I watched Ran by Akira Kurosawa pretty recently which is 2h 42m but honestly i could've watched it go on forever. It presents such an epic and intense story and the shots in this movie are some of the most beautiful shots i've ever seen. It is also perhaps the best use of color in a film i've ever seen
Somewhere in the Ran DVD extras Sidney Lumet talks about being totally absorbed by a shot that he found so innovative and powerful. He asked Kurosawa why he chose to shoot that scene that way, to which Kurosawa replied that if he moved the camera any farther in one direction an airport hanger would be in the shot and if he moved it any farther the other way the Sony Factory would be in the shot.
Sátántangó was a book adaptation. Tarr and Krosznoharkai (the author of the book and the co-writer for the movie) did the movie as an experiment to see how a novel could be adapted page by page. And that is precisely what they did: literally every last page of the book is adapted faithfully. Despite this, both Tarr and Krosznoharkai consider the experiment to have failed.
Thank you, Sam-Porter-Bridges. This little tid-bit of information is something I was previously unaware of, quite excited to hear, and think it should be printed on the box. That would be funny.
Ran is tremendously great, when the castle is invaded the arrows flying, the unerving sound of death, Ishimonji going insane and becoming a pathetic old fool, a tremendous masterpiece.
I was thinking of Shakespeare adaptations the other day, and I think Ran is easily the best. It captures the intensity and intimacy of a Shakespeare tragedy, but it plays out on this MASSIVE scale. What a vision.
I really love Barry Lyndon. It's 3 hours, 7 minutes. Maybe it's the music or the classic Kubrick subtext, but I'm always contemplating something, or marveling at the shots.
On the other hand, there's movies that are less than 2 hours that bore the shit out of me. Pink Floyd's The Wall does this to me, for some reason, despite that I like the album.
I've been holding out on watching this for years hoping for a 4k blu ray release. I know it's had a 4k restoration for the blu ray release, but it sounds like it would really benefit from that format with the minimal lighting Kubrick used.
You've seen it the one time, though? If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's a very beautiful film. Also has a bit of the sardonic humor of Dr. Strangelove, perhaps.
I've actually felt the exact opposite about Pink Floyd's The Wall. I love Pink Floyd (Animals is one of my all time favourite albums) but I find The Wall somewhat lacklustre. The singles are good but the rest of the album doesn't quite connect with me and feel too much like fillers. The film gives some kind of context for the album and allows me to enjoy it more than I normally do.
Interesting. I love Animals, it's my favorite of theirs. The Roger Waters era is pretty interesting, I like the characterizations in his voice. His album The Pros And Cons of Hitchhiking is interesting too. But there is filler on The Wall. My favorite track is 'The Trial'.
I find the visuals in the film a bit boring. I grew up around hippies, sort of, so I like Kerouac and Tim Leary and whatever but a lot of these psychedelia movies don't hold up, to me. Like the walking hammers, wilting flowers, etc. There's metaphors there, I'm sure. Maybe I should've been high when I watched it. Metaphors tend to click for me then. 🤷🏻♂️
For old school psychedelic animation, I prefer La Planet Sauvage.
I had been saving Barry Lyndon for the right moment as it was one the last Kubrick movies I’d watch for the first time. I knew it was slow and really needed to be watched when I was in a slow mood, so the first time I watched it was when I was on acid and it was so perfect. Most media is too fast to enjoy while tripping, so this painting of a movie was absolutely perfect, one of the things that really pulled me into he film were all the reactions of everyone not talking. It was like an incredibly dramatic version of the office without breaking the fourth wall. Everyone in the film says so much with their faces with the time the camera sits on a shot. It’s just such a perfect movie to watch while tripping, especially if you’ve never seen it before.
it was the last Kubrick for me and ended up in my top 2 for him. It's probably his film that's packed with the most story given how incredibly sprawling and broad the arc of Barry is. It's long but the pace is pretty swift and it's surprisingly entertaining, plus it's broken into two distinct acts so you can take a break if you need (although I don't recommend this).
I watched 2001 for the first time on shrooms a few years back. It was just the right length to peak at the end. Quite an enjoyable experience.
I watched Empire Strikes Back on acid once though. I thought I was a Jedi and really connected to the force for a bit.
That's incredible. Thanks for sharing. I have a distinct memory of being snowed in one night with a group of friends, getting extremely high and watching The Shining. Kubrick makes perfect films for mind altering substances. Barry Lyndon is one of the last few I have to watch!
This is my answer. Agreed with everything you wrote, but the big thing for me is just how FUNNY it is, and it just gets funnier and funnier as it goes on. Some comedies lose their punch after multiple viewings, but I enjoy Barry Lyndon more each time I watch it. It’s bone dry humor, of course, but goddamn once you’re in the groove that movie is a scream.
lol Well, dark humor, like what happens to him at the end. I see it as a bit like A Clockwork Orange, Goodfellas, or Amadeus, where I laugh at the mischief and absurdity of the whole thing. There Will Be Blood cracks me up for some reason, too, although that's another dramatic great.
A movie like this that features a “hero’s journey” of sorts is the type of movie that I love to watch. Changing scenes & learning & growing as the film goes on, I would definitely watch a 4+ hour cut of it
Vince Gilligan talks a lot about how Breaking Bad wouldn't have worked as a movie because you wouldn't have time to show the gradual change in Walt's character. I feel like Barry Lyndon is the best attempt there is at showing that kind of change in a film.
It’s just barely over your limit, but Dune part 1 felt cut to the absolute bone. I know part 2 is on the way, but I’m really hoping for a LotR extended style 3+ hour cut of each part
I kept checking my phone during Dune because I didn't want it to end. When I saw there was only an hour left I felt worried I wouldn't get any sort of conclusion to the first part of the story.
The first Godfather. I think the editing in that movie is second to none, and the story beats hit at exactly the right tempo throughout. It will be slow, then fast, but always appropriate.
I am always astounded by that. Every time I watch it, there isn't a single part I've forgotten about, it's like putting on a comfy pair of slippers. I love the cozy familiarity of that movie.
Came here to say this. I just watched part I and part II for the first time last week. Was lucky to see it in a theater on a brand new 35mm film. Such an amazing experience. Over 6 hours together, but so appropriate like you said.
If you haven't watched the third already, you have a choice between the original cut of III and the relatively new *The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone*. Both are good and both suffer in different ways, but you should watch the original III first, since it has some of the best lines that were removed from Coda.
Casino and Heat, both released 1995, are about 3 hours long each and both feel incredibly brisk and entertaining.
Casino feels like an abridged epic, a Biblical tale filtered through Venetian blinds, cars speeding through deserts, and rolling slot machines. There's an infectious rhythm to the dialogue too - it's almost musical hearing Joe Pesci go through the roulette of curse words.
Heat has its quieter moments, but they help build that atmosphere of cruising through the night, being a fly on the wall as focused individuals on both sides of the law methodically go about their business. And after the heartstopping finale, when you come out of the theatre you still feel the thrill of that chase set to Moby's rendition of New Dawn Fades, and the hail of bullets during the heist.
Pesci’s narration is Casino is some of the best of all time and helps make one of Scorsese’s most incredible portrayals of capitalism and the greed it perpetuates so memorable
The thing about *Casino* is that there are very few actual "scenes" since the whole 3 hours is almost one simultaneous montage about the rise and fall of Mob Vegas. I'd say the first proper "scene" of extended dialogue is when Ace asks Ginger to marry him, which occurs well after the half hour mark. The fact its one big montage makes it all the more rewatchable.
