The 20 longest movies of all time (2023)

These are some of the longest films ever made in English.

Of course, there are films made in other languages ​​around the world that are just as long, if not longer, than some of the films on this list, such as Béla Tarr's seven-hour episodic film.satanic tango. Recently, the audience can remember the Russian filmLeviathanwhich kept us seated for two hours and twenty-one minutes.

Here are 20 of the longest-running movies of all time that many viewers watch over and over again, regardless of the running time.

1.blown by the wind

Length: 238 min (3h, 58 min)

A 1939 American classic film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming, based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell. Viewers around the world loved the epic love story of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) set during American Civilian.

The film swept the board as early as 1939oskarand soon became one of the most celebrated films of all time. However, this classic film has a complicated legacy and has long been criticized for its flaws.Racist representations and the way they portray slavery.

2.Once upon a time in America

Length: 229 min (3h, 49 min)

Sergio Leone's 1984 gangster epic tells the complex story of a small group of Jewish gangsters from New York's Lower East Side, spanning over 40 years.

The original version ran nearly four and a half hours (269 minutes), but was shortened to 229 minutes for European audiences.

3.Lawrence of Arabia

Length: 216 min (3h, 36 min)

The 1962 film, directed by David Lean, is a popular classic clocking in at over three hours. A British look at key developments in the Middle East at the turn of the 20th century, particularly in relation to geopolitics and the development of the oil industry and its fundamental contribution to British society.

4.now how

Length: 212 min (3h, 32min)

In this 1959 film, directed by William Wyler, Charlton Heston plays a Jewish prince betrayed by a Roman friend and sent into slavery. He eventually regains his freedom and returns to seek revenge.

5.cleopatra

Runtime: 248 minutes (4 hours, 8 minutes)

Four Horas by Joseph L. Mankiewiczcleopatra(1963) received mixed reviews, but there is no doubt that Cleopatra is a cinematic spectacle, with spectacular scenes such as the famous Queen's entry into Rome.

Elizabeth Taylor plays Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, who seduces two Roman rulers: Emperor Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) and his general Mark Antony (Richard Burton). Their passionate romance can decide the fate of the throne.

6.the irish people

Runtime: 209 minutes (3 hours, 29 minutes)

Martin Scorsese's 2019 film is based on the Charles Brandt novelI hear you're painting houses.

The epic saga clocks in at 209 minutes, but audiences love following the life and times of former union leader and hitman Frank Sheeran in postwar America.

7.apocalypse now

Length: 202 min (3h, 22 min)

Inspired by Joseph Conrad's 1899 non-romance.heart of darkness, the film is not only over 3 hours long, but it took FrancisI will goIt took Coppola a long time to complete it due to a number of problems encountered during filming.

Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is a US Army officer serving in Vietnam to assassinate a renegade Special Forces Colonel (Marlon Brando), who sees himself as a god and is framed for murder. If you love this movie, it's also worth watching.Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, the Eleanor Coppola documentary filmed on location in the Philippines.

8.The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Length: 201 min (3h, 21 min)

Peter Jackson's 2003 fantasy adventure film is the last and longest film in the trilogy, but it has fans around the world who don't mind three hours or more. Gandalf and Aragorn, heirs of ancient kings, fight to save Gondor from Sauron's troops. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam with the One Ring approach Mount Doom.

9.The Godfather: Part II

Duration: 200 minutes (3 hours, 20 minutes)

Francis Ford Coppola's epic 1974 crime drama is considered one of the greatest American films of the late 20th century.

The Godfather sequel focuses on the early life and career of Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) in 1920s New York as his son Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) builds the family crime syndicate. In 1993, it was listed as "Culturally Significant" on the National Film Registry.

10Spartacus

Runtime: 197 min (3 hours, 17 min)

1960s historical epic directed by a legendary filmmakerStanley Kubrick. Slave Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) and his fellow slaves lead a violent revolt against Rome in a film that takes over three hours to tell the story.

11Schindler's List

Running time: 195 minutes (3 hours, 15 minutes)

Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust drama runs over three hours and had a profound impact on audiences when it was released. It tells the true story of the life of German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who tried to save his Jewish workforce from the horrors of the Nazis in German-occupied Poland.

12Titanic

Length: 194 min (3h, 14 min)

The 1997 film that had viewers from all over the world come to watch the sinking of theTitanic. This 194-minute blockbuster epic, directed by James Cameron, broke multiple box office records.

A beautiful girl in the first-class section of the Titanic falls in love with a handsome but poor artist, who travels on a third-class ticket aboard the luxurious but hapless R.M.S. titanic

13The right thing

Runtime: 193 min (3h, 13 min)

Philip Kaufman's 1983 historical drama tells the story of the original Mercury 7, military pilots chosen to be the astronauts for Project Mercury.

14the green mile

Length: 189 min (3h, 9min)

A 1999 fantasy drama based on Stephen King's 1996 novel of the same name.

The life of a death row guard (Tom Hanks) at Cold Mountain Penitentiary nicknamed "The Green Mile" is turned upside down by an enigmatic convict (Michael Clarke Duncan) with a mysterious gift.

fifteen.jfk

Length: 189 min (3h, 9min)

Oliver Stone's 1991 hit film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In the acclaimed drama, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison leads an investigation that uncovers more behind the assassination of the president than official history suggests. .

sixteen.magnolias

Runtime: 188 minutes (3 hours, 8 minutes)

Paul Thomas Anderson's epic and intimate 1999 mosaic about the intertwined lives of characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley. Their paths cross by fate, coincidence or pure chance.

17my king

Duration: 185 minutes (3 hours, 05 minutes)

A 2005 epic monster adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. A greedy filmmaker assembles a team of filmmakers who set out from New York on an expedition to the fabled Skull Island, home to cannibalistic natives and, as they are about to discover, a giant ape. Peter Jackson definitely likes his movies to be long.

18the deer hunter

Duration: 182 min (3h, 02 min)

Released in 1978, Michael Cimino's epic Vietnam War film examines how the Vietnam War affects the lives of three steelworkers in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.

19dance with wolves

Duration: 181 min (3h, 01 min)

A 1990 film directed by Kevin Costner. Lieutenant John Dunbar travels to the US border to find a military outpost where he befriends wolves and Lakota Indians. The film almost avoids continuing the "white savior" complex, since, ultimately, it is the natives who save Dunbar and not the other way around.

20the wolf of Wall Street

Runtime: 180 minutes (3 hours, 0 minutes)

A huge commercial success in 2013, Martin Scorsese directed this darkly humorous biographical thriller based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.

Over the course of three hours, we witness wealthy stockbroker Jordan Belfort's spectacular descent into a life of crime, corruption and the federal government. Definitely worth three hours of his time.