While movie runtimes tend to be getting longer, Thor: Love and Thunder's runtime has been revealed to be a lean 115 minutes. It's the shortest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in four years, which is surprisingly refreshing to hear. However, it's impossible to turn away from three-hour epics, and those movies build an atmosphere and narrative that viewers can fully immerse themselves in.
Redditors have been quick to voice their opinions about the very best movies that are three hours or longer, and it's an interesting mix of classics and deep cuts. Between the longest gangster movie ever, two devastating Vietnam war dramas, and a rare Martin Scorsese comedy, these movies do the most with their runtimes.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Deer Hunter is three hours and three minutes long, and if anyone thought the wedding scene in The Godfather was long, the opening of the 1978 movie is a whole other beast. The opening sequence, which takes place during a wedding, lasts for a whole hour, there's little plot development going on, and it's literally the process of a traditional Slavic-American wedding.
MadnessElixir thinks it's still one of the best movies over three hours. The Redditor especially notes, "Russian roulette scenes were hypnotizing in the most disturbing way. I loved it." A few scenes could easily have been cut to make The Deer Hunter more digestible, but as the movie continues, it turns into an emotional, captivating, and exhausting experience.
Magnolia (1999)
The Paul Thomas Anderson-directed Magnolia is three hours and eight minutes long, as it tells a multi-stranded narrative about several troubled characters whose paths cleverly intertwine. Trikyballs explains, "Feels like it hits its climax like halfway through and you think it's nearing its end but it just keeps on unraveling and I can't look away."
However, many would agree that a couple of minutes could have been shaved off the film, including a scene where the characters randomly sing "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann. According to Indiewire, even Anderson himself said that if he was to re-edit the film, it would be around 20 minutes shorter. But the filmmaker was already strict with himself, as one main character was entirely scrapped from the movie.
Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)
Apocalypse Now had a horribly difficult production, and the lengthy time on location in Vietnam led to a lot of footage left on the cutting room floor. However, in 2001, writer-director Francis Ford Coppola pieced it all back together for Apocalypse Now Redux, which sits at a massive 202 minutes with 48 minutes of additional footage. DuffleCoat thinks Redux is the ultimate version of the Vietnam War film.
The Redditor notes, "When I first saw it I thought it was too long compared to the original, and then I rewatched the original and missed the extra material in Redux." The rerelease has some plodding scenes that ultimately lead nowhere, such as the overly long sequence with the French colonists in the rubber plantation. And even Coppola himself notes in the making-of documentary, Hearts of Darkness, that he thought the scenes were pointless. However, it's interesting to see Coppola's vision completely uncompromised, even if it is a little too long.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Barry Lyndon is the least talked about movie of Stanley Kubrick's untouchable filmography, as it isn't as technically advanced as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it isn't as controversial as A Clockwork Orange. However, it is one of the most aesthetically beautiful movies Kubrick has ever made, and it's almost like watching a portrait in motion.
Abdul_Exhaust explains, "The film is simply spectacular. I'm surprised how much I want to re-watch it. Kubrick shows his mastery on this one." The 187-minute movie follows an Irishman who marries into a wealthy family, and while not much happens, it's still a masterclass in cinematography.
The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street isn't the first comedy directed by gangster movie visionary Martin Scorsese, even if many people think it is. One of the filmmaker's most overlooked movies is After Hours, a dark comedy released in 1985. After Hours is a lean 93 minutes, and Scorsese said himself on the DVD commentary (which can be found on YouTube,) that he learned, after screening a two-hour and 40-minute cut of the film, comedies have to be short.
However, Scorsese must have forgotten that, as he directed The Wolf of Wall Street, a three-hour comedy, almost 30 years later. But this user puts it best, explaining, "It's not an epic action/adventure, but it doesn't drag for a second. The ludes/phone call scene had me dying." The film could have been much longer, as the original director's cut of Wolf of Wall Street was four hours.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
SupremeDalek925 clearly doesn't agree that comedies have to be short in order to be good, as they bring up the classic 1963 movie. It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is as long as its title and the longest comedy movie of all time, as it clocks in at three hours and 12 minutes.
The Redditor notes, "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is over 3 hours and laugh out loud funny throughout most of the runtime." The movie has a Rat Race-like premise, where every character is racing across America to find a vast sum of money. And, amazingly, it manages to keep up its fast pacing and frenetic energy for the entire three hours.
King Kong (2005)
On the face of it, it hardly seems as if King Kong should be such a long movie. However, Peter Jackson's remake is 188 minutes long. It's hardly surprising, as Jackson's movies tend to be three hours minimum, with the director's cut of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King even reaching four hours.
The filmmaker added several subplots to the 90-year-old story, and that's why Mrnicegy26 thinks the film is so great. The Redditor notes, "I still enjoyed spending all that extra time with those characters and that world, and, for me, it made the story beats impact harder than it may have in a smaller runtime."
Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)
Blue Is the Warmest Colour comes in at exactly three hours, and it spends that time being one of the most unapologetically realistic depictions of a relationship breakdown. Bravesgeek thinks it uses its 180 minutes better than most other movies, noting, "I was really invested in that relationship by the end of the movie."
It's a tough watch, but it's an essential breakup movie, features two spellbinding performances, and is one of the best LGBTQ+ movies of the past 10 years. The film deservedly won the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
Sergio Leone almost directed The Godfather, as Paramount offered the Italian filmmaker the job before Francis Ford Coppola. However, the spaghetti western director turned down the offer because he wanted to make his very own gangster epic. And the result, Once Upon a Time in America, was exactly that. Spacednlost notes, "There are many edits for this, but the original is over four hours and entirely worth it."
Once Upon a Time in America could very easily be broken up into two movies, as it clocks in at four hours and 11 minutes, especially as there's an intermission at the perfect point midway through the film. But where most movies at such huge lengths could easily have cut out a few minutes, every scene in the 1984 movie is imperative, which is why the shorter theatrical cut of the movie bombed at the box office.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Movie studios try to keep the final cuts of movies as short as possible because that will almost always lead to higher box office grosses. But Marvel Studios didn't have to remotely worry about Avengers: Endgame's length. The movie could have been five hours long and it would still have grossed billions of dollars worldwide.
AgentUpright backs up this claim, positing, "I would actually not have minded it having a little more breathing room for some of the dramatic beats." The final length of the movie is 182 minutes, and not a single second is wasted, as it succinctly wraps up seemingly dozens of different story arcs.