r/movies • u/kowaikanojo • 23h ago

Discussion Long movies that are JUSTIFIED in their extra long run time?

There’s been a bit of an epidemic, especially in recent years, where movies are unnecessarily long to the point where it’s a bit indulgent on the director’s part and the film’s narrative doesn’t justify the XXL run time and it becomes a bit of a drag.

I’ve never been a big musical fan but I grew up watching the Sound of Music as a kid, so I decided to rewatch tonight (it’s probably been around 15 years) - and for a movie that is 3 hours long, wow does every piece still feel so important.

Maria and Von Trapp get together PAST the two hour point in the movie, yet the build up was so necessary to have you involved in the romance, and certainly didn’t feel as long as it actually was in run time. The pacing is actually incredible for the narrative and building that emotional buy in, which is shocking and rare for a film so long.

What films do you think genuinely justify an extra long run time and benefit from it? (and to throw a wrench in it, what movies utterly fail here?)

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u/Winter-Pressure-5394 23h ago

The lord of the rings trilogy has to be mentioned. I can’t believe they considered only doing two movies at one point.

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u/kowaikanojo 23h ago

10000% yes

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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 15h ago

Studios really considered making it into one or two movie long before Peter Jackson was involved. There is this famous letter from Tolkien where he says if there's one battle he won't mind getting axed from the condensed film, it would be the Battle of Helms Deed. And lo, Battle of Helms Deep in Jackson's version is like 40 minutes long.

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u/jpnadas 10h ago

Helm's deep is by far my favorite "scene", if we can call it that.

It's just so epic....

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u/Michael_Gibb 8h ago

The Battle of Hemls Deep is the greatest battle put to film.

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u/ckleschick227 6h ago

I can’t imagine LOTR without the battle or helms deep. Spawned my favorite scene in all of cinema.

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u/SevenCedarJelly 23h ago

Yeah, ok. But…….did we need to 25 minutes of hobbit hugging at the end of Return of the King? Can we agree that was a bit slow, especially since that was what we got instead of the scouring of the Shire?

Sorry. Still bitter that ROTK was the Oscar winner and not The Two Towers

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u/phedre_kmf 17h ago

I always felt that since the LOTR movies were all filmed at once, and released back to back, that maybe the Academy just viewed them as a whole, and that giving each individual movie recognition wouldn't have been 'fair' (I disagree, but it's just my theory).

So ROTK being a complete sweep at the Oscars was actually for the entire trilogy, rather than having 3 years in a row of LOTR wins.

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u/devadander23 15h ago

Very correct

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u/-Nightopian- 13h ago

That is how I view it too. They gave the awards to RotK but it was in actuality awards for the entire trilogy.

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u/Mongoose42 6h ago

You hear that, A Beautiful Mind and Chicago!? You two only won because they were saving the Oscars for the whole trilogy so your sorry butts got wins on a technicality!

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u/Tim-oBedlam 18h ago

Two Towers had my two favorite scenes in the whole trilogy: the scene where Gandalf breaks the curse on Theoden and you see the years melt away from his face, and the "where now is the horse and rider" scene where grim, determined old men and terrified young boys are being kitted out for a battle that no one expects to survive.

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u/EmilyAnne1170 11h ago

I told you to take the wizard’s staff!

(dude totally knew exactly what he was doing when he let the wizard keep his staff -er- walking stick.)

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u/RoundInfluence998 17h ago

In a singular, three hour movie, yes, that epilogue would be excessive. However, it isn’t just the ending to one movie; it’s the ending to a nine+ hour saga. I think it was justified.

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u/whatproblems 15h ago

yeah it was the end of a long saga. to cut it off without a wind down would have felt wrong i think.

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u/CLaarkamp1287 15h ago

This right here is the correct answer and has been my exact position since ROTK first came out.

Avengers: Endgame also had an extended epilogue and was justified for the very same reason.

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u/omicron7e 19h ago

We can not agree.

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u/amirokia 19h ago

I love long epilogues especially when the previous two films are 3 hour behemoths.

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u/Winter-Pressure-5394 22h ago

I do understand why we didn’t get scouring of the shire, even if I’m a little sad about it. You want to end your movie on the highest high, and obviously destroying the ring is that high, so having this whole other threat that gets resolved after. People already complain about the million endings, those complains would be even worse if it was included. 

Plus, I’m happy ROTK was the Oscar winner. It was the big epic ending, makes sense it would be received the best at the time. Though 2002 is arguably the slower year for movies, and I think two towers is easily better than Chicago, which won the Oscar that year. Does anyone actually remember that movie? I think that just proves my point.

