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People are frankly not used to watching films that last longer than 150 transactions . When a photographic film passes the 3 - minute mark , let us say that people start feeling like they are baby-sit on fervency , or perhaps the walls are close in ?
Maybe once a year one will sit and learn film on the long side likeStanley Kubrick’sSpartacus(running 3 time of day and 4 minute of arc ) , butwhat about those films that really attempt to challenge audiences by reaching even the 4 - hour mark ? As this lean show up , they can be beautiful epic really deserving the extra devotion their creators require of viewers … or they can just fall flat .
Updated on May 25th , 2021 by Kristen Palamara : The duration of movies is more important than it might seem as if there ’s not enough time to full tell the story it could feel rushed or if it ’s way too long it can find like it drags on forever . These are the longest movies ever made that took the risk of potentially frustrating their audiences with farseeing runtimes . There are older epical classics like The Ten Commandments , late releases in the class of prospicient American movies likeThe Irishman , and recent re - releases of movies with longer run fourth dimension likeZack Snyder ’s Justice League .
War And Peace (1956) - 3h 28m
Although not the longest moving picture ever , War and Peacecertainly makes the listing at almost 3.5 hours long . The epical movie is based on the epic Leo Tolstoy novel of the same name and is available to stream on Pluto TV .
Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer star as Natasha and Andrei and the movie follows the intricately detailed lives of the Russian aristocracy lead up to Napoleon ’s encroachment from relationships beginning to babies being born to people dying and everything else about the lifespan of the protagonists .
The Irishman (2019) - 3h 29m
Everyone has listen of and/or watched this Netflix film by now and for unspoilt ground : Martin Scorsese ’s late masterpiece and another great collaboration between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro ( name here toHeat , notRighteous Kill , even though it was bop more than it deserve ) , this motion picture was one of the few Netflix Originals to invite 10 Oscars nominating speech and 5 Golden Globes nods .
The film follow the narration of an older Frank Sheeran ( De Niro ) as he assure of his time as a hitman for a felonious organization in 1950s Philadelphia .
Titanic (1997) - 3h 30m
One of the most darling heroic love life stories , Titanicis based on the real - life tragedy of the Titanic sinking feeling and the thousands of people who decease on the ship .
The movie is almost split into two genres with its long run prison term as the first half focuses on Jack ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) and Rose ( Kate Winslet ) group meeting . Their love and wonderment for each other grow in the first one-half while the second one-half focuses on the boat starting to sink and the mayhem that ensues as everyone , including Jack and Rose , essay to survive .
It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) - 3h 30m
This epic clowning film by Stanley Kramer ( famous forGuess Who ’s Coming To DinnerandInherit The Wind ) tells the tale of the airstream for the $ 350,000 that " Smiler " Grogan hid after he trust a robbery and before he was imprisoned for 15 class .
When he crash on the main road , five people terminate to aid : a dentist , a mover , two ally go to Las Vegas , and an entrepreneur ( sounds like the outset of a joke ) . Moments before his demise , Grogan talks about $ 350,000 bury in Santa Rosita State Park under a large W marking . This movie had so many cameo appearances by then - famed or soon - to - be - famous role player ( including the comedic triad Three Stooges ) that it would be hard to heel them all .
Ben-Hur (1959) - 3h 32m
This epic of magnificent proportions , and true marvel of cinematography ( especially think its time ) , order the narration of Jewish nobleman Judah Ben - Hur . He experience in Roman - occupy Jerusalem with his family and dreams of a costless Jewish multitude ; the latter causes him to clash with his friend and Roman Tribune ( military officer above a Centurion ) Messala , who will later betray him in his anger and send him as a slave in a Romanist galley .
After many journeying and trial , Judah give back home to free his family and take retaliation once and for all . At the time of its release , Ben - Hurbroke the criminal record for self-aggrandizing flick budget as well as largest original sets built and was the first film to win 11 Oscars .
Heaven’s Gate (1980) - 3h 39m
This Western film by Michael Cimino ( have a go at it forThe Sicilianand the celebratedThe Deer Hunter ) is roughly instigate by the Johnson County War and draw a fancied clash between land - barons and European settlers in Wyoming towards the end of the 19th one C .
It is notably one of the heavy corner agency nonstarter in account , earn $ 3.5 million against a budget of $ 44 million . Another remarkable tidbit about this epic is that it was also the very first film to feature Willem Dafoe . Although it wascritically scathed by its modern-day critic , after edits of the film won universal acclaimand restored it as a significant part of cinematic chronicle .
Gods and Generals (2003) - 3h 39m
This 2003 period warfare drama from director Ronald F. Maxwell was a prequel to his 1993 filmGettysburg(another considerably long film ) . It studies the former days of the American Civil War through the points - of - view of three men : Col . Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain ( Jeff Daniels ) , who abandoned a simple life-time as a college professor to acquire into one of the Union ’s supreme strategists ; Gen. Thomas " Stonewall " Jackson ( Stephen Lang ) , a deeply spiritual man who fight down the Confederacy , and the ill-famed Gen. Robert E. Lee ( Robert Duvall ) , who led the Confederate military machine .
The film was badly received and criticized for being sanctimonious with obvious Confederacy sympathies , but even its harshest critic chance it hard to not be awestruck byGods and Generals’sheer scale and the spectacle of the recreated struggle between the North and South .
The Ten Commandments (1956) - 3h 40m
The Ten Commandmentstells the scriptural story of Moses ( Charlton Heston ) who is in the Egyptian pharaoh ’s motor hotel until he learns of his Hebrew inheritance .
The pic follows Moses ' news report as he attempts to relinquish his people by lead them out of Egypt and away from the tyrant rule of the Pharaoh of Egypt . The motion picture attempts to show almost everything from the original write up from the part of the Red Sea to Moses spill the beans to God on Mount Sinai .
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) - 3h 42m
This epic historical drama is based on the autobiographySeven Pillars Of Wisdomof British Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence , who served as a contact officer with rotatory forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks in the 1916 - 1918 point . Probably in the style ofCitizen Kane , this film starts after Lawrence ’s decease at his remembrance , where a diary keeper seek to win perceptivity into his sprightliness . Then , through a prolonged flashback , we follow his Day in the Ottoman Empire during WWI .
It should be noted that even though this film is rightfully recognized as a ethnic and artistic milestone , it is nevertheless a prominent and early example of the white - savior image in American films , as well as of whitewashing in movie house .
Once Upon A Time In America (1984) - 3h 39m
This crime drama film bySergio Leone ( illustrious for his many collaborations with Clint Eastwood for theDollars Trilogy)spans almost 40 years and follows David " Noodles " Aaronson ( Robert De Niro ) and his Jewish friends Patrick Goldberg and Philip Stein . The larger-than-life chronicles their youth on New York ’s Lower East Side in the 1920s , their gangster relations in the thirties , and conclude with Noodle ’s 1968 return to New York from ego - impose proscription , upon which he finds out the reality of the ultimate fate of his friend and once more faces the nightmares of his earlier animation .
The full film was highly praise for its stunning motion-picture photography , performances , and Leone ’s directing although the same could n’t be said for its debut . Its initial theatrical campaign - which was heavily delete and shortened to a bare 2 hours and 19 second - received mixed reviews at best before the full director ’s cut redeemed it year subsequently .