The tendency in film runtimes appears to be trending towards size, and even when the info doesn’t actually bear this out, current, super-long installments in large field workplace franchises like Marvel and James Bond (the flicks being watched essentially the most, that’s) not less than imply the bloat feels actual. For some cause these wildly fashionable sequence really feel the necessity to justify their existence by lashing us to our seats for properly over two hours, when many people may need fortunately paid the identical worth for a flick that might give us the hope of ever getting house to see our canines once more.
Nonetheless, a film’s high quality isn’t decided by its size, and most of us are watching these items at house anyway. Some tales are simply simpler after they take their time—both as a result of they’ve a lot to say and try this nothing feels wasted, or as a result of it permits them the liberty to luxuriate in setting a temper and constructing a compelling world full of fascinating characters. Because the critic Roger Ebert as soon as stated, no good film is just too lengthy, and no unhealthy film is brief sufficient.
So listed below are 30 good (or nice) films, all of which run to just about three hours (or for much longer), all of which additionally justify their runtimes by typically make each second definitely worth the sit.
Amadeus (1984)
Working time: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Why it’s value your time: The late, nice Miloš Forman directs this unconventional biopic of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, adapting the play by Peter Shaffer, who additionally wrote the screenplay (they each received Oscars for it, as did lead F. Murray Abraham). Not like the standard plodding biography, Amadeus tells its story not by way of the eyes and experiences of Mozart (Tom Hulce) himself, however these of his archenemesis, Antonio Salieri (Abraham), a composer doomed to exist ceaselessly within the shadow of the larger expertise. The result’s an epic, bitchy meditation on relative mediocrity—Salieri is nice, possibly even nice, however struggles to attain a portion of what appears to return to Mozart with out effort. It’s obtained all the beautiful interval trappings you’d count on, whereas additionally telling a deep, juicy story concerning the worth of (comprehensible) jealousy.
The place to stream: Netflix, digital rental
Boyhood (2014)
Working time: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Why it’s value your time: It may need come throughout as a gimmick, however Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Faculty of Rock, Earlier than Dawn) is way too good, and constant a filmmaker to fall into that entice. By design, this coming-of-age story was produced over the course of 12 years, filming yr by yr to be able to seize the expansion and adjustments within the lead characters, significantly the titular boy-to-man, Mason Evans Jr., performed by Ellar Coltrane. It received overwhelming reward for its extraordinary sense of realism and emotional energy, with nice performances throughout.
The place to stream: The Criterion Channel, digital rental
Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Working time: 2 hours and 47 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Initially, keep in mind that the working time listed above is for the quick model. There’s a for much longer minimize that I’d advocate, typically (it’s the one one I’ve seen), however maybe isn’t for everybody. Director Ingmar Bergman is joined by Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson (two of essentially the most spectacular trendy movie actors) to create this fascinating portrait of a disintegrating marriage. It’s not a cleaning soap opera, and never film of screaming fights and thrown ashtrays, however as a substitute a narrative of two individuals who haven’t fallen out of affection, exactly, however who positively longer know the best way to reside with one another. As stunning as it’s brutal, its realism and believability is such that it usually appears like we’re peeking round a nook, seeing one thing that we ought not be seeing. Director and actors returned to those characters 30 years later for Saraband, a poignant epilogue and Bergman’s closing movie.
The place to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
Hoop Desires (1994)
Working time: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Why it’s value your time: This documentary, about two Black youngsters (William Gates and Arthur Agee) recruited for a predominantly white highschool’s basketball program, is each bit as fascinating and related right this moment because it was again in 1994, in methods each inspiring and miserable. Their tales of their lives, advised over the course of six years, are fascinating and interesting, although they converse to a lot bigger points: these youngsters see success in skilled basketball as their solely means out and up within the America they inhabit—that vanishingly small probability of success nonetheless representing their greatest hopes. By means of Gates and Agee, documentarian Steve James explores every day life past media depictions of “the ghetto” as merely a spot for white individuals to keep away from, in addition to the grift that’s on the coronary heart of anybody promising the American dream.
The place to stream: Max, Paramount+, The Criterion Channel, Crackle, digital rental
The Greatest Years of Our Lives (1946)
Working time: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Launched only a yr after the conclusion of World Struggle II, this William Wyler drama tells the tales of three United States servicemen readjusting to civilian life following harrowing excursions abroad. Al left house as a profitable financial institution worker, however dangers his post-wartime promotion with extreme consuming and a delicate contact with regards to giving loans to fellow vets; Fred suffers from PTSD and has hassle discovering a job; Homer misplaced each palms and struggles with being an object of pity. Given the period and the timing, it is nearly shockingly prescient in its depiction of the struggles that veterans would face following not simply WWII, however every struggle that might comply with (and possibly all previous, although nobody ever talked about it). The movie at all times pull again from melodrama in favor of sobering realism.
