The story of an Irish adventurer’s social rise in the 18th century, Barry Lyndon doesn’t have the wide appeal of Dr. But like all Kubrick movies, it’s sumptuous and virtuosic, and the added length allows Kubrick to sink even deeper into the detail and totality of vision that characterize his work. While Stanley Kubrick was never shy about letting his movies breathe, Barry Lyndon has the honor of being his longest work: At 203 minutes, it’s longer than both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. Plus, it features cinema’s least-happy kiss. (A less-prestigious feat, sure.) Francis Ford Coppola makes the extra run time count: Part II is only 25 minutes longer than the first installment, but it expands the scope considerably, detailing the criminal rise of Vito Corleone and the spiritual fall of his son. Not only is The Godfather: Part II the rare sequel that’s better than the original, it also holds the distinction of being longer, as well.
Tarkovsky is the director’s director, and while Andrei Rublev might not sound like the most accessible iTunes rental for your average Friday night, it might just make you smarter. Andrei Tarkovsky is arguably the patron saint of long films, and at 205 minutes, Andrei Rublev - his reflection on medieval Russia and the role of the Christian artist - is his longest film. Your favorite ensemble comedy probably owes an unseemly debt to this film: See it and appreciate both even more.
But it’s worth it to see the full vision of Stanley Kramer, which encompassed the many ways in which we can be driven mad in pursuit of a large sum of money.
One of the classic American comedies, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is also a long, long, long, long movie - particularly for a comedy it’s 197-minute-long Criterion version is a doozy. The movie itself has a mixed reputation - the three-hour version was heavily cut for time, and fans say the longer versions are much better - but it’s worth watching as a time capsule of the scale and scope of classical Hollywood cinema before it disappeared forever. The sets! The stars! The story! Everything about the 192-minute Cleopatra is larger than life - including the budget, which was the highest ever for a film at the time. But the trick is not minding that it hurts. Sure, your butt might hurt after sitting through all of David Lean’s 216-minute widescreen epic. In 186 minutes, it’s a gripping exploration of how seemingly good people can convince themselves to do the work of totalitarian regimes. Spencer Tracy leads an all-star cast in this dramatization of the post-war trials of Nazi judges for crimes against humanity. Watching it is the cinematic equivalent of eating oysters and snails. Spartacus is a bunch of movies at once: a rousing sword-and-sandals epic, a civil-rights analogy, and the least Kubrick-y movie Kubrick ever made.