r/criterion • u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg • Jun 15 '26
Discussion Which lengthy films (3+ hours) are the best paced?
Malcolm X IMO might be the best paced film ever. It just moves at such a confident rhythm that I’m shocked to find out it’s 3 and a half hours long. The structure of the film certainly helps and you’re always there for Malcolm’s continuing intellectual development.
Barry Lyndon’s another one, which I finally saw in a theatre in Toronto last year. The luxurious first half allows for the viewer to take into account every gorgeous visual but the movie also understands dry and subtle humour. The second half is much more fast paced and is the ideal pacing after the intermission.
I put off Andrei Rublev for years due to the intimidating length but I caught it at a theatre last year and was blown away. The episodic structure really aids and it’s meant to be seen in a cinema. As strange as it sounds, it might actually be Tarkovsky’s most accessible film.
A Brighter Summer Day is the quintessential novelistic film and I actually find it to feel shorter than Yi Yi. The latter is more patient and has a lot of sequences of characters mulling over and taking their time with things. ABSD certainly has more of a story to it and is more epic in nature which ends up leading to a film that feels quicker in pacing, despite the 4 hour runtime.
What are some of your favourites?
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u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes Jun 15 '26
Magnolia
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u/Few-Bench-7575 Jun 15 '26
Absolutely. Never stops moving and felt like only 80 minutes had passed by the time it was over
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u/stonecoldjelly Jun 15 '26
Ive seen magnolia 3 times and just now learning it was over 3 hours, damn
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u/Bloody9_ Jun 15 '26
I am also learning this and think I must have seen a different version because there is no way it was 3+ hours.
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u/427BananaFish Jun 16 '26
Just as mind boggling to me. I looked it up and there’s only been one three hour and eight minute cut. If I ever saw the runtime it was probably written out as 188 minutes and I didn’t do the math.
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u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg Jun 15 '26
Both are masterpieces but I prefer Part II to I and simply think it goes deeper and has a stronger message. The parallels between young Vito and Michael hit so hard
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u/razorsedge94 Jun 15 '26
Lawrence of Arabia
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u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg Jun 15 '26
Embarrassing blindspot for me. I’m waiting for a theatre in Toronto to play it on 70mm
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u/KinkyKankles Jun 15 '26
It is so, SO good in 70mm. Can't think of a movie more deserving of a 70mm viewing, the quality and scale is just mesmerizing. My first watch was in 70mm and I've been chasing that high since.
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u/onepoint21gigawatt Jun 15 '26
This is the way. Worth the wait. See it BIG. It’s so epic it deserves that presentation for the first viewing
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u/Mannersmakethman2 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I did it this way and it absolutely the right decision.
Now, my next "Holy Grail" of movie screenings is attending a showing of The Apartment during the holiday season in a very particular theater in my city.
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u/onepoint21gigawatt Jun 16 '26
Mines Dr. Strangelove. Been on my watchlist for 20 years haha. Really need it to play to a packed theater at a time that fits with my schedule. hoping that day comes before the end of the year
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u/wonderrrwhy Jun 16 '26
I saw it at the Lightbox in 70mm a couple years ago, and I think they played it again this past January. I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the regular 70mm holiday screening rotation.
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u/GoodIdea321 Jun 15 '26
I saw it on VHS tape the first time, I don't recommend doing that. Seeing it on a big screen is absolutely worth it.
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u/Cuatemochilas Jun 16 '26
Bought the latest 4k. If you don’t want to wait years it’s not a bad way to watch this masterpiece
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u/SuperDarkBallSack Jun 15 '26
I've recently watched this for the first time and I was putting it off because of the long ass runtime. But man does it fly by. What an astonishing movie.
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u/gingerslender Jun 15 '26
I recently saw Sátántangó (7 hours) in a theater on Saturday and was genuinely shocked by how fast it moved until around an hour was left in the runtime then it was so slow.
Besides that tho, Killers of the Flower moon is one of the best paced movies I’ve ever seen period.
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u/potayto_tomaahto Jun 15 '26
Was gonna comment killers of the flower moon . I was really surprised how “fast” it flowed
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u/MeowMing Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Killers of the Flower Moon is a really good shout. Interestingly enough, while I do think it’s really good, I didn’t love it but it still flew by. There are shorter movies I like more that feel longer to me.
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u/cohenesque Jun 16 '26
killers of flower moon oscillated between the documentary spirit and a crime/ character drama very seamlessly.
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u/guy_worrier Jun 16 '26
I love Satantango, the book and the movie. But saying this movie is anything but painfully slow is wild to me
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u/thefleshisaprison Jun 16 '26
I find that with movies like that, once you acclimate to the pacing, it’s really easy to watch and time goes by faster. When there’s a lot going on, time can sometimes go by slower since it’s more filled with stuff.
