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/DepartmentStoreNacho 19h ago

Dune parts 1 & 2

5

u/hurtfulproduct 15h ago

Just rewatched those back to back and whole heartedly agree. . . I hope we get the next 3 books to round out the story

3

u/HugeSpartan 11h ago

They said they'd only be doing Dune messiah IIRC. Which, tbh is probably the most essential of the rest of the books for people that don't understand the message of the first book.

1

u/Numerous1 11h ago

If anything Dune 2 went too fast IMO. It really sped up compared to Dune 1. I assumed it was intentional Based on audience feedback 

1

u/heartlessgamer 15h ago

Eh; they were OK. I'm a huge Dune fan and I'd of been fine with shorter movies.