The pre-modern battle sequence has been a staple of epic filmmaking for decades, but has rarely enjoyed such a swift resurgence and and equally stunning recession in popularity as it did in the first decade of the 21st century. Utilizing new computer programs and more powerful rendering and animation software, Hollywood set to work on a new iteration of its primary mode, the "cinema of attraction," rebirthing the ancient epic as a spectacle not for its practical elements, but for its unreal ones. The power of the individual digital effect, which ruled the blockbusters of the 90s, gave way to that of the mass effect.

Battle Surfaces is a video essay that travels through the history of the pre-modern battle sequence, from Alexander Nevsky (1936), arguably the blueprint for every cinematic battle to come after, to the Hollywood spectacles of the 60s, to the gritty updates of the 90s and the digital transformation that may have effectively killed the epic as a work of mass spectacle.

Full essay here: filmatical.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/battle-surfaces-epic-warfare-and-the-cinema-of-attraction-in-the-21st-century/