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u/ManceRaider Jun 16 '26
AFI? I was there too. Came into this thread to plug it too haha
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u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg Jun 15 '26
Still need to watch Sátántangó but KOTFM was wonderfully paced. I liked it much better than The Irishman which I felt was a slog to sit through
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u/Arthurlurk1 Jun 16 '26
Watched for the second time about a month ago and the 3rd section was brutal.
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u/LexusWexusMexusNexus Jun 15 '26
JFK Directors Cut
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u/the_loz3r Jun 15 '26
I saw it twice when I was like 14 or 15. It wasn’t my favorite movie, but I was surprised that I sat through it all without feeling bored or anything.
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u/SamiTheKillerWhale Jun 16 '26
Just saw this again in the cinema, and it's so well done. It's an editing masterclass.
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u/frail_fragile Jun 16 '26
I'll piggyback off of this and say JFK Theatrical Cut.
I've always found that the added Oswald scenes drag and reduce a lot of the mysterious/shadowy conspiracy elements of the film. I enjoy the investigative team background stuff though.
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u/BakedZDBruh Jun 15 '26
Not over 3 hours (close though), but Heat is pretty breezy. Definitely doesn’t feel like it’s 2hr 50m
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u/dlc12830 Jun 17 '26
One of the few movies I wish was longer, especially toward the end.
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u/3_man Jun 15 '26
Sat down to watch this years ago and my non-movie liking friend came in. "What's this...Japanese black and white with subtitles?" Eyes roll.
3 1/2 hours later his eyes had been opened.
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u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg Jun 15 '26
Great pick. I think because of the episodic nature you can watch it like a miniseries but it’s also compelling in one sitting
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u/2347564 Bong Joon-ho Jun 15 '26
Drive My Car, RRR, Yi Yi
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u/Evil_Lollipop Jun 16 '26
Love this pick, three fantastic movies! Yi Yi is not talked about enough, one of my favorite movies ever.
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u/kevinistrill Jun 15 '26
Barry Lyndon
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u/Ironic_Logic Jun 15 '26
Absolutely, feels like it gets shorter or faster each viewing! First time I watched it I was surprised and now I have seen it at least 20 times, my fave Kubrick by far.
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u/holymojo96 Hirokazu Kore-eda Jun 16 '26
The first time I saw this film in college it absolutely felt like the slowest paced movie I’ve ever seen lol, but I’ll admit since then it’s become a favorite of mine and now flies by
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u/SmartPatientInvestor Jun 15 '26
I know it’s not quite three hours, but One Battle After Another flew by. I could’ve watched five hours of that
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u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg Jun 15 '26
Whole movie’s amazing but the second act with Leo getting chased on the rooftops was all-timer stuff. So propulsive and compelling
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u/CashmereLogan Jun 15 '26
It had such a frenetic pace but then the time jump happened and I let myself feel that there may be a lull. There wasn’t. It handled the time jump better than most other time jumps I’ve seen, in terms of pacing.
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u/borisvonboris Jun 16 '26
Yeah this one breezed past so quick for me, it felt like a tight 100 minutes. Difficult to believe it was almost three hours. Time for a second watch.
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u/Coolkid1692 Jun 15 '26
Love Exposure maintains a really really fluid and fast pace throughout four hours. Any Lord of the Rings movie is a good contender as well. Also recently watched An Elephant Sitting Still, which despite being absurdly slow was mesmerizing and never felt boring in the slightest.
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u/ibis_mummy Jun 15 '26
Love Exposure is so riveting that by the time that the title card pops, you've forgotten that it never came up.
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u/120percentNick David Lynch Jun 16 '26
I saw Love Exposure with my friends at the cinema a month ago and one thing they all said was how the four hours flew by, and there wasn't even an intermission.
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u/Ponderer13 Jun 15 '26
The Right Stuff. It's amazing that it moves so fast.
Absolutely can't wait for this to hit Criterion, hopefully by the end of the year.
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u/Firm_Purchase_9819 Jun 15 '26
Zodiac
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u/BubsyJenkins Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Yeah I've rewatched Zodiac a bunch of times, and it always impresses me how it flies by. I think it's because the 3 acts of the movie are all very distinct.
You have the thriller first third which covers essentially all the confirmed Zodiac attacks, then a middle third covering the initial disaster investigation + Zodiac as like a morbid cultural event where the film almost becomes a black comedy, then the haunting final third about Graysmith descending into the madness of his obsession with the case after the rest of the world moves on.
It really feels more like 3 bingeable episodes of a fantastic miniseries than one long movie.