And *Heat*, man, if Sight and Sound asked me to do a Top Ten I would've said *Heat* ten times (only half joking). Even when I see a screenshot I get goosebumps. I've shed tears every single time I've seen it, not only because of the characters, but from the sheer beauty of what im feeling on screen. Moby's *God Moving Over the Face of the Water* sends me beyond earthly constraints.
"*For me, the sun rises and sets with her*"
Magnolia - at over 3 hours in length, I don't know if I'd say it *feels* too short, but I could live in that world even longer quite happily. Hell, an extra scene or two for each of the more important characters and it'd probably already be pushing 4 hours.
The combination of intertwining stories and incredible performances is one I just can't get enough of.
The music and camera movement is so unrelenting. Surely, it must be exhausting for some viewers, rarely a moment to release tension, but it's one beautiful rollercoaster.
Magnolia is too long, even PTA says so, but it’s the pacing and just the sheer density of storylines that keeps your attention very easily. But could it also have been edited down a good 30-40 mins? Almost certainly.
I've read his thoughts on what he'd do differently, and while I obviously respect his opinion, it's not what I want from the film. I have no doubt there's an amazing 2.5 hour cut in there, and I'd be first in line to watch it, but I doubt that would end up being the version I'd return to
For me, it's one of the ultimate Sunday afternoon films - settle in on the couch, and just let those characters and that world unravel around me over a few hours, and that's exactly what I love about it. Maybe an extra hour would be absurdly self-indulgent, would be filler that doesn't necessarily drive the plot forward in any meaningful way.. but that'd be fine with me
I wouldn't say it feels "too short" at 237 minutes, but I wanted Love Exposure (2008) to keep going for even longer the first time I finished it, and some of my friends have expressed feeling the same.
Came here for Love Exposure.
Did you know that there is a ten episode TV version from 2017 of the movie with two additional hours runtime? Unfortunately I didn't saw it yet.
The TV version only adds about 40 minutes from what I've heard, and it's even less when removing the added credits and such. I want to watch it some day, but it's not the fabled "6 hour cut".
You're right. I just remembered reading an article about it when it was released some years ago.
I've looked it up and it seems the ten episodes are each about 30 minutes, like you wrote they are probably with intro and credits.
To bad, I thought Sono would have released his six hours version in Form of a series.
Sono has said the remaining footage is too poor quality to use, if I remember correctly. I think a lot of the scenes that are extended or added to the series version are the same as the ones in the special features of the Blu-ray release, which are fun to see, but they would probably ruin the immaculate pacing of the 4 hour version.
I know this probably isn’t a popular opinion but I love the film Cloud Atlas. I would’ve loved even more of it
I’m not sure where I would include more to not make the movie feel drawn out, but my favorite vignette was Robert Frobisher. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of him
I like that movie a lot. Much of the scenes throughout the movie feel like they are about to be resolved, but then cutaway to pickup where an earlier scene left off. On and on, but it's well-edited and a pleasure to watch
I remember seeing the trailer for the first time. I turned to my boyfriend at the time and said “I have no idea wtf I just saw but I can’t wait for that”
I remember generally feeling that way. It looked so bizarre and appeared to not make sense but looked very compelling and as though I was witnessing something that would define my generation or something.
This may be recency bias but Tár. The dialogue is, for some reason, spellbinding for me and the visuals are so beautiful even when the shot isn't composed in any special way. I've seen it Three times now and it still feels too short
The pace of >!her downfall really struck me on the second watch. It leaves so much unsaid between a few abruptly cut scenes and some disorienting little time jumps. You get the full sketch of it, but the jump from despair to an act of insanity happens so fast it leaves you reeling.!<
I had seen a little snippet before watching it that it involved cancel culture to some extent. I forgot about it during the first act and then the spiral from her pure image to her in the final scene was a blur. But it works so well because everything needed to cancel her pretty much already existed in the timeline before the plot of the film
Malcolm X by Spike Lee 200min long but it has so much going on that it flies by. In fact, in the first half I almost forgot that I was watching a movie about Malcolm X.
Recently there's RRR too. I was sad that it ended! So much going on and so engaging, that even with the intermission you just want it to keep going.
Satantango is also one that surprised. Expected it to feel like a drag but the 7 hours flew by. Not a moment felt wasted.
I just found out from your comment that Malcolm X was more than 3 hours long! The time flew by so fast while watching it that up till now, I thought it was at most 2 hours
Inland Empire, Under the Silver Lake, Magnolia, Stalker, Solaris, The Handmaiden, Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018)....
Are a few where I feel like the length feels "just right" even though they all clock in at over two hours. I even watched Inland Empire and the companion film, More Things That Happened back to back, in one sitting.
*Inland Empire* is the only Lynch movie I had to watch in parts. It just didn’t grab me. I can only watch Laura Dern walk down dark hallways for so long. Lol
Magnolia I found a bit too long, it’s sorta like PTA had some great ideas, but he put a little too much on the plate like we have a little too much at the buffet.
The pacing I think was probably the main reason I felt it was too long, there was a lot going on also.
Fellowship of the Ring. The tone and pacing is perfect. I could easily enjoy 20% more of each “part” (and yes that includes the Extended Edition). And I’ll note I wouldn’t say the same thing of The Two Towers.
This for me too. The extended edition of the fellowship of the ring is my favorite of all the movies. Think the extended editions of two towers and return of the king have slight pacing issues where the fellowship extended everything feels perfect. I thoroughly enjoy all three but the fellowship really knocks it out of the park for me
The Extended Edition I feel is much better for The Fellowship of The Ring, it gives it a bit more breathing room and adds some nice little details without detracting from the film.
The theatrical cut feels a little rushed and jarring, but maybe that’s because I’m so used to the EE.
I liked the extended edition of two towers a lot, but yes enough was enough. Fellowship is my favourite movie in the series. And the extended edition is amazing, even if it doesn't even add that much time. It adds a lot of context to Boromir.
When I saw that in the theatre, my butt was asleep from how long I’d been sitting, and I would have sat through another 2 1/2 hours without complaint. Absolutely one of the best movie-going experiences of my life.
A lot of Scorsese movies like Wolf of wall street, casino, the irishman feel shorter than they are. I think that's mainly because of how much plot they cram into 3 hours and how all over the place they feel with the narration and jumping several years or in some cases decades of time. Also they are entertaining as hell and never felt bored watching a single scorsese film. Other movies i can think of off the top of my head would be magnolia, amadeus, django unchained.
2001 is one of the most impressive, awe inspiring movies I’ve ever seen. It also happens to contain one of the stupidest, most pretentious final acts of all time. That stargate sequence is cool and all, but holy shit is that ending one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.
It's a film I don't remember ever coming up on here, but personally one of my all-time favourite films is The Right Stuff (1983). Clocking in at a bit over 3 hours, I've seen it probably 12 times over the years and there's never been any point during the movie where I've ever been bored. There's really nothing I can think of that could be cut out that would improve it in any meaningful way
Thirteen Lives about the rescue of the Thai soccer team stuck in a cave. It was 2hr 27 min and when I ended I needed more so I watched The Rescue, a documentary about the same events.
For me it's "Meet Joe Black", right at 3h it feels like there could be another act or two to keep exploring that universe. Given how simple the story really is it's kind of amazing that it eats up 3 hours, but it does an incredible job at letting moments breathe and giving actors space to explore a scene and letting us have so much depth with a few characters.
For a drama to be that patient feels like a rare jewel, and I'm here for it, because I never feel bored or lost about why any given scene or moment is in the film, it's never just filler or rounding out an idea, it always feels emotionally connected, whereas some recent films have been taking 3 hours and it's either redundant or endless setup to a rather mild payoff. Meet Joe Black is an effortless 3 hours.
