RoQuEr

Has there been any finality on this issue? I know Das Boat was 275 minutes, is there anything longer than that?

Trigger

Dune uncut?
Lawrence of Arabia?

edit: Oh, and there was some Andy Warhol movie that was like 6 hours long or 24 hours long or something.

garmonbozia

not sure how long it is....but the Andy Warhol film you are thinking of is Empire and I would hardly call that a commercial film.

And the long version of Dune was never "released", at least not theatrically.....it was an edit made for tv. Even so...it's not much longer than 3 hours.....many many films are longer than that, so it's not even close..even Titanic is longer...not to mention Gone With the Wind.

Giles

even at 178 minutes "Meet Joe Black" was an endurance test of a movie, it seemed to go on, and on, and on..... zzzzz

"Cleopatra" is 320 minutes

Crocker Jarmen

What was the story with 1900? (that Bertilluci sp. movie with Robert Deniro, Burt Langcaster...) I saw it years ago on Bravo or some channel where it ran for something like six hours. I eventually lost interest in the movie but after investing four hours of watching decided I had to make it through to the end. Was it actually released into theaters at that un-godly length?

Giles

From Imdb:

"Original Italian version is 311 minutes long and was released as two separate films (Novecento, part 1 & 2). US R-rated version is 243 minutes long and deletes several scenes, including an explicit one in which a prostitute masturbates Robert De Niro and 'Gerard Depardieu' . A restored integral version was re-released in the USA in 1993 with a NC-17 rating."

RoQuEr

I'm confused now. IMDB says das boot is only 216 minutes, even though I saw it on my DVR and it said it was from 3:50 to 8:30.

So, according to IMDB,


Cleopatra : 320 (directors cut)
1900: 318 (foreign version)
Gone With The Wind : 238
Lawrence of Arabia : 228 (directors cut)
Das Boot : 216
Titanic : 194
Dune : 190
Meet Joe Black : 178

movielib

But that is a version that was never released and the extra footage is lost:

Trivia for Cleopatra on IMDb

cokeguy

I think it is Satantango.

Dan

clemente

Wasn't Das Boot a German TV mini-series that was edited as a US theaterical release?

Sunday Morning

Pearl harbor was edited like a commerical and was very long...does that count?

FiveO

The Directors Cut of Dances with Wolves was 224 minutes.


http://us.imdb.com/Title?0099348

Damfino

The 1968 Russian production of War and Peace runs 390 minutes (6.5 hours)

Then of course there is the infamous Cure for Insomnia which runs 5,220 minutes. (87 HOURS)

Pants

I've read that the longest commercial film (ie. not experimental or crazy art film) is Cleopatra and that Branagh's version of Hamlet runs just one minute shy of the record set by Cleopatra 242min. vs. 243 min.

Giles

yes, along the same lines a mini series version of "Fanny and Alexander" at 5 hours is available on Region 2 disc.

Trigger

Sweet - I guessed 2 out of the top 10.

Rypro 525

Godfather 2 was 195, woodstock dc was 241, appocalyps now redux was 205, lotr ee was 209, gods and generals was 240.

Burnt Alive

The Greatest Story Ever Told clocks in at 260 minutes.

Rizor

Meet Joe Black's kinda pathetic up there. In their theatrical forms, The Fellowship of the Rings is 178 minutes and The Two Towers is 179 minutes.

The Godfather Part II is 3 hours and 20 minutes (200 minutes). And then you have many other films. I doubt it, but is Hamlet (Kenneth Branaugh) considered commercial? It was 242 minutes.

Ben-Hur is 222 minutes. The restored version of Spartacus is 198 minutes and The Ten Commandments is 220 minutes.

Jericho

I assuming Gettysberg doesn't count as commerical? I think the longest movie I own sans Gettysberg is Cleopatra. Ben-Hur, the JFK director's cut, Gone with the Wind, the Ten Commandments and a few others all easily top 3 hours, but nothing comes close to either of the first two.

cokeguy

I take "commercial" in this context to mean realeased theatrically. In which case I stick by my answer, which everyone else seemed to peruse right over. Satantango is 7.5 hours.

Dan

Rocky_Stallone

Braveheart was pretty long, it's almost 4 hrs.

Staccatos

Shoah (1985) - 566 minutes = 9 1/2 hours.

Holocaust documentary. Released theatrically with many intermissions.

movielib

Didn't people who saw that in the theater see it over the course of several days?

Pants

Also the recently released (on DVD) Rusian version of War and Peace was 9 or 10 hours I think. I think that's the winner for narative film.

Edit: I checked and it is 403 minutes. That's 6 hours and 43 minutes!