We’ve all become sick of needlessly long movies…films running between 130 and 150 minutes or longer for no apparent reason other than a lack of basic narrative discipline. But this doesn’t appear to be an issue in the case of Josh Safdie‘s Marty Supreme (A24, 12.25).
Responses to last night’s “secret” Supreme screening at the New York Film Festival have been pretty good. Some have expressed vague concerns over a 2 hour and 29 minute running time, but hell…that’s nothing. Especially if the film in question has the Safdie heebie jeebies.
Length, of course, has always been immaterial or irrelevant when it comes to quality — no bad film can be too short, no good film can be too long.
If you’re talking “long but good movie,” 165 to 180 is HE’s sweet spot. Long but a little lighter, tighter and trimmer…slightly less indulged.
HE’s favorite 165 to 180s: The Godfather (175), Heat (170), Patton (172), The Best Years of Our Lives (170), Saving Private Ryan (169), The Thin Red Line (170), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (174), The Young Lions (167), The Longest Day (178), Beau Is Afraid (179), Dogville (’03), The Great Escape (172), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (171), Braveheart (178).
I even have a certain elevated regard for marginally flawed films in this realm…King of Kings (168), In Harm’s Way (165), The Towering Inferno (165), The Good Shepherd (167), Alexander (175), etc.
Many three-hours-or-longer films reside on my all-time greatest roster — The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, Lawrence of Arabia, The Wolf of Wall Street, Scarface, The Irishman, Barry Lyndon, Ben-Hur, Titanic, The Seven Samurai, Gone With The Wind, Spartacus, etc.