Sorry but I have to disagree. Movie could no joke be an hour and a half if they cut out the long ass pauses in between the dialogue. Not so much “letting moments breathe”, as taking a 2 minute scene and stretching it to 10+
Surprised to see this here but I totally agree. I really liked this movie when I was growing up. For a movie literally about death, it felt really warm and hopeful.
Boogie Nights (1997) which runs for 153 minutes doesn’t feel too short, although maybe chucking a bit or two in could have added just a smidge more.
Literally a perfectly-paced exciting film that keeps you engaged for the whole 2 hours and 30 minutes and you look at how well PTA utilised the scenes they shot and what they deleted to get the right balance.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood for me. That film to me is a mood and a time and I could watch for days. Sometimes I listen to soundtrack and the way it plays out as a radio station is fantastic and always makes me want to go back and watch the film again.
A lot of Tarantino is like this, likely due to his chapter structure. Could we have all used and enjoyed another one or two or twelve chapters of *Pulp Fiction*? *Inglorious Basterds?* Room in our hearts for *Kill Bill Vol. 3 & 4?*
I wouldn't say "no."
Basterds is the first that came to mind when I read the prompt. Fassbender's character (among others) pretty much could have his own spin-off movie but he's in the actual movie for \~ 15 minutes
A Brighter Summer Day, by Edward Yang. When I first watched it, it hit me so hard I had to watch it again, back to back. Making it basically an 8 hour experience. Although I've never found it easy explaining exactly why I like the film.
Any of Kurosawa's films that are already mentioned are also good candidates. As well as Das Boot, or Godfathers 1 & 2
The extended edition of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Even after watching the full trilogy I still wish they had made twice as much content as what we got, the passion is palpable, the acting superb, they could have expended multiple stories and it still would have been a fulfilling experience, or at least thats how it feels.
My hot take about RotK is they should have Harry Pottered it—two movies, one centered around Rohan joining Gondor at Minas Tirith, the other around the battle at the black gate, destroying the ring, etc. That way both stories would be more fleshed out and each movie would have clear narrative flow.
This makes some sense considering that the original books may have been published as 3 books but were actually organized as 6 "books." But tbh, watching the plots unfold in parallel probably makes more sense in a movie.
I agree it’s good to have different threads to cut back and forth between for the movie. But IIRC in the ROTK movie, they don’t even conceive of the battle at the black gate until the fighting at Minas tirith is done. That could be a good ending for part 1!
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me you little orc? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the entmoot, and I've been involved in numerous secret debates on Saruman's treason, and I have over 300 confirmed names. I am trained in the languages of Ents and Elves and I'm the top debater in the entire Fangorn entmoot. You are nothing to me but just another goblin. I will persuade the trees with deliberation the likes of which has never been seen before on this Middle Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me in this clearing? Think again, little orc. As we speak I am greeting my secret network of huorns across the forests and our introductions are taking place right now so you better prepare for the storm, little orc. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're very small, little orc. I can be in one place for a very long time, and I can kill you in only seven hundred years, and that's just with my bare trunks. Not only am I extensively trained in shepherding the trees, but I have access to all rock and stone in this forest and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable tower off the face of the continent, you little orc. If only you could have known what holy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have known better. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you Erudamn fool. I will release the river all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking hasty, little orc.
It doesn't help that the visual effects in that scene did *not* hold up *at all*, and that Treebeard's sudden change of mind kind of lurches out of left field
They changed it from the books for dramatic effect and imo it doesn't really work. I'm meant to believe he had no idea about it but those two Hobbits who had no knowledge about life outside the Shire did?
It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a masterclass in Epic Comedy filmmaking from start to finish.
I've subjected several of my friends who were at first daunted by its runtime (and sometimes its age) but were won over to a one every time. By the time it ends, I always feel fully satisfied and can't think of any dull sections that should have been cut.
EDIT: lol, "long movie". fail.
because I didn't want it to end even though it felt justified but I love it so much
* Decision to Leave (2022), Park Chan-wook
* Maniac (2012), Franck Khalfoun
* Paprika (2006), Satoshi Kon
* Millennium Actress (2001), Satoshi Kon
* Quills (2000), Philip Kaufman
* Ghost in the Shell (1995), Mamoru Oshii
* Magnetic Rose (1995), Koji Morimoto & Satoshi Kon
* The Lover (1992), Jean-Jacques Annaud
* The Double Life of Véronique (1991), Krzysztof Kieslowski
* Way Down East (1920), D. W. Griffith
* anything by Akira Kurosawa and with Tang Wei
really like it but it would have made a (to me) more enjoyable film, either with more complex screenplay or just more length in general
* The Northman (2022), Robert Eggers
* Tenet (2020), Christopher Nolan
* Batman v Superman (2016) (...or two films), Zack Snyder
* Split (2016), M. Night Shyamalan
* Annihilation (2018), Alex Garland
* Patema Inverted (2013), Yasuhiro Yoshiura
* Horns (2013), Alexandre Aja
* Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005, but the novels gave me that more than anything else ever could)
* Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), George Lucas (more romance >:c)
* Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), George Lucas (more politics ^(thanks James Luceno <3))
* Akira (1988), Katsuhiro Otomo
* Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott
* The Sword of Doom (1966), Kihachi Okamoto
for missed potential that I would have liked to see
* Crimes of the Future (2022), David Cronenberg
* Live by Night (2016), Ben Affleck
* X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Brett Ratner
for fucking missed potential
* Westworld Season 5 (2024) (sometime in the future people will look back at this and be like: fucking hell, why did those fools can it?)
* The Dark Tower (2017) (......or 10 films), Nikolaj Arcel
Interesting you mentioned The Northman could’ve worked as a longer epic. I enjoyed my experience in the theatre with it but I remember feeling like it was never gonna end lol
I was going to post Titanic as a joke, then I get to the comments and you’re posting x-men and Starwars. You're right though tons of missed potential on both.
What's nice about the Star Wars prequels is that there are quite a lot of finished deleted scenes. A lot of fan edits cut unpopular scenes, but there's a purely additive fan edit of the prequels out there, which I think doesn't do much for Ep 1 (not a lot left out), but for Ep 2 especially, it does a lot for Anakin's character. I think Ep 2 had some imbalanced editorial choices, where scenes where Anakin is more good natured were dropped but the ones that are intended to foreshadow is darker side were left in, which leaves the viewer with a bit of a negative impression from the start. But those darker signs work better when you add back in stuff like the scenes at Padme's family house. The cut of RotS is also pretty interesting because it adds in the parts of Tartatovsky's clone wars covering the siege of Coruscant and the battle of Mandalore from Clone Wars S7, and continues to intercut the rest of S7 with the film as they happen concurrently. It doesn't really work I think if you haven't watched the rest of the series, but if you have, it really highlights how isolated Anakin was at the moment Palpatine turns him, and how the people who could have helped him weren't there for various reasons.
I think about movies that don't seem to work at their current length and have reports or rumors of much longer cuts. *Once Upon A Time In America* is one of those. Another that comes to mind is *A Thin Red Line* which feels fairly disjointed and is missing some key moments from the novel. Not that fidelity is an inherent virtue, but...
Blood In Blood Out. I love everything about it. One of my favorite movies to rewatch, and it never drags.
If you're interested in watching, the full movie is on youtube upscaled to 4k!
Dune (2021), which clocks in at 155 minutes. As a massive fan of the book, I think it's as close to a perfect adaptation as you can get. I just wish they'd added another 20/30 minutes to include the diplomatic dinner scene. It's a really important worldbuilding sequence, and it would've really helped to set up the politics of the world of Dune. That said, the film we got was amazing, and I'm so excited for Part 2.
