Peter Bart: Do long running times affect the marketability of films? It’s a long story

The most bitter film disputes I’ve seen over the years weren’t over cost or casting; they were about tall. The films were too long, but so were the fights.

I relived some of this week while watching Martin Scorsese’s Flower Moon Killer. With a viewing time of 3 hours and 26 minutes, it is a huge success. It’s about an hour longer NapoleonRidley Scott’s epic, which premieres next month and is half an hour longer Oppenheimer.

My confession: I get nervous when movies last longer than two hours—an attention deficit disorder said to affect Generation Z more than geriatrics. I was influenced by filmmakers like Hal Ashby, who started out as an editor and believed that “films should tell their story and move on” (I continued to work with him). Harold and Maude And There is).

Because of my nervousness, I suspected early on that I would not survive the 2013 show Sleep, which played at eight o’clock. On the other hand, I argued with Clint Eastwood that some of his best films were too short. As a decisive director, he usually felt that his best shot was his first.

Scorsese, who started out as a writer, admitted he felt suicidal when he saw it Medium streets shortened to 45 minutes for TV broadcast. On the other hand, I felt that Netflix might have been too generous with a four-hour recording The Irishman.

Such decisions seem to be more about ambition than art. Studios believe that a film can demonstrate its importance through its running time.

This was Steven Spielberg’s belief Schindler’s list (3 hours and 17 minutes) and it’s James Cameron’s turn Titanic (3 hours and 14 minutes). But I thought the much talked about story was over Cleopatra In 1963, a study lasted longer than 4 hours and 8 minutes. It was applauded, not appreciated.

The short and powerful fragments of some famous films were born more from poverty than determination: The graduate (Mike Nichols) just ran out of money. It did that too A new leaf, whose film producer (Elaine May) decided to sue rather than comply with the studio’s demands for a shorter cut. The funding disappeared.

That was almost the case The godfather when the head of studio distribution, Francis Coppola, suddenly ordered that twenty minutes be cut or he would cancel the release. The premiere was delayed for three months while the battle raged (Coppola won).

With the exception of godfatherNormally in fights like this I went for brevity. This particular column should have ended at least two paragraphs earlier in my opinion. But writers also rarely understand the power of economics.