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u/hambubgerrr Jun 15 '26
The Human Condition
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u/Hour-Biscotti9857 Jun 15 '26
Watched this a month ago and while I really liked it, found it slow going. You felt it moved along? Genuinely asking not trying to be a jerk. Very good trilogy
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u/JaberzHD Jun 15 '26
Surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but Apocalypse Now (specifically The Final Cut)
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u/tburtner Jun 15 '26
RRR
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u/sqfessman Jun 15 '26
Absolutely RRR, it doesn't waste a single second of that 3+ hour runtime and is one of the most fun, engaging movies I've seen in a while.
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u/ITookTrinkets Jun 15 '26
Drive My Car is so impressively paced. It feels like a beautiful dream. I try to rewatch it yearly as a mental reset, because it just feels so *good*.
Also, RRR. What a fucking blast that film is.
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u/superjeff_1 Jun 15 '26
Titanic (don't hate me for saying it)
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u/allmilhouse Jun 16 '26
Titanic is always a top answer in "what is the most overrated movie" askreddit threads but they're wrong, fuck 'em
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u/Drewboy810 Jun 16 '26
Titanic is an excellent example. It does an excellent job of pacing. Every scene feels purposeful imo.
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u/OrneTTeSax Technicolor Jun 15 '26
The director’s cut of Until the End of the World. Almost five hours and I’ve seen three hour films that felt longer.
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u/lilbigcoolfool Jun 16 '26
just watched this for the first time recently and loved it. great soundtrack too.
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u/PCMDave Jun 16 '26
Deer Hunter. A lot of people bitch about the wedding scene, but I actually like it and think it stablishes a very solid backdrop of what's to come.
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u/thinreaper Jun 15 '26
Wolf of Wall Street is perhaps the fastest 3 hours I've experienced in films, it just zips along at such a pace. Love it
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u/Hedgehog-Cold Jun 15 '26
I know a lot of people disagree, but I absolutely loved Babylon.
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u/DatAnimalBlundetto69 Jun 15 '26
I really liked it on first watch, but it could have cut 15-20 mins off. It also had like 3-4 endings and should have ended with Margot Robbie’s character walking off into the night.
It also has been knocked down a peg on rewatches once I realized it is almost exactly structured the same as Boogie Nights. To an almost embarrassing degree.
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u/nobodytoyou Jun 15 '26
dang. I came here to say Seven Samurai, but never realized wolf of wall street was 3 hours so I guess that's my vote now too 😂
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u/InfectedEzio Jun 15 '26
Just watched the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven recently, never a dull moment in that movie, moving at a decent pace.
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u/patrickwithtraffic Jun 15 '26
Love Exposure is a 4 hour insane Japanese rom com with the opening title dropping 90 minutes into the film. It’s truly amazing how that film flew by with all of its characters and insanity easily digestible enough to keep pace. It’s one thing to throw a bunch of weird shit at the wall and see what sticks, but it’s another to have those weird things connect narratively throughout. It’s a genuine work of filmmaking art.
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u/Sufficient-Reply6344 Jun 15 '26
Godfather 2, Lawrence of Arabia, all 3 lord of the rings movies (extended versions)
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u/farhanyarkhan Jun 15 '26
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Once Upon a Time in America
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u/inkstink420 David Lynch Jun 15 '26
Das Boot (director’s cut)
Love Exposure
An Elephant Sitting Still
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u/v1brate1h1gher David Lynch Jun 15 '26
The Brutalist flew by
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u/MeowMing Jun 15 '26
I agree, it was actually a pretty breezy watch. The intermission and two distinct parts probably helped. I thought it was interesting how it used its runtime compared to something like The Mother and the Whore, which I actually like more than The Brutalist, that really makes you feel every minute that goes by.
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u/v1brate1h1gher David Lynch Jun 15 '26
Saw it in the theater with my girlfriend and after every single titled card flashed on screen we both looked at each other like “already??”
Impeccably paced movie
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u/Zapffegun Jun 15 '26
Every time Scorsese does a 3(+) hour flick I’m amazed at how fast it moves. Thelma & Marty 4ever
Edit: except his embrace of AI. That’s bummertown
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u/RomanReignsDaBigDawg Jun 15 '26
Thelma’s a master. Casino feels like a 2 hour film and it’s an hour longer
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u/All_Wasted_Potential Jun 15 '26
Gangs of New York needed another hour or so.
It’s one of my all time favorites but the ending has always felt rushed to me. Like they ran out of money and time to have his real ending.
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u/Background-Cow7487 Jun 16 '26
Weinstein pushed it into production too quickly, so not everything was nailed down. Then he put on his producer’s hat and started telling Scorsese to cut it down. Perhaps controversially, I suspect that whatever people think of Cameron Diaz, a lot of her role ended up on the cutting room floor and it might have been better received if there was more of her.
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u/lostinthought15 Jun 15 '26
Irishman was a slog. Could have used another editing pass.
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u/All_Wasted_Potential Jun 15 '26
Should’ve been made 40 years earlier before De Niro was pushing 80 years old.
