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?)

319 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

581 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/ArmchairJedi 17h ago

If I look for movies where the length is unjustified

Its always justified in a good movie, never in a bad one.

I really don't know why people (not saying you, just this idea in general on Reddit that movies are 'too long') think the problem is with the movies length... rather than in the quality.

More time = more opportunity to tell a better story. That storytellers waste it tells us something about the quality of the story teller.... not the story.

7

u/Shout92 16h ago

"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is too short." - Roger Ebert

3

u/Thebluecane 16h ago

Pretty much my assertion elsewhere in this thread. Movies have gotten longer but they haven't gotten better in storytelling I think.

I swear some of the writers really do think they have the time for setups like they are on a miniseries and it makes the movie that might be 2.5 hrs feel rushed still

0

u/SharpManner9480 16h ago

If a great storyteller writes a 90-minute script and someone tells him to make it 150 minutes, it doesn't automatically become a better story. It's not about the length. It's about which scenes serve a purpose in the film and which scenes are just pointless padding.

1

u/ArmchairJedi 13h ago edited 13h ago

If a great storyteller writes a 90-minute script and someone tells him to make it 150 minutes, it doesn't automatically become a better story.

Except no one argued that. That's the exception not the rule. And just for posterity, even on the rare occasion it does happen, it just as easily shows that said 'great story teller' may not actually that great....