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WSJ critic: Movies Getting Too Long

Oct. 21, 2007 -- Wall Street Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern complains that filmmakers increasingly confuse movies that run long with being great. Compared to a normal length of 90-100 minutes, the recent King Kong remake weighed in at 187 minutes, The Good Shepherd 167 minutes, Munich 164 minutes, Mystic River 137 and Dreamgirls 131 minutes. “Every fall and winter, as award ceremonies beckon, we are beset by films whose extended running times are supposed to signal seriousness and/or ambition,” Morgenstern writes. Many classics prove that fitting into the norm is no obstacle to greatness: Rashomon ran just 88 minutes, French classic Breathless 90 minutes and Dr. Strangelove 96 minutes.

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Note from author Robert Marich. The trend to bloated films can also be blamed on leaks from research test screenings, prompting fewer such preview screenings that would identify scenes best deleted (discussed at length in Ch. 2 – Research in  Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook). Also, the long running times are considered an asset to DVDs, resulting in less scissoring. Finally, as Morgenstern writes, talent's clout often results in art trumping concerns about the audience, with Brad Pitt reportedly staring down attempts by Warner Bros. to trim The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Its 160-minute running time is matched by the length of the title.