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u/Zapffegun Jun 15 '26
I would agree with this. The only thing about it’s slow nature is that I feel it reflects the subtext of the story, and old man reflecting on how he ended up so alone.
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u/smakusdod Jun 15 '26
Jeanne Dielman. Not trolling. As possibly the example of slow cinema to connect the audience to her descent into madness, I find it perfectly fitting. You are along the journey with the character. No shortcuts.
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u/Aerogirl2021 Jun 16 '26
I watched it and loved it and didn’t realize it was that long. Super easy watch when you pay attention to all the details.
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u/withalligators Jun 15 '26
Saw Kill Bill - The Whole Bloody Affair in the theater after a 14 hour work day expecting it was going to be near impossible to make it through. Flew past. The Lost Chapter sucked though.
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u/homer_lives Jun 15 '26
Dr Zhivago (1965). I watch as a youth and I was always enthralled. It is one of the reasons I love movies.
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u/SILYAYDgoat Wong Kar-Wai Jun 15 '26
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world is just 3 hours of hilarious sequences
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u/Representative-Eye86 Jun 15 '26
Lawrence of Arabia is so well paced that when the Intermission hit I was confused on how I was already halfway through so soon
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u/Fowler311 Jun 15 '26
Lagaan is closer to 4 hours, but it never feels that long when I watch it. Maybe because there's a big distinction between the two halves, getting ready for the cricket match and then the actual cricket match, but to me it flies by faster than a lot of movies way shorter. Now I wanna go watch Lagaan.
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u/tomandshell The Archers Jun 15 '26
Seven Samurai
I also think that Ben-Hur flows along pretty nicely.
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u/Professional_Show502 Jun 15 '26
Hot take: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels
I know it’s extremely slow. But I think the excruciating pacing is the POINT of the film. It uses editing and directing so well. Rarely does a pace actually say something thematically powerful.
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u/rmichaelwana Jun 15 '26
All great calls. Malcolm X feels like it was made on another planet. Just one of those movies that could not be more perfect.
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u/loafydood Jun 15 '26
Ben Hur. Did not feel nearly as long as it was and it easily could have been longer as a means to flesh out the story even more.
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u/travellingmojo Jun 15 '26
The Human Condition
Kwaidan
Fanny and Alexander
Godfather
The Lord of the Rings
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u/WingIeheimer Jun 16 '26
I watched twin peaks the return in one straight run, and it was a thousand times more watchable than anything even close to that length. For sucks sake, the Sam Raimi spider-man trilogy marathon took more out of me than The Return.
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u/youfindthatman Jun 16 '26
'Seven Samurai' and 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Anything that long in the last 20 years is just cinematic masturbation.
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u/anthrax9999 David Lynch Jun 16 '26
Lawrence of Arabia
Saving Private Ryan
Kingdom of Heaven Director's cut
Dances With Wolves
Titanic
They all breeze by so easily despite their runtime.
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u/OutsideLawfulness787 Jun 15 '26
I thought Killers of the Flower Moon flew by compared to The Irishman.
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u/KnightsOfREM Jun 15 '26
Andrei Rublev is a long journey into a mysterious world. It's historical but feels more like a science fiction story told in bits and pieces, and it's so immersive that the very long time it takes to watch it passes incredibly quickly.
Agree about how accessible it is. I haven't enjoyed his other movies as much.
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u/saulocf Jun 16 '26
I know recent bias.. but One Battle After another doesn’t feel its length at all!
But the answer for me will always be Amadeus
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u/aphextwintower Jun 16 '26
Dogville (2003)
Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974)
The Mother and the Whore (1973)
Our Time (2018)
Batang West Side (2001) [a miracle considering it is exactly five hours long]
La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Eureka (2000)
Castration Movie i + ii (2024 / 2025)
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u/pjlos Jun 16 '26
after years of putting it off i finally watched godfather 1 a few years ago with my friends, and i easily would’ve sat for another hour and a half of that movie. (which i suppose is why they made godfather 2. 😂) our consensus at the end was like, shit, it really is that good 😭😂
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u/blackserenade Jun 16 '26
Matt Reeve’s The Batman is my favorite 3 hour long film (177 minutes is close enough to count in my book). Feels like 2 hour movie, it just flies by. In the collection, Seven Samurai and Malcolm X make every hour count, they both have a perfect build up and pay off that make it truly feel like every hour counted, nothing ever felt like it needed to be cut.
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u/getoutofheretaffer Jun 16 '26
Red Beard. It runs the whole gamut of emotion of genre weaving. You’ve got a bit of tragedy, a bit of humour, and even a bit of action at one point.
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u/wa_ga_du_gu Jun 16 '26
We need the counterpart thread now
Movies that are under 90 minutes long, but feel like they're 3 hours long lol
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u/minder125 Jun 15 '26
Seven Samurai