The place to stream: Peacock, Prime Video, Freevee
The Sound of Music (1965)
Working time: 2 hours and 54 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer star on this fashionable musical with beautiful surroundings and among the most sing-along-able songs in musical historical past. It is all pleasant, till the encroaching shadow of Naziism threatens the budding, unlikely romance between a novitiate nun and a stern, rich former naval officer. Its mix of huge display screen model and not less than somewhat little bit of substance have made it one among our most beloved musicals for many years.
The place to stream: Disney+, digital rental
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Working time: 2 hours and 56 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Wildly kinetic, Da 5 Bloods doesn’t really feel practically so long as its runtime. Revisiting the Vietnam Struggle movie style with an insistent deal with the (usually ignored) expertise of Black People, Spike Lee brings new relevance to tales from the interval by drawing some stark and straight strains between then and now with the story of 4 veterans who return to Vietnam in quest of the stays of their fallen squad chief…and the gold he helped them conceal. Each actor in it’s unbelievable, together with Chadwick Boseman in one among his closing roles.
The place to stream: Netflix
A Contact of Zen (1971)
Working time: 3 hours
Why it’s value your time: The wellspring of practically all trendy wuxia filmmaking (assume Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), A Contact of Zen is a beautiful widescreen martial arts epic, value looking ahead to the cinematography alone, although the combat choreography is equally thrilling. It’s the story of a noblewoman-turned-fugitive who seeks refuge in a distant village and winds up utilizing tales of the situation’s rumored hauntings as a weapon towards her pursuers. It has large concepts on its thoughts, as properly: Yang, the fugitive, struggles with problems with social order versus corruption, in addition to concepts of conventional womanhood that defy her function as a warrior.
The place to stream: The Criterion Channel, digital rental
Oppenheimer (2023)
Working time: 3 hours
Why it’s value your time: This Greatest Image Oscar winner follows good, conflicted Cillian Murphy because the titular theoretical physicist, who helped America to develop the world’s first nuclear weapons throughout World Struggle II. Amid a talky screenplay peppered with occasional bravura results sequences, author/director Christopher Nolan by no means loses sight of his difficult lead, nor of the muddy, ugly morality behind Oppenheimer’s work.
The place to stream: Peacock, digital rental
Inland Empire (2006)
Working time: 3 hours
Why it’s value your time: Look: Inland Empire shouldn’t be for everybody. It is presumably essentially the most purely Lynchian of any movie within the director’s oeuvre, and that is both a large promoting level, or a cause to remain far-off. I adore it, however I additionally do not know what it is about. I am unsure anybody does, however Laura Dern provides a superb, shattering efficiency as a Hollywood actress whose life descends into utter insanity, and that is value taking in all by itself. You may really feel as if you are strolling by way of a nightmare along with her, in methods each draining and thrilling.
The place to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Working time: 3 hours and 1 minute
Why it’s value your time: It in all probability requires not less than a passing familiarity with the 20+ movies that preceded it—I doubt that this could have practically the facility it does for somebody who hadn’t seen a key handful of them—however there’s energy right here, not less than when it comes to cinematic spectacle. For all of our sequel-obsessed film tradition, nobody else has ever made it thus far, to have the ability to supply an efficient summing up of a sequence that’s been so profitable over so many movies. The entire “time heist” bit permits intelligent strategy to revisit scenes from the previous, whereas the climactic motion set piece is one for the ages. The film even manages to finish, as soon as the combating’s completed, on a a number of impressively emotional notes. It’s not a jumping-on level, actually, however it’s a satisfying climax… even when as a conclusion. it’s actually extra of a pause.
The place to stream: Disney+, digital rental
Seven Samurai (1954)
Working time: 3 hours and a pair of minutes
Why it’s value your time: A lot springs from Akira Kurosawas’s Seven Samurai: it was remade in Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven, and thus turned the template for a sure kind of “staff is assembled/goes on mission” model of film. It’s been an amazing inspiration to George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, and even Zack Snyder. The approaching collectively of a band of misfits and outsiders, theretofore nearly remarkable in Japanese filmmaking, can be a component that’s steadily referenced. Samurai’s size (it’s the longest movie of Kurosawa’s profession) is justified by its performances, in addition to by author/director Kurosawa himself: he’s greatest recognized within the west for his samurai films, however his filmography encompasses quiet, meditative character dramas as properly, and so he brings sharp characterization alongside the motion.