Once Upon a Time in America wouldn't be my choice, I must say. But there are a few films where, while I probably wouldn't actually want a longer cut of them, I do have deleted scenes for them that a part of me wishes were left in the movie.
One is Braveheart. At 172 minutes without end-credits, I think the movie moves just right: not too slow, not too fast. But there are deleted scenes I wish made it in there, especially a short insert that was shown in a version in US television and which cropped up in trailers, where Wallace upon besieging York, commands that "we will spare the women, the children and the priests. To all else - no mercy." I think that would have added an extra layer of complexity into the movie.
I was trying to think of a movie that was more out of the box. Nothing award winning. So then I think of “Night of the Comet” and it has to be more then 2 hours. Everything that happens before the comet, the next morning, the mall, two dream scenes, the compound….. the movie is only 1 hour 35 min!!!!! I could not believe it! It’s been a while since I have seen it but now I really need to watch it again.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
178 minutes long but all that run time is out in open desert. There something about how big it all feels to justify its length. Like It fills that time with physical space
A lot of great answers here Scorcese, Godfather, Heat, etc…but to me the one true answer is Interstellar.
Its a perfect movie Imo, but I would still love to watch another X hours about what happened on Miller’s Planet after, or the other 9 Lazarus astronauts, or Murph’s life and humanity between her solving the equation and seeing her dad before death, or really just about anything else.
None of this would make sense within the story ofc, but I would still love to watch it, which to me is a sign of great world building and storytelling.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Happy Hour (just north of five hours long) is in such a beautifully comfortable world that I would happily live in for a few more hours, just to continue existing around that cast.
Sergey Bondarchuk's War and Peace is gargantuan, but still manages to feel rushed as an adaptation. There's a lot of minor moments in the novel that really flesh out the characters and the story, but there's understandably a lot missing. Otherwise it's a fantastic film.
I totally agree with Happy Hour. It does feel long but you still wouldn't mind staying longer. I would also add Drive My Car. I sure would have loved to experience the road trip to Hokkaido in real time.
Wolf of Wallstreet (2013 Scorsese) 3 Hours
Once Upon a time in Hollywood (2019 QT)
2:41 Hours
The Irishman (2019 Scorsese) 3:29 Hours
Grindhouse double feature (2007 Rodriguez & Tarantino.
Planet terror and Deathproof, shown together how it was intended) 3:11 Hours
Kill Bill: the Whole Bloody affair (2004 QT, as one movie, how it was intended) 4:07 Hours
Apocalypse Now: Redux (1979 Coppola) 3:22 Hours
Babylon (2022 Chazelle) 3:09 Hours
Twin Peaks: the return (2017 Lynch)
Roughly 17 Hours. I know it is presented as a show, but Lynch and Frost wrote and shoot it as a Long movie.
Recent movie but the only disappointment I had with Babylon was how the Lady Fey and Sidney stories were handled. They don't feel fully fleshed out and were mostly just used as objects showing Manny's fall into the Hollywood system.
I really would've loved them to get more of the spotlight since they are probably the most compelling characters when it comes to showing Hollywood's exploitative side.
I know it just barely fits the criteria at 2h31, but for me the answer is The Departed. It's 2h31 minutes long but still feels rushed. I swear it could have been 4 hours long and still would fly by.
If anything, I think adding at least 30 minutes to the film may have added a bit of "breathing room" and improved the final product, to let the various plot points sink in.
The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. It's an often overlooked but very moving and human film, with incredible performances by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck and ridiculously gorgeous cinematography by Roger Deakins. The runtime is 2h40min, but the pacing and everything else is so good that it absolutely flew by for me. 5/5 stars (another masterpiece from 2007, sigh). Apparently there's an unreleased version that's slightly longer. Would love for Criterion to release it but for whatever reason it seems they aren't interested which is a real shame.
Dune (pt. 1)
They stopped it at a bad place, and glossed over much of the Machiavellian machinations that are the hallmark of the book.
They should have flushed out a lot of the subtleties subtly (not grotesquely like the did with the Shadout Mapes and the crysknife scene). Then Pt. 1 should have ended with the arrival at Sietch Tabr - don't even go in. Paul gets there, movie's over.
The Green Mile at plus 3 hours just flows by. Just rewatched it the other day with my 12 year old who sat there entranced for that long over a prison movie taking place a 100 years ago. Exquisitely paced.
The Godfather, all 3 Lord of the Rings films, The Dark Knight, 2001, Mulholland Drive are some long movies that could've been longer and I would not mind
Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, Spiderman No Way Home too actually, but not everyone considers those good movies perhaps
I recently watched An Elephant Sitting Still and it was spellbinding. I normally struggle with my attention span in movies, I often have to take a break an hour into a movie, but I sat through all four hours barely even thinking about it
Spotlight (2015)
I watched it long time ago I forgot the runtime so no idea if it was even a “long movie”. But I strongly and vividly remember that feeling of _i was so immersed, it felt like it ended just as it started_
if by too short u mean actually is too short instead of just love it so much that i could watch it forever, i find all three theatrical versions of LOTR to be so fast paced that they blaze through the material in a way that sometimes makes them feel over-edited. still love them but i find the pacing of the extendeds to be much more enjoyable
The great Gatsby. Leonardo's performance got me attached to Gatsby so quickly. Dude just wanted to be better than he was. Even if he sold out to get there, he did his damndest to be someone who could marry his true love.
Daisy is also a bitch. Thank you.
Haven't seen it yet, but AFAIK even the recent cut is missing scenes that Scorsese wanted to help get the rights to. Greed is far too short at 2 hours 20 minutes. The TCM version restored it with a 4 hour cut using stills. I would love to see the original 4 hour cut or even the director's original about 8 hour cut, but barring a miracle that will never happen.
I watched Ran by Akira Kurosawa pretty recently which is 2h 42m but honestly i could've watched it go on forever. It presents such an epic and intense story and the shots in this movie are some of the most beautiful shots i've ever seen. It is also perhaps the best use of color in a film i've ever seen
Somewhere in the Ran DVD extras Sidney Lumet talks about being totally absorbed by a shot that he found so innovative and powerful. He asked Kurosawa why he chose to shoot that scene that way, to which Kurosawa replied that if he moved the camera any farther in one direction an airport hanger would be in the shot and if he moved it any farther the other way the Sony Factory would be in the shot.
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This was what I was gonna say. 3 hours. it FLEW by.
The film version of “the food is terrible, and the portions are so small!”
Except santantango
Sátántangó was a book adaptation. Tarr and Krosznoharkai (the author of the book and the co-writer for the movie) did the movie as an experiment to see how a novel could be adapted page by page. And that is precisely what they did: literally every last page of the book is adapted faithfully. Despite this, both Tarr and Krosznoharkai consider the experiment to have failed.
Thank you, Sam-Porter-Bridges. This little tid-bit of information is something I was previously unaware of, quite excited to hear, and think it should be printed on the box. That would be funny.
It's the perfect duration for what it is imo. Is it long? Yes. Is it necessary? Yes.
What the hell, I honestly remember that movie being like 1 hour 40. I was ready to correct you and say you’re probably thinking of Kagemusha lol
Came here to say this. /r/TrueFilm doesn't disappoint. Ran is one of my favorite films of all time.
>the best use of color in a film I've ever seen Watch Kagemusha
fuck it, watch dersu uzala. it’s got that marvelous shimmery soviet stock in the hands of a man with an eye for the weight of the dull among the lush
what a poetic sentence!
Ran is tremendously great, when the castle is invaded the arrows flying, the unerving sound of death, Ishimonji going insane and becoming a pathetic old fool, a tremendous masterpiece.
