Late last year, Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon switched from cinema to living room on the Apple TV streaming service. An increasingly popular tactic, the move from big to small screen draws in a whole new audience, many of whom deliberately waited to see it for the price of a monthly subscription rather than spend a night at the pictures paying for overpriced popcorn, listening to other people’s conversations and not being able to check their Instagram account every five minutes.
You would think watching anything for more than two hours requires some sort of marathon effort akin to sitting through The Ring Cycle
Yet even as they relaxed on their sofas, they took to social media to complain: ‘Why are these films so long?’ KOTFM weighs in just shy of three and a half hours long and follows in the footsteps of Oppenheimer, last year’s smash, at exactly three hours in duration. But to hear the moans from those who cannot face more than 90 minutes away from staring at their phones, you would think watching anything for more than two hours requires some sort of marathon effort akin to sitting through The Ring Cycle.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that in the USA, cinemas were being contacted by customers asking if it was possible to include an interval though the film’s distributors, Paramount, threatened to fine any picture house that did so because it broke the booking contract. Scorsese himself, when questioned about the running time, replied: ‘Come on… you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also there are many people who watch theatre for three and a half hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema that respect.’
Yet it is this length of film, and the quick transfer to streaming, that has seen many cinemas struggle. Watching at home is cheaper, more comfortable and a film can be paused or even watched in two parts if necessary. Long films are not a new thing. Some of the best movies of all time – at least those considered so at the Oscars – have been monumentally long. Moaning about them is not new either. When Cleopatra was released in 1963 it was a fraction over four hours long (though it did have an intermission, something lacking these days.)
After a week, the Taylor-Burton epic was deemed too long and cut by 22 minutes and a little later, when it went on general release, cut again to just 194 minutes – three hours and 14 minutes. Lawrence of Arabia (227 minutes), Ben Hur (212 minutes) and further back, Gone With The Wind (224 minutes) all won best picture gongs at the Academy Awards and it is likely that KOTFM and Oppenheimer will be among those nominated for next month’s ceremony. Long films win prizes, even in recent years, for instance the final part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King (201 minutes) picked up best picture in 2003.
Over the past 40 years or so, the best watched films have been steadily averaging longer running times, according to the website Whattowatch.com. In 1981 the average running time of the top ten grossing pictures averaged a mere 110 minutes with the longest being Excalibur at 140 minutes. By 2022 the average had increased to 141 minutes though boosted by the 192 minute Avatar: The Way of Water and 176 minutes of The Batman.
KOTFM does not figure on the list because of its big-to-small screen transition though it will almost certainly figure largely at the Oscars, as the tale of how Osage Indians were murdered for their oil rights will undoubtedly prick the conscience of the Academy’s collective guilt of how they treated Native Americans back in the day.
It will also see its female star, Lily Gladstone vie for an Oscar. She deserves some sort of award at least for going three and a half hours with just the one facial expression if nothing else. A triumph for either KOTFM or Oppenheimer will prove that it is worth going to the cinema for a film which is both great and long, to turn off the phone, settle back in front of a big screen, immerse yourself and simply enjoy the experience. You can always go home and watch Love Island later.
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