The place to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental
RRR (2022)
Working time: 3 hours and seven minutes
Why it’s value your time: Motion films ought to nearly actually not be so long as RRR, however not like many examples of American blockbuster, there’s not one single boring second on this Tollywood epic. Likewise, a historic drama that touches on the nationwide trauma introduced on by the British Raj and depicting two real-life revolutionaries who died as martyrs to the reason for independence shouldn’t be this a lot enjoyable, however someway the context solely makes it extra satisfying. Discover me a extra thrilling second within the films than the bit the place a truck full of untamed animals is forcefully unleashed upon a sedate gathering at a British politician’s property.
The place to stream: Netflix
The Leopard (1963)
Working time: 3 hours and 5 minutes
Why it’s value your time: The Leopard is totally beautiful, no query. Most likely probably the most superbly directed and photographed movies in historical past—which nonetheless wouldn’t be sufficient to justify its size if it wasn’t additionally dramatically compelling. However that it’s, and it’s additionally difficult: it’s a portrait of an oppressive lifestyle among the many terribly rich Sicilian aristocracy of the nineteenth century as they’ve their final large fling, whether or not they knew it or not. Constructed on the backs of the poor and dealing class, their life-style deserves to die out (if solely), and witness to all of it is Burt Lancaster’s Don Fabrizio Corbera, a typically good man of his time whose gaze turns the show of extra into one thing nearly funereal. Director Luchino Visconti was a Marxist who had no love for the aristocracy, so the truth that he’s keen to current a sympathetic portrait of a social class on the verge of extinction (in that point and place, anyway) gives sufficient pressure to maintain you glued to the sofa. There are just a few completely different variations, however the director’s most popular model runs at 185 minutes, and that is largely the one you may discover streaming.
The place to stream: Digital rental
Magnolia (1999)
Working time: 3 hours and eight minutes
Why it’s value your time: It’s been joked that Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies aren’t lengthy as a result of the tales name for it, however as a result of they want extra modifying. That’s unfair, significantly right here, in a movie that’s actually meandering by design: filled with tales of affection and loss intersecting, usually by coincidence, the movie’s core thesis has to do with the cycles of abuse that we’re locked into as kids—however explores that concept in methods which can be steadily humorous and stunning. Just like the Aimee Mann track sung by all of the characters on the spectacular, notorious, amphibious climax, it’s all concerning the damage we’ll hold inflicting on ourselves if we refuse to sensible up.
The place to stream: Paramount+, digital rental
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Working time: 3 hours and eight minutes
Initially conceived as a tv miniseries, the three-hour+ theatrical model of Ingmar Bergman’s later-career triumph really represents one thing like a director’s minimize; the total model is greater than 5 hours. Fanny and Alexander stars Pernilla Allwin and Bertil Guve because the younger siblings of the title, dwelling fortunately with their theater-people dad and mom. Then, their father dies and their mom remarries a joyless jerk of a bishop. Meant to be the director’s swan track, the autobiographical story appears like a summation of Bergman’s profession, exploring most of the very heavy themes that he’d tackled earlier, however with a larger sense of perspective, and even somewhat whimsy.
The place to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental
Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)
Working time: 3 hours and 10 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Spencer Tracy leads an all-star solid (Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift, amongst others) on this genuinely gripping authorized drama depicting a fictionalized model of one of many twelve Nuremberg Navy Tribunals that decided the horrifying extent of Nazi struggle crimes following World Struggle II. If the acquainted faces within the solid generally is a little distracting, it stays a sober, severe movie that builds to a climax concurrently transferring and disturbing. Some 60 years later, it stays depressingly well timed in its conviction that on a regular basis, peculiar individuals are able to monstrous habits, given the fitting incentive.
The place to stream: Tubi, MGM+, digital rental
Titanic (1997)
Working time: 3 hours and 14 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Say what you’ll concerning the (often) clunky characterization and dialogue, James Cameron makes great use of the prolonged working time right here: by the point the iceberg seems onscreen, greater than an hour in, Cameron and firm have supplied us a radical tour of the ship with out our even realizing it: we’ve poked out heads into the bridge, the engine rooms, parlors, staterooms of each class and decks on practically each stage—even gotten a totally sweaty take a look at the automobiles in cargo. When the ship meets its future in the course of the real-time sequence that takes up many of the remainder of the film, we’re practically as acquainted with it as we’d be had we been onboard—which makes the motion simpler to comply with, and the tragedy hit tougher.