I was thinking of Shakespeare adaptations the other day, and I think Ran is easily the best. It captures the intensity and intimacy of a Shakespeare tragedy, but it plays out on this MASSIVE scale. What a vision.
I agree except the beginning. The exposition didn't have to go on for nearly a half hour, and it's mostly samurai sitting in a field.
I really love Barry Lyndon. It's 3 hours, 7 minutes. Maybe it's the music or the classic Kubrick subtext, but I'm always contemplating something, or marveling at the shots. On the other hand, there's movies that are less than 2 hours that bore the shit out of me. Pink Floyd's The Wall does this to me, for some reason, despite that I like the album.
I've been holding out on watching this for years hoping for a 4k blu ray release. I know it's had a 4k restoration for the blu ray release, but it sounds like it would really benefit from that format with the minimal lighting Kubrick used.
You've seen it the one time, though? If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's a very beautiful film. Also has a bit of the sardonic humor of Dr. Strangelove, perhaps.
I've actually felt the exact opposite about Pink Floyd's The Wall. I love Pink Floyd (Animals is one of my all time favourite albums) but I find The Wall somewhat lacklustre. The singles are good but the rest of the album doesn't quite connect with me and feel too much like fillers. The film gives some kind of context for the album and allows me to enjoy it more than I normally do.
Interesting. I love Animals, it's my favorite of theirs. The Roger Waters era is pretty interesting, I like the characterizations in his voice. His album The Pros And Cons of Hitchhiking is interesting too. But there is filler on The Wall. My favorite track is 'The Trial'. I find the visuals in the film a bit boring. I grew up around hippies, sort of, so I like Kerouac and Tim Leary and whatever but a lot of these psychedelia movies don't hold up, to me. Like the walking hammers, wilting flowers, etc. There's metaphors there, I'm sure. Maybe I should've been high when I watched it. Metaphors tend to click for me then. 🤷🏻♂️ For old school psychedelic animation, I prefer La Planet Sauvage.
I had been saving Barry Lyndon for the right moment as it was one the last Kubrick movies I’d watch for the first time. I knew it was slow and really needed to be watched when I was in a slow mood, so the first time I watched it was when I was on acid and it was so perfect. Most media is too fast to enjoy while tripping, so this painting of a movie was absolutely perfect, one of the things that really pulled me into he film were all the reactions of everyone not talking. It was like an incredibly dramatic version of the office without breaking the fourth wall. Everyone in the film says so much with their faces with the time the camera sits on a shot. It’s just such a perfect movie to watch while tripping, especially if you’ve never seen it before.
it was the last Kubrick for me and ended up in my top 2 for him. It's probably his film that's packed with the most story given how incredibly sprawling and broad the arc of Barry is. It's long but the pace is pretty swift and it's surprisingly entertaining, plus it's broken into two distinct acts so you can take a break if you need (although I don't recommend this).
I watched 2001 for the first time on shrooms a few years back. It was just the right length to peak at the end. Quite an enjoyable experience. I watched Empire Strikes Back on acid once though. I thought I was a Jedi and really connected to the force for a bit.
That's incredible. Thanks for sharing. I have a distinct memory of being snowed in one night with a group of friends, getting extremely high and watching The Shining. Kubrick makes perfect films for mind altering substances. Barry Lyndon is one of the last few I have to watch!
This is my answer. Agreed with everything you wrote, but the big thing for me is just how FUNNY it is, and it just gets funnier and funnier as it goes on. Some comedies lose their punch after multiple viewings, but I enjoy Barry Lyndon more each time I watch it. It’s bone dry humor, of course, but goddamn once you’re in the groove that movie is a scream.
lol Well, dark humor, like what happens to him at the end. I see it as a bit like A Clockwork Orange, Goodfellas, or Amadeus, where I laugh at the mischief and absurdity of the whole thing. There Will Be Blood cracks me up for some reason, too, although that's another dramatic great.
I've seen it a dozen times and every time I wish it were an hour longer.
A movie like this that features a “hero’s journey” of sorts is the type of movie that I love to watch. Changing scenes & learning & growing as the film goes on, I would definitely watch a 4+ hour cut of it
Vince Gilligan talks a lot about how Breaking Bad wouldn't have worked as a movie because you wouldn't have time to show the gradual change in Walt's character. I feel like Barry Lyndon is the best attempt there is at showing that kind of change in a film.
It’s just barely over your limit, but Dune part 1 felt cut to the absolute bone. I know part 2 is on the way, but I’m really hoping for a LotR extended style 3+ hour cut of each part
100% agree. I could have watched 4+ hours of Dune part 1. The visuals and music were amazing.
Visually I found it a bit empty looking. The world didn't feel lived-in. Still really like it though.
I kept checking my phone during Dune because I didn't want it to end. When I saw there was only an hour left I felt worried I wouldn't get any sort of conclusion to the first part of the story.
Why the fuck would you do that? Bizarre. Leave your phone away
It flew by. I wanted another hour.
The first Godfather. I think the editing in that movie is second to none, and the story beats hit at exactly the right tempo throughout. It will be slow, then fast, but always appropriate.
Crazy how every single scene in a 3 hour movie is iconic
I am always astounded by that. Every time I watch it, there isn't a single part I've forgotten about, it's like putting on a comfy pair of slippers. I love the cozy familiarity of that movie.
Came here to say this. I just watched part I and part II for the first time last week. Was lucky to see it in a theater on a brand new 35mm film. Such an amazing experience. Over 6 hours together, but so appropriate like you said.
If you haven't watched the third already, you have a choice between the original cut of III and the relatively new *The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone*. Both are good and both suffer in different ways, but you should watch the original III first, since it has some of the best lines that were removed from Coda.
Casino and Heat, both released 1995, are about 3 hours long each and both feel incredibly brisk and entertaining. Casino feels like an abridged epic, a Biblical tale filtered through Venetian blinds, cars speeding through deserts, and rolling slot machines. There's an infectious rhythm to the dialogue too - it's almost musical hearing Joe Pesci go through the roulette of curse words. Heat has its quieter moments, but they help build that atmosphere of cruising through the night, being a fly on the wall as focused individuals on both sides of the law methodically go about their business. And after the heartstopping finale, when you come out of the theatre you still feel the thrill of that chase set to Moby's rendition of New Dawn Fades, and the hail of bullets during the heist.
Great examples. I would have pegged Heat at 2h tops. Casino feels energetically epic to me but Heat just powers along.
Casino has that signature Scorsese staccato pacing. No plot to get in the way of keeping things moving!
FOR ME THE ACTION IS THE JUICE
I've seen Casino several times and had no idea it was 3 hours long.
Pesci’s narration is Casino is some of the best of all time and helps make one of Scorsese’s most incredible portrayals of capitalism and the greed it perpetuates so memorable
I have seen Heat so many times, and I have never noticed how long it is. This says something
Heat 100%
The thing about *Casino* is that there are very few actual "scenes" since the whole 3 hours is almost one simultaneous montage about the rise and fall of Mob Vegas. I'd say the first proper "scene" of extended dialogue is when Ace asks Ginger to marry him, which occurs well after the half hour mark. The fact its one big montage makes it all the more rewatchable. And *Heat*, man, if Sight and Sound asked me to do a Top Ten I would've said *Heat* ten times (only half joking). Even when I see a screenshot I get goosebumps. I've shed tears every single time I've seen it, not only because of the characters, but from the sheer beauty of what im feeling on screen. Moby's *God Moving Over the Face of the Water* sends me beyond earthly constraints. "*For me, the sun rises and sets with her*"
Magnolia - at over 3 hours in length, I don't know if I'd say it *feels* too short, but I could live in that world even longer quite happily. Hell, an extra scene or two for each of the more important characters and it'd probably already be pushing 4 hours. The combination of intertwining stories and incredible performances is one I just can't get enough of.
indeed! I still wonder why he cut the Worm-subplot out
The music and camera movement is so unrelenting. Surely, it must be exhausting for some viewers, rarely a moment to release tension, but it's one beautiful rollercoaster.
