warner Bros.Directed by Victor Fleming and adapted from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wizard of Oz follows the fantastical adventures of Dorothy, a young farmgirl from Kansas, who gets caught in a tornado with her dog Toto. The two are transported to the mysterious Land of Oz, where they befriend many strange characters and embark on a magical quest to meet the titular wizard. Judy Garland stars as Dorothy, with Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, and more in supporting roles.
1939’s The Wizard of Oz is by far the greatest adaptation of the 20th-century children’s classic, and one of the rare few films to be included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. The ultimate fantasy adventure masterpiece, the film has been widely celebrated for Judy Garland’s iconic performance, the epic cinematography, and the evergreen original soundtrack. The Wizard of Oz is also a technical landmark, renowned for its inventive use of Technicolor, particularly the famous transition from black and white to color that shows Dorothy’s transportation from the bleak Kansas farm to the colorful world of Oz.
3 ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)
Image via MGMA seminal sci-fi classic directed by Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey revolves around mysterious, otherworldly monoliths that have influenced the evolution of human civilization, leading up to the 21st century, when one of them is discovered on the moon. A team of astronauts embarks on a mission to Jupiter aboard a craft controlled by the sentient supercomputer HAL 9000, but their mission quickly turns into a fateful, transcendental voyage that could redefine human existence. The film stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, and Douglas Rain in the main roles.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a highly ambitious film and a cinematic masterpiece that’s often hailed as Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, a movie that reveals an intriguing perspective on human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. The film has since been widely analyzed, referenced, and researched for its metaphysical themes and symbolism, and most of all for its pioneering special effects, which often outshine those of many modern movies. One of the most intricate and immersive space adventure films ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s impact goes beyond the 20th century, continuing to influence the best of 21st-century sci-fi movies.
2 ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)
Image via Universal PicturesA biographical historical drama directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian, Schindler’s List is a dramatic reinterpretation of Thomas Keneally’s novel, Schindler’s Ark, which follows the efforts of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Polish-Jewish refugees. The film kicks off with Oskar’s arrival in Kraków, where he witnesses the brutality of the Holocaust firsthand, transforming him and his ambitions. Liam Neeson plays Oskar Schindler, with Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, and Jonathan Sagall portraying other real-life characters.
A genre-defining film of the late 20th century, Schindler’s List is unarguably one of the most beautifully made films of all time, which is a testament to Spielberg’s mastery of refined storytelling. Aesthetically sound and artistically rich, the film features stunning black-and-white cinematography, a sweeping narrative, haunting orchestral music, and moving performances, particularly by Neeson and Fiennes. An intense blend of emotionally raw human drama and the horrors of the Holocaust, Schindler’s List is a truly epic historical drama and a celebrated landmark of '90s Hollywood.
1 ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954)
Image via TohoAn epic samurai film directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai is set in a mountain village in 16th-century Japan. After the villagers recruit a veteran samurai to defend them from bandits, he enlists six more masterless samurai like him to train them, set up defenses, and join a fierce battle against the bloodthirsty killers. Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Katō, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Isao Kimura, and Toshirō Mifune star as the titular warriors.
Widely regarded as Kurosawa’s greatest masterpiece in the genre, Seven Samurai is a highly influential film that has had a major impact on the jidaigeki (period cinema) genre in Japanese cinema. The film has since been remade, reworked, and referenced by filmmakers across generations and cultures, and is often regarded as one of the greatest epics ever made. With its multi-camera setup and use of telephoto lenses for shooting action sequences, Seven Samurai revolutionized the scale and method of Japanese film production, setting new standards for action films around the world.
Seven Samurai
Release Date April 26, 1954
Runtime 207 Minutes
Director Akira Kurosawa
Writers Akira Kurosawa
English (US) ·