Let’s be honest in saying this, 3 hours is a long time to sit down for a movie, especially if it’s in a theater, one has had their popcorn, their larger-than-life drink, and candy to boot. At some point, a lot of people will have headed to the bathroom at least once or twice depending on the strength of their bladder, and others will grin and bear it as they try to enjoy the movie through the pain as they cross their legs or try to focus intently on the movie as they follow the story, rather than the insistent pulse that’s being sent out that they need to take a break or risk public embarrassment. Seriously, when Avengers: Endgame came out there was talk of when the best time would be to go and use the restroom so that one wouldn’t miss the best and most important parts. Of course, given that the movie was pretty great from one end to the other, it’s difficult to say which part that would be. But the fact is that there have been a lot of great movies that have run longer than 3 hours, and it’s everything a person can do to stay seated when their body is screaming at them to release a little pressure.
Here are some of the best movies over three hours.
5. The Godfather Part II
People definitely argue over which movie in the trilogy is best, but the second one often gets the vote since it shows the story of how Vito Corleone came to America and how he would eventually build what would become his empire and his family. It also shows the ongoing struggle of Michael Corleone as he does his best to maintain his father’s legacy and to keep his family together throughout troubled times. In the end unfortunately he’s not as successful as he would have liked to have been, but being the Don doesn’t come with a free pass and a get-out-of-drama-free card, as he quickly finds out.
4. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
It’s a little surprising that this movie is actually this long, but it does move at a pace that’s kind of deceptive since there’s so much to see and the dialogue is chopped up in a way that makes a person want to see more, even if it means going through a bit of exposition and a great deal of scene-building that takes a person through the horrors of the Civil War. On top of that, the three established characters that are after a supposed treasure are fun to watch since they each have a very distinctive personality. The ending was actually kind of amusing since it could have been extremely dark.
3. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
People were more than ready for this movie to come out when it finally did since they’d already read the books and seen the strangely animated movies that had come out a decade and more beforehand, so it was time to see a live-action presentation that could knock their socks off. And to be fair, the first movie was very well done and offered up a lot of action that had people pumped since there were obvious differences, but people were so jazzed that they didn’t care. But then when the credits started to roll and folks realized they would have to wait for the next movie to continue, a lot of theaters erupted in boos, or shocked silence.
2. The Green Mile
People are usually amazed when Stephen King shows that he can write something that’s not pure horror, but has strong roots in the real world. Granted, what John Coffey could do was based in fiction, but the rest of the movie was more or less grounded as could be. The individual books that were released before the movie were kind of nice since one had to wait patiently after reading one to move on to the next, and the movie didn’t really deviate too much from the book, apart from cutting out a lot of material that might have made things stretch a little too long. And wonder of wonders, the ending was actually well done.
1. Avengers: Endgame
This was the culmination of Phases 1 to 3 of the MCU, and it was so well done that a lot of people didn’t bother picking it apart right away, they waited until they managed to get home and their fingers hit the keyboard. Still, despite the incessant need of the fans to pick apart the movie and find every possible Easter egg there was, this movie was a lot of fun and if there were mistakes, which it’s likely there were, the action was so intense that a lot of people didn’t really care. Plus, it delivered an ending so sad that it rocked the entire MCU.
It’s still a long time to sit without a break.
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