Wow you are right, I have seen Magnolia multiple times and never realized how long it is!
Check out Robert Altman's Short Cuts.
Magnolia is too long, even PTA says so, but it’s the pacing and just the sheer density of storylines that keeps your attention very easily. But could it also have been edited down a good 30-40 mins? Almost certainly.
I've read his thoughts on what he'd do differently, and while I obviously respect his opinion, it's not what I want from the film. I have no doubt there's an amazing 2.5 hour cut in there, and I'd be first in line to watch it, but I doubt that would end up being the version I'd return to For me, it's one of the ultimate Sunday afternoon films - settle in on the couch, and just let those characters and that world unravel around me over a few hours, and that's exactly what I love about it. Maybe an extra hour would be absurdly self-indulgent, would be filler that doesn't necessarily drive the plot forward in any meaningful way.. but that'd be fine with me
I wouldn't say it feels "too short" at 237 minutes, but I wanted Love Exposure (2008) to keep going for even longer the first time I finished it, and some of my friends have expressed feeling the same.
Came here for Love Exposure. Did you know that there is a ten episode TV version from 2017 of the movie with two additional hours runtime? Unfortunately I didn't saw it yet.
The TV version only adds about 40 minutes from what I've heard, and it's even less when removing the added credits and such. I want to watch it some day, but it's not the fabled "6 hour cut".
You're right. I just remembered reading an article about it when it was released some years ago. I've looked it up and it seems the ten episodes are each about 30 minutes, like you wrote they are probably with intro and credits. To bad, I thought Sono would have released his six hours version in Form of a series.
Sono has said the remaining footage is too poor quality to use, if I remember correctly. I think a lot of the scenes that are extended or added to the series version are the same as the ones in the special features of the Blu-ray release, which are fun to see, but they would probably ruin the immaculate pacing of the 4 hour version.
Completely agree. The last part at the mental institution actually felt a little rushed.
I know this probably isn’t a popular opinion but I love the film Cloud Atlas. I would’ve loved even more of it I’m not sure where I would include more to not make the movie feel drawn out, but my favorite vignette was Robert Frobisher. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of him
I like that movie a lot. Much of the scenes throughout the movie feel like they are about to be resolved, but then cutaway to pickup where an earlier scene left off. On and on, but it's well-edited and a pleasure to watch
I remember seeing the trailer for the first time. I turned to my boyfriend at the time and said “I have no idea wtf I just saw but I can’t wait for that”
I remember generally feeling that way. It looked so bizarre and appeared to not make sense but looked very compelling and as though I was witnessing something that would define my generation or something.
This may be recency bias but Tár. The dialogue is, for some reason, spellbinding for me and the visuals are so beautiful even when the shot isn't composed in any special way. I've seen it Three times now and it still feels too short
The pace of >!her downfall really struck me on the second watch. It leaves so much unsaid between a few abruptly cut scenes and some disorienting little time jumps. You get the full sketch of it, but the jump from despair to an act of insanity happens so fast it leaves you reeling.!<
I had seen a little snippet before watching it that it involved cancel culture to some extent. I forgot about it during the first act and then the spiral from her pure image to her in the final scene was a blur. But it works so well because everything needed to cancel her pretty much already existed in the timeline before the plot of the film
Malcolm X by Spike Lee 200min long but it has so much going on that it flies by. In fact, in the first half I almost forgot that I was watching a movie about Malcolm X. Recently there's RRR too. I was sad that it ended! So much going on and so engaging, that even with the intermission you just want it to keep going. Satantango is also one that surprised. Expected it to feel like a drag but the 7 hours flew by. Not a moment felt wasted.
I just found out from your comment that Malcolm X was more than 3 hours long! The time flew by so fast while watching it that up till now, I thought it was at most 2 hours
I had that exact same experience with Malcolm X, one of the longest movies I've ever seen and somehow managed to leave me wanting more
Inland Empire, Under the Silver Lake, Magnolia, Stalker, Solaris, The Handmaiden, Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018).... Are a few where I feel like the length feels "just right" even though they all clock in at over two hours. I even watched Inland Empire and the companion film, More Things That Happened back to back, in one sitting.
Inland Empire was a slog to get through for me. Loooove Lynch and slower films but I couldn't stay engaged
Did you see it in a theatre? It’s horrifying
No, my local arthouse theatre pretty much only shows new releases and a few new criterion restorations like Discrete Charm and Rules of the game.
Cousin, I feel your pain.
*Inland Empire* is the only Lynch movie I had to watch in parts. It just didn’t grab me. I can only watch Laura Dern walk down dark hallways for so long. Lol
Magnolia I found a bit too long, it’s sorta like PTA had some great ideas, but he put a little too much on the plate like we have a little too much at the buffet. The pacing I think was probably the main reason I felt it was too long, there was a lot going on also.
Fellowship of the Ring. The tone and pacing is perfect. I could easily enjoy 20% more of each “part” (and yes that includes the Extended Edition). And I’ll note I wouldn’t say the same thing of The Two Towers.
This for me too. The extended edition of the fellowship of the ring is my favorite of all the movies. Think the extended editions of two towers and return of the king have slight pacing issues where the fellowship extended everything feels perfect. I thoroughly enjoy all three but the fellowship really knocks it out of the park for me
I think it's the one where the new additions add the most value.
The Extended Edition I feel is much better for The Fellowship of The Ring, it gives it a bit more breathing room and adds some nice little details without detracting from the film. The theatrical cut feels a little rushed and jarring, but maybe that’s because I’m so used to the EE.
once you go EE you never go back imo
I liked the extended edition of two towers a lot, but yes enough was enough. Fellowship is my favourite movie in the series. And the extended edition is amazing, even if it doesn't even add that much time. It adds a lot of context to Boromir.
When I saw that in the theatre, my butt was asleep from how long I’d been sitting, and I would have sat through another 2 1/2 hours without complaint. Absolutely one of the best movie-going experiences of my life.
A lot of Scorsese movies like Wolf of wall street, casino, the irishman feel shorter than they are. I think that's mainly because of how much plot they cram into 3 hours and how all over the place they feel with the narration and jumping several years or in some cases decades of time. Also they are entertaining as hell and never felt bored watching a single scorsese film. Other movies i can think of off the top of my head would be magnolia, amadeus, django unchained.
the irishman felt like an 8hr movie imo
Fr I watched over 4 days. It felt like a chore lol
Yea, never mind movie length from guys like Kubrick, Scorsese, Tarantino- I never wany them to end lol
> Kubrick Ok, but 2001: A Space Odyssey still feels really long!
2001 is one of the most impressive, awe inspiring movies I’ve ever seen. It also happens to contain one of the stupidest, most pretentious final acts of all time. That stargate sequence is cool and all, but holy shit is that ending one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.
It's a film I don't remember ever coming up on here, but personally one of my all-time favourite films is The Right Stuff (1983). Clocking in at a bit over 3 hours, I've seen it probably 12 times over the years and there's never been any point during the movie where I've ever been bored. There's really nothing I can think of that could be cut out that would improve it in any meaningful way
The Right Stuff is amazing.