The place to stream: Paramount+, Prime Video
Spartacus (1960)
Working time: 3 hours and 17 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Stanley Kubrick’s first foray into epic-scale filmmaking appears like an outlier in his oeuvre, mixing the director’s stylistic logos with the weather that really feel somewhat extra historically Hollywood. All of it works, particularly given the subtext at play: Written by blacklisted author Dalton Trumbo, the slave revolt depicted right here attracts robust parallels to America’s communist witch hunts. (The insistence on the a part of lead Kirk Douglas that Trumbo be given credit score below his personal title, somewhat than a pseudonym, helped put the blacklist—properly, that exact blacklist—to mattress as soon as and for all.) What’s on display screen, then, is an uncommonly good old-school motion spectacle…sword-and-sandal motion with a lot to say about trendy American life and politics.
The place to stream: Digital rental
Malcolm X (1992)
Working time: 3 hours and 20 minutes
Why it’s value your time: There’s an terrible lot to inform with regards to the life Malcolm X, even given his premature homicide—his story crosses continents and political eras, bringing numerous disparate parts of the Civil Rights Motion into its orbit. It’s laborious to think about any form of complete biopic not taking over a variety of time. There are commonplace beats to all these films, however Spike Lee is likely one of the most achieved and vital administrators in trendy historical past, and so manages to sidestep the plain decisions and sameness that usually plagues the “vital biopic.” Likewise, Denzel Washington’s efficiency is uncanny and important.
The place to stream: Tubi, digital rental
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Working time: 3 hours and 20 minutes
Why it’s value your time: It’s tempting to joke about these cascading faux-endings, however, in fact, this film justifies its runtime—and that of your complete trilogy. It’s a crowning achievement when it comes to spectacle and pure watchability, but in addition impressively emotional within the methods through which it brings numerous character arcs to usually poignant conclusions. It didn’t win a (nonetheless unmatched) report variety of Academy Awards, together with Greatest Image, for nothing. Truthfully, when watching it I’ll at all times go for the prolonged model, which is an hour longer nonetheless, although that size is far simpler to deal with at house.
The place to stream: Max, digital rental
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Working time: 3 hours and 21 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Over three suffocating days (and over three hours of runtime), single mom Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) cooks, cleans, and engages in a bit of sunshine however joyless intercourse work to be able to pay the payments. Chantal Akerman’s bizarre and humorous masterpiece crafts the drudgery of 1 lady’s every day life into an unconventional, uncompromising, and mesmerizing epic. Many critics on the time felt that there had by no means earlier than been fairly such an exploration of a the female expertise (not stunning given the dearth of girls administrators), and it impressed filmmakers of later many years to rethink what a film about girls may obtain. (It is value noting that a 2002 Sight and Sound critics ballot of the most effective movies ever made put this one proper on the high.)
The place to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Working time: 3 hours and 22 minutes (within the “Roadshow” model)
Why it’s value your time: Initially: there are a few variations of Stanley Kramer’s zany street film—the minimize you’ll discover most readily is the shorter 2 hour and 43 minute one, however viewers with exceptionally robust bladders would possibly go for the premiere-length 3 hour and 22 minute model (The Criterion Assortment has it). Neither feels practically so lengthy, and that’s to the credit score of the movie’s mild contact. Lead by Spencer Tracy and an enormous solid of ‘60s-era stars, it’s about a number of completely different teams of motorists who get wind of $350,000 in money buried in a park on the different finish of the state, and set off on a race for the cash. What makes it work as greater than a setup for slapstick driving antics is the extremely good move to have these beloved stars play universally horrible individuals who solely worsen as numerous setbacks they encounter on the street serve to feed their greed; that shading provides some scrumptious schadenfreude to the silliness.
The place to stream: Tubi, MGM+, digital rental
The Godfather, Half II (1974)
Working time: 3 hours and 22 minutes
Why it’s value your time: Every movie on this sequence is on the lengthy aspect, however Half IIis the longest by fairly a bit. Maybe unusually, it’s additionally the most effective, justifying all these further minutes with a subplot as compelling because the movie’s major thread: whereas Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone continues the lengthy descent that concludes with a deadly kiss, we go to the origin of the Corleone household in America by way of Robert De Niro’s portrayal of younger Vito Corleone. There’s hardly a second right here that isn’t totally compelling.
