Word: epical
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Springing directly from the hearts of the people, balladry is a form of human expression that contains "beauty, truth, and relevance." Since it is transmitted orally, balladry provides important clues to the history of the epic; the late Milman Parry, a Harvard philologist, devoted his energy to the recording of Yugoslavian folk ballads of legendary heroes from the lips of tavern minstrels...
...bestseller of 1948, seemed no more than intellectual makeweight in what proved to be a light package. But the film version of the novel, as conceived and produced by the late Al Lichtman (TIME, March 3), strikes deeper into human substance and rises more often to the epic height of its adage and its argument. Epic is plainly what Moviemaker Lichtman hoped to achieve-a sort of Europead elaborated out of the decisive events and determining attitudes of World War II. He missed the mark, but with the assistance of Director Edward Dmytryk and Scriptwriter Edward Anhalt. he has produced...
...simply that no justification is possible-only revelation, before which the man who cries for justice and understanding must "lay his hand upon his mouth." In his new verse-play, J.B. (Houghton Mifflin; $3.50), Poet Archibald MacLeish, two-time Pulitzer Prizewinner, adds a new emphasis to Job's epic ordeal-a justification of the ways...
...from the caveman to Picasso, searching a "fresh correspondence between certain mythological concepts and life today." The subject she chose was the endless procession of legendary heroes locked in mortal combat with such ferocious beasts as the lion, wild bull and dragon. Treated with religious awe and epic endowments in their time, such old heroes never fade away, still have power in art. Dorothy Norman thinks she knows the reason. "Why," she asks, "do such age-old concepts as Theseus and the Minotaur, Job and Behemoth, continue to speak to us with such undiminished power?" Her reply: "Because they suggest...
...barrier between the production and real dramatic meaning was built by too much effort rather than too little. By trying too hard to be epic, the director misses small and thoughtful values Novel staging and the like is to be commended but it can't stand by itself. The presentation seems to lack a unifying mind behind it. Thus the actors seem all too often as if they were emoting for their own benefit, rather than reaching for a sense of action and reaction which would make the play come to life...