Does length matter when it comes to enjoyment?
Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking about long movies.
Even with the chaos of coming off of, but still living in, a pandemic we have had some amazing movies released. In theaters I've seen three and a half MCU movies and watched some amazing ones from the comfort of my couch. As I type this the credits for “The Harder They Fall” are playing in the background. If you haven't seen this movie I give it the highest of recommendations. I texted a friend and described it as Tarantino directed “The Cherokee Kid.” Wait, you don't know “The Cherokee Kid”????
Let's go back to 1996. My family had just moved into town and I was getting to experience luxuries I had only heard about for the first time. There was pay-per-view. The first movie I rented was Bio-Dome. There were all these great cable channels, and even premium channels. Ones like HBO! In the winter of 96 they debuted a new comedy-western starring Sinbad called “The Cherokee Kid.” Sinbad could also be seen on the big screen at the time in the classic “Jingle All the Way.” I loved Jingle and thought Sinbad was funny so I gave it a try. The film is a great pseudo history adventure that plays for a bunch of laughs while still weaving a heartfelt story. For some reason this HBO film isn't on HBO Max but trust me you need to go check it out. The cast alone is worth the price. Besides Sinbad you have James Coburn, Gregory Hines, Ernie Hudson, Mark Pellegrino, Burt Reynolds, Obba Babatunde, Walt Coggins, and more.
So what does this have to do with what we're talking about today? I was thinking about this classic film and that got me thinking about other classics. Then I started comparing them to the movies of today and I got to thinking about runtimes. Cherokee Kid is 90 minutes long. Of all the movies I've seen the only one that comes close is Venom (that's the half MCU) at 97 minutes, all the others are over two hours long.
Why are movies so long these days and does it matter? Are we trading quantity for quality or getting the best of both worlds? We'll look at it all today but first...
ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!
Part 4 of “Midnight Signs” is now available on Kindle Vella. This is the first one you have to pay for, and why I think it is worth it you should check out the first 3 chapters for free. If you give it a like it will also let you know when new episodes drop.
On a personal note, I've been elected to the board of Lubbock Community Theater! Even though I don't know a whole lot about theater I'm really excited about the opportunities this will bring for myself and my community. There's also another board I've been nominated for that hopefully next newsletter I can tell you more about.
Short and simple on announcements, now lets see if the same can be said for film.
Let's go back to 1878 when Leland Stanford (no relation) commissioned a study on horses in stride. Using state of the art camera technology Eadweard Muybridge was able to capture the creatures in full gait and history was made. Before you start arguing “Passage of Venus” was the first film, I personally just don't think it falls into that category. Check out Muybridge's masterpiece, although you'll have to watch a 30 second ad to see the 20 second film.
A decade later in Leeds, England we would be blessed with the “Roundhay Garden Scene” from Louis Le Prince. This is considered the oldest surviving motion picture. It doesn't tell a story outright but there is so much going on.
1894 saw the first use of sound in a motion picture with “The Dickson Experimental Sound Film”. 1896 had Alice Guy-Blache debut “The Cabbage Fairy” the first narrative film. Alice was also the first major female film director. That same year saw “The Kiss” which as you can guess was the first time we saw a couple kiss on screen. Georges Melies unleashed the first sci-fi film in 1902 in “A Trip to the Moon” 1903 was the first Western with “The Great Train Robbery” and the very first remake happened the next year when Siegmund Lubin remade it.
If you can't tell I am a huge fan of early and silent film. All of these movies were less than fifteen minutes long. That all changed in 1906 when “The Story of the Kelly Gang” debuted at a whopping sixty minutes!!! American film maker D. W. Griffith would take this format and become the first Steven Spielberg. He made countless epics in early Hollywood. Some of his earliest and most iconic works ran at a length we now consider normal.
“Birth of a Nation” with all of its hate and racism runs at just over three hours. Griffith's apology film “Intolerance” clocks in at three and a half hours! Let's take a quick jump eleven years to 1927 and the release of “The Jazz Singer” considered (kinda wrongfully) by many to be the first full length talkie. It runs at 96 minutes.
Over the next forty or so years movies stayed around the same average running time. Musicals, horrors and B westerns kept the low end covered while shows like “Gone with the Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia” ran around the four hour mark. The greatest films ever made, “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane” are both under two hours long.
Where did the change start? Some people will want to point to Spielberg and his popcorn summer blockbusters, but they'd be wrong. Almost all of his films are over two hours long. Even all the Indiana Jones shows run about an hour and fifty-five minutes.
I think the change came with television and syndication. As networks were showing more and more movies studios realized the market that was there, the chance to make more money. These films that people were watching in their homes were those old musicals, horrors and B westerns. I would like to think that there was pressure put on directors and film editors to shorten their work to make it friendly for TV. Now, I don't have any proof of this, but then again this isn't an academic newsletter.
As the 70s and 80s gave way to the 90s we were seeing two distinct types of movies being made. There were the quick popcorn movies that took an hour and half out of your day and the sprawling epics that took the whole afternoon. These were the award winning movies usually. “Schindler's List”, “Dance with Wolves”, and “Titanic” are all over three hours long. You could look at the run time and know what you were in for.
How did we end up where we are now?
Like all old people I'm going to blame computers, but in a good way. Anyone can make a movie and show it to the world. There are dozens of movies and TV shows based on a YouTube short. If a story can be told in ten minutes why not 90? Or 200? People are able to tell the stories they want at whatever pace they want and ultimately I think that is a good thing.
On the flip side we have to talk modern attention span. With TikTok, Reelz and all the social media people consume, can they sit through a movie over two hours long? It took me two sittings to finish “The Harder they Fall” because the run time is two hours and nineteen minutes. I sat through the credits (because Marvel has conditioned us to do that) and I thought one thing. This movie would have been great on the big screen. That's the difference!
No matter how cool your home set up is, and trust me mine is pretty sweet, nothing beats the theater experience. Nothing beats the comfort of your own home either. In today's age of streaming I totally think it is acceptable to make a movie that is intended for and released in theaters and make movie that can be watched at home. The acting, writing and directing can be great in both cases but, much like many of the films we've talked about, there are somethings that are just better in the cinema.
I could've watched “Black Widow”, “Venom” and probably “Shang-Chi” at home but I'm super glad I got to see “Eternals” on the big screen.
So, with all of that, I don't see run times changing soon. With more and more things going digital I think we will see a weird shift in it all. Kids movies going over two hours. Action thrillers clocking in at an hour fifteen. Movie times have always been influx and that isn't changing. If you thought it was just a recent thing I hate to burst your bubble.
How long is too long though? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Lance