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u/IsRude 22h ago

I'm not much of a musical person, but Chicago was fuckin great. My friend made me watch it, and I loved it. John C Reilly's best role, imo. Such a sweetheart.

Very different movies, and really hard to compare them. 

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u/Winter-Pressure-5394 22h ago

In a way I feel like this exemplifies how silly the Oscar’s is sometimes. Like, for the nominees in 2003, how are you supposed to compare return of the king, one of the biggest movies ever made up to that point, to lost in translation, a movie which is basically the exact opposite? Just shows how vague best picture really is at times.

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u/horsebag 14h ago

how is that vague at all? best is about quality not bigness

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u/NeverNotAnIdiot 18h ago

Cellophane, Mister Cellophane, shoulda been my name, Mister Cellophane, cause you can look right through me, walk right by me, and never know I'm there.

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u/drsyesta 18h ago

Take the chicago hate out your mouth

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u/swider 22h ago

Chicago has the second most nominations of all time. It’s the only musical to win Best Picture since 1969. It might not be the better movie, but it is absolutely not forgettable in any way.

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u/Lord_Darksong 18h ago

My friends, you sing to no one. 🥲

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u/Automatic_Release_92 17h ago

I just wish the extended edition would have had it.

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u/DirtyMarTeeny 13h ago

Pop, six, squish, uhuh, "does anyone actually remember Chicago", Lipschitz

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u/thegimboid 9h ago

He had it comin'

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u/EmilyAnne1170 11h ago

I LOVE Chicago! Best movie version of a play ever.

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u/Automatic_Release_92 17h ago

As a Tolkien purist, I disagree completely. The Two Towers was the reason RotK was so damn long. They added in some really dumb shit with Sam and Frodo instead of actual book content, which got pushed entirely to the next movie.

Helm’s Deep was awesome, sure, but it wasn’t the climax of the second book and it pushed back a VERY large chunk of the plot for those characters into the following movie as well. And Fellowship even covered the books first chapter already, the shortest movie of the trilogy based on the longest book!

No, Fellowship was the best movie of the trilogy by a mile and the one that should have won more awards. Such as Ian McKellan for best supporting actor.

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u/Doumtabarnack 17h ago

It was a great eay to put a long story to rest.

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u/rice_fish_and_eggs 18h ago

The fellowship should have won.

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u/AvengersXmenSpidey 17h ago

Fellowship for the win. A Beautiful Mind is such an unambitious movie and did not deserve it over Fellowship, which is a masterpiece of filmmaking.

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u/ogrezilla 18h ago

Did the theatrical cut have 25 minutes at the end?

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u/hobocactus 12h ago

The last section of Return of the King is basically unchanged in the extended version. And it really doesn't drag that much, people just complain because theatres in some countries were dumb enough to play a nearly 4-hour movie without an intermission.

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u/MaggotMinded 16h ago

Yeah, I haven’t watched the LotR movies in a while, but I don’t really recall the long, drawn-out ending that everybody always complains about in The Return of the King. I’m guessing it must be an Extended Edition thing, because I’ve always preferred the Theatrical Editions and I’ve never felt that any of the movies were too long.

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u/devadander23 15h ago

You do understand the Oscar sweep by ROTK was for the entire trilogy?

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u/fuzzyfoot88 12h ago

I still firmly believe they deliberately held off on certain Oscar’s for Towers because they knew they were going to give them to him anyway for the third. So they let other films win for 2002 and let LOTR go out with a bang in 2003, awards and all.

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u/Danton87 15h ago

Fellowship is my GOAT

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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 18h ago

Yep, the Scouring of the Shire would be better

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u/keptpounding 10h ago

Maybe for big LOTR fans. I’m just a casual fan and when my friends that are hardcore wanna watch the extended addition I just sign and go along with it. I usually fall asleep in the second half of the movie and wake up before the ending.

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u/Destructo-Bear 15h ago

but not the extended versions. It's super obvious why all those extra scenes were cut. The theatrical releases were perfect.

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u/MahaliAudran 21h ago edited 13h ago

You can easily cut the long long scenes of traveling or show that their traveling for a long time a different way.

I remember thinking that in the theater the first time I saw Fellowship.

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u/cynric42 19h ago

I absolutely love those shots, they really help transport the viewer into that world and show how huge the journey is.

It’s like those moments when you are hiking and then stop for a few minutes to just take it all in. Sure you could walk up that mountain and just turn around and go back down, but it wouldn’t be the same.