When one waxes poetic on times gone by we rarely include the trivialities pulling us in all different directions. The author simply sticks to the big picture.

Take Shakespeare in Love (one of my favorites). The people are dirty, non-existent hygiene is a major negative for me, I need to suppress the squalor of London and the inhabitants so I can get into the romance. Rats and muddy water and no baths or toilets, dumping body fluids into the street. Not a bar of soap in the whole movie.

Powder, lots and lots of powder to cover the offensive odors. "Oh, what happy hour!" The stench would render me impotent. Yet, we suspend disbelief so that we too can pursue happiness and romance with Will Shakespeare.

Not once have I seen how the ladies in their flowing gowns deal with bodily functions. There is very little indoor plumbing and what there is just a hole with seat on it. Doesn't anybody have to tinkle in Shakespeare's days?  Do they take parchment with them?

Westerns? Same hygiene problem.

From Casablanca:

Captain Renault: I've often speculated why you don't return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Run off with a senator's wife? I like to think you killed a man. It's the Romantic in me.

Rick: It was a combination of all three.

The distant gaze in Rick's eye leads me to believe it was Rick himself that died or part of him. At the end Rick is more than willing to sacrifice his life for Ilsa, because she represents a better Rick, a Rick that no longer exists. He realizes they could never be the same, because he's not the same.

This timeless romance is set during a world gone mad. The story stays on track with Rick focused on Ilsa, impressed with Laszlo and hating Nazis. We never see Ilsa worrying over a job or bills or any minutiae.

Rick pines for her and hates Nazis. Ilsa's inner turmoil is her loving two men for different reasons. Laszlo focusses solely on his work against the Nazis. Renault reveals which way he really blows at the end.

Never once is there an argument over why Ilsa forgot to pay the phone bill or Rick forgot to order booze or the refrigeration is down or the meat went bad or Ilsa is out of razors to shave her legs.

In this way the authors focus our attention on exactly what they want us to see and feel.

Braveheart is simply the warrior/poet/romantic most women and men dream of. We don't hold it against him that he hasn't changed clothes or bathed in years. We're caught up in his quest for freedom and revenge. So a few people have to be maimed and killed, that's the price Willem Wallace is(and by virtue of living vicariously through him we are) willing to pay.

The story is presented as though the entire populace is united by and thinking of only a few things: Freedom, Romance and revenge. And they're willing to die for them.

A romance set today (or in any present) would need to shed the day to day minutiae so we don't recognize our self-absorbed selves and destroy our suspension of disbelief.

The truly epic romances overcome massive obstacles, the loss of a phone number is not worthy. While the great romantic protagonists are willing to sacrifice life and limb. The little romantics of today lack the major obstacles and end up sabotaging themselves when the lead characters become whiny, spoiled little bitches. Hell, that's me and you. I don't want to see me when I'm trying to escape me.

A Tale of Two Cities gives us a protagonist willing to exchange his life for the life of the man he knows can make the woman he loves happy. They lop off his head, now that's sacrifice.

I came to write this as I was trying to think of great romances set in present day. This lead me to ponder how difficult it is to romanticize the present.

Furthermore, most of my favorite romances take place during times of great human struggle (Dr. Shivago), where mortals are fighting for survival yet still grasping for love in the squalor of humanity.

These are the books I re-read and the movies I watch over and over, when I'm in the mood for epic romance.

Lastly, I thought I'd take a stab at a post concerning writing/story-telling.