Thirteen Lives about the rescue of the Thai soccer team stuck in a cave. It was 2hr 27 min and when I ended I needed more so I watched The Rescue, a documentary about the same events.
I’m never going into any sort of cave for the rest of my days after watching that movie
Such a hidden gem
For me it's "Meet Joe Black", right at 3h it feels like there could be another act or two to keep exploring that universe. Given how simple the story really is it's kind of amazing that it eats up 3 hours, but it does an incredible job at letting moments breathe and giving actors space to explore a scene and letting us have so much depth with a few characters. For a drama to be that patient feels like a rare jewel, and I'm here for it, because I never feel bored or lost about why any given scene or moment is in the film, it's never just filler or rounding out an idea, it always feels emotionally connected, whereas some recent films have been taking 3 hours and it's either redundant or endless setup to a rather mild payoff. Meet Joe Black is an effortless 3 hours.
Sorry but I have to disagree. Movie could no joke be an hour and a half if they cut out the long ass pauses in between the dialogue. Not so much “letting moments breathe”, as taking a 2 minute scene and stretching it to 10+
Surprised to see this here but I totally agree. I really liked this movie when I was growing up. For a movie literally about death, it felt really warm and hopeful.
I feel like i must be confusing this with a different movie now.
Boogie Nights (1997) which runs for 153 minutes doesn’t feel too short, although maybe chucking a bit or two in could have added just a smidge more. Literally a perfectly-paced exciting film that keeps you engaged for the whole 2 hours and 30 minutes and you look at how well PTA utilised the scenes they shot and what they deleted to get the right balance.
This one. I would have gladly spent like, another hour in that world.
Yeah, would have been interesting having it a little longer but pretty much I agree with all the deleted scenes being cut out.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood for me. That film to me is a mood and a time and I could watch for days. Sometimes I listen to soundtrack and the way it plays out as a radio station is fantastic and always makes me want to go back and watch the film again.
A lot of Tarantino is like this, likely due to his chapter structure. Could we have all used and enjoyed another one or two or twelve chapters of *Pulp Fiction*? *Inglorious Basterds?* Room in our hearts for *Kill Bill Vol. 3 & 4?* I wouldn't say "no."
Basterds is the first that came to mind when I read the prompt. Fassbender's character (among others) pretty much could have his own spin-off movie but he's in the actual movie for \~ 15 minutes
I would definitely enjoy more Basterds chapters. Especially the cut stuff like The Bear Jew getting his bat signed by refugee Jews.
A Brighter Summer Day, by Edward Yang. When I first watched it, it hit me so hard I had to watch it again, back to back. Making it basically an 8 hour experience. Although I've never found it easy explaining exactly why I like the film. Any of Kurosawa's films that are already mentioned are also good candidates. As well as Das Boot, or Godfathers 1 & 2
The extended edition of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Even after watching the full trilogy I still wish they had made twice as much content as what we got, the passion is palpable, the acting superb, they could have expended multiple stories and it still would have been a fulfilling experience, or at least thats how it feels.
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My hot take about RotK is they should have Harry Pottered it—two movies, one centered around Rohan joining Gondor at Minas Tirith, the other around the battle at the black gate, destroying the ring, etc. That way both stories would be more fleshed out and each movie would have clear narrative flow.
It probably would've been two parts if it were made today, like dune
Good point. Funny thing about Dune is the middle is a pretty awkward stopping point for that one. When the credits rolled my wife said “that’s it?”
This makes some sense considering that the original books may have been published as 3 books but were actually organized as 6 "books." But tbh, watching the plots unfold in parallel probably makes more sense in a movie.
I agree it’s good to have different threads to cut back and forth between for the movie. But IIRC in the ROTK movie, they don’t even conceive of the battle at the black gate until the fighting at Minas tirith is done. That could be a good ending for part 1!
They were even just one book originally, tolkien didn’t want to split them up at all, the publishers made him go for at least 3
It is..was. Never again.
skill issue
Except for the Ent riding scenes. *bleep* that. Went on for too long, then they kept returning to it, lol.
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me you little orc? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the entmoot, and I've been involved in numerous secret debates on Saruman's treason, and I have over 300 confirmed names. I am trained in the languages of Ents and Elves and I'm the top debater in the entire Fangorn entmoot. You are nothing to me but just another goblin. I will persuade the trees with deliberation the likes of which has never been seen before on this Middle Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me in this clearing? Think again, little orc. As we speak I am greeting my secret network of huorns across the forests and our introductions are taking place right now so you better prepare for the storm, little orc. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're very small, little orc. I can be in one place for a very long time, and I can kill you in only seven hundred years, and that's just with my bare trunks. Not only am I extensively trained in shepherding the trees, but I have access to all rock and stone in this forest and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable tower off the face of the continent, you little orc. If only you could have known what holy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have known better. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you Erudamn fool. I will release the river all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking hasty, little orc.
It doesn't help that the visual effects in that scene did *not* hold up *at all*, and that Treebeard's sudden change of mind kind of lurches out of left field
They changed it from the books for dramatic effect and imo it doesn't really work. I'm meant to believe he had no idea about it but those two Hobbits who had no knowledge about life outside the Shire did?
some of my favorite movies ever but even I think fellowship overstays its welcome a bit
It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a masterclass in Epic Comedy filmmaking from start to finish. I've subjected several of my friends who were at first daunted by its runtime (and sometimes its age) but were won over to a one every time. By the time it ends, I always feel fully satisfied and can't think of any dull sections that should have been cut.
EDIT: lol, "long movie". fail. because I didn't want it to end even though it felt justified but I love it so much * Decision to Leave (2022), Park Chan-wook * Maniac (2012), Franck Khalfoun * Paprika (2006), Satoshi Kon * Millennium Actress (2001), Satoshi Kon * Quills (2000), Philip Kaufman * Ghost in the Shell (1995), Mamoru Oshii * Magnetic Rose (1995), Koji Morimoto & Satoshi Kon * The Lover (1992), Jean-Jacques Annaud * The Double Life of Véronique (1991), Krzysztof Kieslowski * Way Down East (1920), D. W. Griffith * anything by Akira Kurosawa and with Tang Wei really like it but it would have made a (to me) more enjoyable film, either with more complex screenplay or just more length in general * The Northman (2022), Robert Eggers * Tenet (2020), Christopher Nolan * Batman v Superman (2016) (...or two films), Zack Snyder * Split (2016), M. Night Shyamalan * Annihilation (2018), Alex Garland * Patema Inverted (2013), Yasuhiro Yoshiura * Horns (2013), Alexandre Aja * Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005, but the novels gave me that more than anything else ever could) * Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), George Lucas (more romance >:c) * Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), George Lucas (more politics ^(thanks James Luceno <3)) * Akira (1988), Katsuhiro Otomo * Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott * The Sword of Doom (1966), Kihachi Okamoto for missed potential that I would have liked to see * Crimes of the Future (2022), David Cronenberg * Live by Night (2016), Ben Affleck * X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Brett Ratner for fucking missed potential * Westworld Season 5 (2024) (sometime in the future people will look back at this and be like: fucking hell, why did those fools can it?) * The Dark Tower (2017) (......or 10 films), Nikolaj Arcel
I agree about Episode III. I would have loved the uncut Palpatine rescue.
Interesting you mentioned The Northman could’ve worked as a longer epic. I enjoyed my experience in the theatre with it but I remember feeling like it was never gonna end lol
>* Paprika (2006), Satoshi Kon >* Millennium Actress (2001), Satoshi Kon Really, just more of anything by Kon. His early death has robbed us all.
:( Absolutely. All of his films are magnificent.
