Compared to the 70s, 90s, and even the 2000s, there went many movies in the 80s that surpassed the three-hour mark. However, of the seven major three-hour-plus films that were released in the decade, they were all high quality.
Most of the movies are biopics about real-life people, and they're fascinating because they tell stories that audiences never knew about these historical figures. And there are others that tell full parts of history that English-speaking audiences wouldn't know anything about. These movies might be long, but with each and every one of them, viewers will learn something new, as well as being entertained.
Reds (1981) - 7.3 (195 Minutes)
Reds is one of Warren Beatty's best movies according to Rotten Tomatoes. However, it isn't simply a vehicle for Beatty, as there's a whole all-star ensemble cast that includes Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson.
Like many three-hour movies, Reds is a biopic about a real-life figure, and in this case, that figure is John Reed, an American journalist who chronicled the Russian Communist movement as an outsider. The movie follows Reed as he attempts to adopt those communist philosophies in the United States.
The Last Emperor (1987) - 7.7 (218 Minutes)
Movie studios are notorious for changing the final cut of the movie and taking the director's vision away from them. One of the most recent examples of that is with Zack Snyder and The Justice League. The Last Emperor is another example of that, as the original theatrical release of the movie was 160 minutes, almost a full hour shorter than the final cut.
However, it has since been restored in all its glory, and it's the first of many epic movies from the 80s to span decades. The Last Emperor follows the life of the final Emperor of China, Puyi, from taking the throne at a young age to his imprisonment. The movie also stars the late, great Peter O'Toole, who is no stranger to epics. The actor played the titular character in the 3.5 hour Lawrence of Arabia, one of the greatest British movies.
The Right Stuff (1983) - 7.8 - (193 Minutes)
The Right Stuff uses its long runtime to its advantage, as it covers so much ground (and space) in its three hours and 13 minutes. The movie takes place over the course of 15 years, and in that time, it covers the test pilots who worked on the research and manufacturing of spacecraft, and then the Mercury Seven, the very first astronauts in history.
As the film does a great job of explaining and depicting the science behind spacecraft as well as dramatizing the events in such an enthralling way, The Right Stuff is one of the best movies with the longest runtimes. Not only that but it's one of the few biopics that sticks as close to historical accuracy as possible, as it doesn't shy away from the Mercury Program's failures either.
Gandhi (1982) - 8.0 (191 Minutes)
Movies that are over three hours long aren't often huge box office draws. General audiences are put off by long runtimes and the length means that the film can't be screened as often as other movies during the day, and fewer screenings means less profit. However, despite being three hours and 11 minutes, Gandhi made over $127 million and it was the highest-grossing three-hour movie of the 1980s.
There was a good reason as to why, as the epic spans most of Mahatma Gandhi's life going from one impressive feat to the next. The film is intelligent, inspiring, chock-full of life lessons, and Ben Kingsley's performance as the political ethicist is nothing short of breathtaking.
Kagemusha (1980) - 8.0 (180 Minutes)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa, one of the most important visionaries in cinema, Kagemusha is a Japanese epic on every level. It was a late-career masterpiece for the director, as it came 26 years after the crown jewel in his filmography, Seven Samurai, and 30 years after his big break, Rashomon. But that doesn't mean Kagemusha should be overlooked, as it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which is the most prestigious award a movie can win in the industry.
Kagemusha uses its exact-three-hour runtime wisely, as it tells a story set during the Sengoku period, which was a civil war that lasted 150 years, of Japanese history in rich detail. It's filled with some of Kurosawa's best quotes and the 1570s setting looks effortless. It's clear how much effort and money has gone into the movie too, as it's full of huge battles across miles-long fields in Japan.
Fanny And Alexader (1982) - 8.1 (188 Minutes)
What makes the runtime of Fanny and Alexander so interesting is that it was directed by celebrated Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who was best known for his lean 90-minute movies. There were many iterations of Fanny and Alexander. There's even a 312 minute cut of the movie, and even though that was cut into a television miniseries, it did still get a short theatrical release too.
However, the main cut of the movie is just over three hours long, and it doesn't once outstay its welcome. The film is a beautiful-looking period drama set in the 1900s, and the historically accurate and detailed set and costume design is a marvel to gaze at. But the movie isn't just eye candy, as Fanny and Alexander is gloriously melodramatic, and it's full of intense and emotional arguments, which is typical of Bergman.
Once Upon A Time In America (1984) - 8.3 (229 Minutes)
With movies such as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West, director Sergio Leone had become the greatest director of western epics. The scope of those movies was unlike any other movie in the genre that came before or after them. So when Leone applied that style to the gangster genre, the result was an epic that rivaled The Godfather.
Once Upon a Time in America borders on four hours, and in that time it spans decades, constantly cutting back and forth in time. It follows childhood friends who grow up together and become mobsters between the 1910s to the 1930s. It even succeeds more than the Godfather series in some areas, as the events that unfold are more tragic due to the friends having a much closer bond.