The place to stream: Paramount+, digital rental
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Working time: 3 hours and 28 minutes
Whereas there is not any query that it might be good had this story advised by Osage filmmakers, we may do loads worse than to have Martin Scorsese behind the digital camera for an epic account of unspeakable greed in a particularly American vein. Lily Gladstone is transcendent because the real-life Mollie Burkhart, who finds herself on the middle of the Osage Indian murders. when a blessing of oil found on tribal land turns to a nightmare as white settlers.
The place to stream: Apple TV+, digital buy
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Working time: 3 hours and 47 minutes
Why it’s value your time: It’s in all probability the obvious selection for a listing like this, however David Lean’s epic has retained its energy for therefore many many years (and over so many minutes of screentime) for a cause: It’s, in some ways, the platonic best of a Hollywood epic—the one by which all others are judged. Nevertheless it’s additionally impressively complicated, set throughout a interval with continued relevancy, and starring a title character who skirts the road between philosophical hero and delusional megalomaniac. At practically 60 years outdated, it’s nonetheless a transporting work.
The place to stream: MGM+, digital rental
Hamlet (1996)
Working time: 4 hours and a pair of minutes
Why it’s value your time: Traditionally, even most stage variations of Hamlet(Shakespeare’s longest work) are truncated; there are whole scenes even devoted followers of the Bard have probably by no means seen carried out. Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 adaptation doesn’t take any such shortcuts—the uncommon occasion (and the one filmed model) of the play introduced in its entirety. There are compensations to your time, although: Branagh eschews Hamlet’s conventional gloominess for beautiful, shiny visible spectacle; he additionally presents a formidable solid (with himself on the lead) that features Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, and Derek Jacobi. There are even appearances by a number of very surprising performers in bit components (Billy Crystal, for instance, is shockingly good because the First Gravedigger). And, not like a reside efficiency, you possibly can cease this one for snacks everytime you need.
The place to stream: Digital rental
The Batman (2022)
Working time: 2 hours and 56 minutes
One other three-hour comedian e book film? At the very least Avengers: Endgame had the decency to be the climax of a 22-film saga…certainly the eighth solo Batman flick (relying on the way you rely) has no excuse. And possibly not—however co-writer/director Matt Reeves’ first go-round with Robert Pattinson below the cowl really manages to maintain you engaged for your complete time by permitting Batman to be a detective once more. Watching a youthful, (much more) emotionally broken Bruce Wayne methodically piece collectively the clues in an unlimited conspiracy tied to his personal origins and involving acquainted baddies just like the Riddler (Paul Dano), the Penguin (Colin Farrell below kilos of make-up), and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) appears like binging a season of a kind of Swedish crime procedurals on Netflix. All the higher: It is beautiful to take a look at, with moody black and crimson cinematography from Oscar nominee Greig Fraser.
The place to stream: Hulu, Max, digital rental
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Working time: 3 hours and 5 minutes
Stanley Kubrick’s drama, well, doesn’t decide Ryan O’Neal’s Barry Lyndon…it doesn’t must.
Why it’s value your time: Ryan O’Neal’s Barry Lyndon is hardly the kind of protagonist we’re used to in any such epic interval drama: he’s largely a personality with none defining morality, and one to whom occasions happen that he doesn’t take a lot hand in shaping. When it fits him to inform the reality, he’s conspicuously sincere…however he’s completely content material to lie if that’s the simplest route. Kubrick is likely one of the only a few filmmakers who may draw us in to the story of this 18th century golddigger, and Ryan O’Neal makes him compulsively watchable, if not significantly sympathetic.
The place to stream: Tubi, digital rental
Babylon (2022)
Certain, this factor completely bombed in theaters, and its excesses are positively not for all tastes. However as display screen spectacles go, they do not get a lot grander than La La Land helmer Damien Chazelle’s actually and figuratively orgiastic Hollywood coming of age story. It is an unhinged three-hour dive into the glitz, glamor, and wild indulgences of the film enterprise circa the switchover from silents to talkies. It is loud, garish, and buzzing with cocaine-fueled vitality, however for each misstep (a gap sequences that includes a mountain of elephant excrement sprayed instantly into the digital camera) there are two bravura sequences (my favourite being a tortured depiction of what it is wish to movie a film scene below intense strain that could possibly be a brief movie all by itself), and the solid is stuffed with film stars (Brad Pitt and a pre-Barbie Margot Robbie being the standouts) the way in which they used to make ’em—larger than life, and an excessive amount of to crame into a regular runtime.
The place to stream: Prime Video, digital rental
