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Monday, July 08, 2024

In Praise of Longer Films

Michael Rooker's pitch for Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, Kevin Costner's self-funded western, defends its length (per the Independent, riffing on a TMZ interview):

We’re used to 90-minute movies. Everything’s 90 minutes … Oh come on, give me a break … Get over that s***. Let’s watch a movie that actually tells a story, where you learn about the people and grow to like them, or hate them. It’s not all fast cut, cut, cut.

The movie didn't do well over its first weekend, and Rooker seems to think its three-hour running time in our "TikTokified" era is much of the reason.

I think he may be right. For some reason, people pay high ticket prices for the privilege of paying even higher concession stand prices ... but don't seem to want to get more than an hour-and-a-half of entertainment out of the deal. I'm not sure that's a new/TikTok-related thing, but it's definitely a thing.

Intermission: Horizon Trailer




I was actually thinking about the "long movie" thing over the weekend while watching Martin Scorcese's The Irishman (3 1/2 hours) for the third time.

It came to mind when I pointed out to Tamara that in The Irishman, Joe Pesci's character (Russell Buffalino) sends Robert De Niro's character (Frank Sheeran) to deliver weapons for the Bay of Pigs operation, while in JFK Pesci plays David Ferrie, who receives those weapons. JFK is another three-hour-plus movie I've watched and enjoyed many times.

I like a longer movie, if the writers, director, et al. can keep it interesting.

Granted, I like a long movie better at home, where I can hit "pause" for bathroom breaks, or even split it up over a couple of days.

And home is where I'll likely watch Horizon, simply because I don't do the theater thing as often lately and am saving my theater dollars for Deadpool & Wolverine later this month.

But if I was really wanting to hit the theater right now, Horizon might well be my pick.

Yes, I know. Two entirely different kinds of movie. But I've not seen a Deadpool flick on the big screen yet and want to.

End Credits: Deadpool & Wolverine Trailer



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