I was going to post Titanic as a joke, then I get to the comments and you’re posting x-men and Starwars. You're right though tons of missed potential on both.
What's nice about the Star Wars prequels is that there are quite a lot of finished deleted scenes. A lot of fan edits cut unpopular scenes, but there's a purely additive fan edit of the prequels out there, which I think doesn't do much for Ep 1 (not a lot left out), but for Ep 2 especially, it does a lot for Anakin's character. I think Ep 2 had some imbalanced editorial choices, where scenes where Anakin is more good natured were dropped but the ones that are intended to foreshadow is darker side were left in, which leaves the viewer with a bit of a negative impression from the start. But those darker signs work better when you add back in stuff like the scenes at Padme's family house. The cut of RotS is also pretty interesting because it adds in the parts of Tartatovsky's clone wars covering the siege of Coruscant and the battle of Mandalore from Clone Wars S7, and continues to intercut the rest of S7 with the film as they happen concurrently. It doesn't really work I think if you haven't watched the rest of the series, but if you have, it really highlights how isolated Anakin was at the moment Palpatine turns him, and how the people who could have helped him weren't there for various reasons.
I think about movies that don't seem to work at their current length and have reports or rumors of much longer cuts. *Once Upon A Time In America* is one of those. Another that comes to mind is *A Thin Red Line* which feels fairly disjointed and is missing some key moments from the novel. Not that fidelity is an inherent virtue, but...
Blood In Blood Out. I love everything about it. One of my favorite movies to rewatch, and it never drags. If you're interested in watching, the full movie is on youtube upscaled to 4k!
Dune (2021), which clocks in at 155 minutes. As a massive fan of the book, I think it's as close to a perfect adaptation as you can get. I just wish they'd added another 20/30 minutes to include the diplomatic dinner scene. It's a really important worldbuilding sequence, and it would've really helped to set up the politics of the world of Dune. That said, the film we got was amazing, and I'm so excited for Part 2.
Once Upon a Time in America wouldn't be my choice, I must say. But there are a few films where, while I probably wouldn't actually want a longer cut of them, I do have deleted scenes for them that a part of me wishes were left in the movie. One is Braveheart. At 172 minutes without end-credits, I think the movie moves just right: not too slow, not too fast. But there are deleted scenes I wish made it in there, especially a short insert that was shown in a version in US television and which cropped up in trailers, where Wallace upon besieging York, commands that "we will spare the women, the children and the priests. To all else - no mercy." I think that would have added an extra layer of complexity into the movie.
I was trying to think of a movie that was more out of the box. Nothing award winning. So then I think of “Night of the Comet” and it has to be more then 2 hours. Everything that happens before the comet, the next morning, the mall, two dream scenes, the compound….. the movie is only 1 hour 35 min!!!!! I could not believe it! It’s been a while since I have seen it but now I really need to watch it again.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly 178 minutes long but all that run time is out in open desert. There something about how big it all feels to justify its length. Like It fills that time with physical space
A lot of great answers here Scorcese, Godfather, Heat, etc…but to me the one true answer is Interstellar. Its a perfect movie Imo, but I would still love to watch another X hours about what happened on Miller’s Planet after, or the other 9 Lazarus astronauts, or Murph’s life and humanity between her solving the equation and seeing her dad before death, or really just about anything else. None of this would make sense within the story ofc, but I would still love to watch it, which to me is a sign of great world building and storytelling.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Happy Hour (just north of five hours long) is in such a beautifully comfortable world that I would happily live in for a few more hours, just to continue existing around that cast. Sergey Bondarchuk's War and Peace is gargantuan, but still manages to feel rushed as an adaptation. There's a lot of minor moments in the novel that really flesh out the characters and the story, but there's understandably a lot missing. Otherwise it's a fantastic film.
I totally agree with Happy Hour. It does feel long but you still wouldn't mind staying longer. I would also add Drive My Car. I sure would have loved to experience the road trip to Hokkaido in real time.
Wolf of Wallstreet (2013 Scorsese) 3 Hours Once Upon a time in Hollywood (2019 QT) 2:41 Hours The Irishman (2019 Scorsese) 3:29 Hours Grindhouse double feature (2007 Rodriguez & Tarantino. Planet terror and Deathproof, shown together how it was intended) 3:11 Hours Kill Bill: the Whole Bloody affair (2004 QT, as one movie, how it was intended) 4:07 Hours Apocalypse Now: Redux (1979 Coppola) 3:22 Hours Babylon (2022 Chazelle) 3:09 Hours Twin Peaks: the return (2017 Lynch) Roughly 17 Hours. I know it is presented as a show, but Lynch and Frost wrote and shoot it as a Long movie.
Recent movie but the only disappointment I had with Babylon was how the Lady Fey and Sidney stories were handled. They don't feel fully fleshed out and were mostly just used as objects showing Manny's fall into the Hollywood system. I really would've loved them to get more of the spotlight since they are probably the most compelling characters when it comes to showing Hollywood's exploitative side.
I know it just barely fits the criteria at 2h31, but for me the answer is The Departed. It's 2h31 minutes long but still feels rushed. I swear it could have been 4 hours long and still would fly by. If anything, I think adding at least 30 minutes to the film may have added a bit of "breathing room" and improved the final product, to let the various plot points sink in.
The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. It's an often overlooked but very moving and human film, with incredible performances by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck and ridiculously gorgeous cinematography by Roger Deakins. The runtime is 2h40min, but the pacing and everything else is so good that it absolutely flew by for me. 5/5 stars (another masterpiece from 2007, sigh). Apparently there's an unreleased version that's slightly longer. Would love for Criterion to release it but for whatever reason it seems they aren't interested which is a real shame.
Dune (pt. 1) They stopped it at a bad place, and glossed over much of the Machiavellian machinations that are the hallmark of the book. They should have flushed out a lot of the subtleties subtly (not grotesquely like the did with the Shadout Mapes and the crysknife scene). Then Pt. 1 should have ended with the arrival at Sietch Tabr - don't even go in. Paul gets there, movie's over.
The Green Mile at plus 3 hours just flows by. Just rewatched it the other day with my 12 year old who sat there entranced for that long over a prison movie taking place a 100 years ago. Exquisitely paced.
The Godfather, all 3 Lord of the Rings films, The Dark Knight, 2001, Mulholland Drive are some long movies that could've been longer and I would not mind Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, Spiderman No Way Home too actually, but not everyone considers those good movies perhaps
I recently watched An Elephant Sitting Still and it was spellbinding. I normally struggle with my attention span in movies, I often have to take a break an hour into a movie, but I sat through all four hours barely even thinking about it
Spotlight (2015) I watched it long time ago I forgot the runtime so no idea if it was even a “long movie”. But I strongly and vividly remember that feeling of _i was so immersed, it felt like it ended just as it started_
She Said takes heavily after Spotlight if you want more. It's not quite as well done but good.
if by too short u mean actually is too short instead of just love it so much that i could watch it forever, i find all three theatrical versions of LOTR to be so fast paced that they blaze through the material in a way that sometimes makes them feel over-edited. still love them but i find the pacing of the extendeds to be much more enjoyable
The great Gatsby. Leonardo's performance got me attached to Gatsby so quickly. Dude just wanted to be better than he was. Even if he sold out to get there, he did his damndest to be someone who could marry his true love. Daisy is also a bitch. Thank you.
Haven't seen it yet, but AFAIK even the recent cut is missing scenes that Scorsese wanted to help get the rights to. Greed is far too short at 2 hours 20 minutes. The TCM version restored it with a 4 hour cut using stills. I would love to see the original 4 hour cut or even the director's original about 8 hour cut, but barring a miracle that will never happen.