HOLLYWOOD—Movies. Some can be short, while others can be quite lengthy. This has felt like a trend that is growing and not in the best way in the cinematic arena known as Hollywood. Why can I make that argument? It feels like almost every movie that is coming out is at least two hours plus. Most Americans don’t have the attention span of a flea that clocks in over two hours. If a movie does it has to be exceptionally entertaining.
I can probably name only a handful of long movies that I can watch, and I don’t get bored because they are lengthy. Those movies are “The Godfather,” “The Dark Knight,” “Oppenheimer,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Exorcist.” Each of these films clock in over two hours, but once you get past that two hour and 30-minute mark, the fatigue can start to set in and that is not good for anyone.
Look at the most recent flick Wicked that is over two hours and 40 minutes long. If a movie has a dull period that will totally take me out and once I lose that interest, that’s it, I’m no longer invested in the movie. I say the same thing about “Gladiator II” that is almost two hours and 25 minutes. The first movie was slightly longer, but more intriguing. I found “Gladiator II” full of a few dull moments. As a result, it takes you out of the movie on several occasions and you check your watch.
There seems to be this notion in Hollywood that the longer the movie the better. That is not the case. I remember doing a double feature, something I had heard about from my parents when they grew up in the 70s. It was The Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez “Grindhouse/Deathproof.” Now, I totally enjoyed “Grindhouse,” but “Deathproof.” Jeez, God, was that the most boring movie I have ever watched in my life.
I am not joking I was so close to getting up and walking out of the theater because it was just not only a bad movie, but boring as hell. Tarantino is one that tends to do lengthy flicks. Most of his flicks easily clock in over two hours and 30 minutes, some reach three hours. The only one that I can watch time and time again without getting bored is “Django Unchained.” Just beyond entertaining the entire time.
Martin Scorsese is another one who tends to have very long movies, but most of his flicks actually entertain in the best way because this is a director who knows how to craft a tale or a character in a way the audience becomes enamored with. I loved “The Wolf of Wall Street” and it’s on Cable almost every five minutes, and it’s a nearly three-hour movie, but it is so entertaining, which is the KEY TERM some filmmakers are ignoring.
Hollywood has to realize you can tell a satisfying movie in 90 minutes, hell you can do it in two hours, the key if to eliminate the fluff and filler content that appears in the movie when it doesn’t NEED to be in the movie. I think that is where the director and screenwriter have to have a chat. Does this scene actually add anything to the movie? Is it vital for character development or narrative push? If not, then I think those are scenes that can be eliminated.
People just talking pointlessly without giving away hints to what is happening or what is going to happen or showing a character personality trait, get rid of it; let’s not bore the audience if we don’t have to. I feel like since the pandemic Hollywood has been cranking out the lengthy movies with no remorse, but the public is starting to feel the fatigue and make it be known to the entertainment industry.
As critically revered as “Oppenheimer” was, not many people could finish the movie because it was too long, same with “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Another long movie, that unfortunately, was not as good as the critics were fawning over. I still don’t know many everyday Americans who enjoyed that sci-fi, I don’t know what to call it honestly.
You might think a 90-minute movie cannot be an Oscar contender, but you’d be surprised just how many have made the cut, while many three hours plus flicks have fallen flat. Don’t even get me started on “Gone With the Wind” which is almost four hours. I literally had to watch that movie in two sittings because it was just too long to maintain my focus for such a longtime frame.
Americans go to the movies because we want to be entertained. We don’t want to be bored and when movies are longer than what they have to be and there are dull moments, you’re boring us. It is called self-editing. There are at times things in movies that DON’T NEED TO BE IN THE MOVIE. Get rid of it, take it out, edit it, keep what matters and eliminate what doesn’t.
