Movies that cover long periods of time? (At least 100 years)
 

What are some movies that cover long periods of time? Say, at least a century.

For example, A.I., since the conclusion takes place in the far future.

Haven't seen it yet, but would The Fountain count?

I don't suppose you'd consider the Back to the Future Trilogy appropriate ;) Or any "time travel" movies.

It's really a tall order for a movie since, in general, to cover that sort of timespan you'd need a large turnover in characters, but not story.

2001: A Space Odyssey
History of the World: Part 1

Interview with the Vampire comes to mind.

How about Bicentennial Man and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I guess you can also count Army of Darkness, Burton's Planet of the Apes, and the films in the Terminator franchise, even though the evens in those films take place primarily at one end of the overall time span (although they are technically time-travel movies).

The Red Violin
Izô
Highlander
Goodbye Uncle Tom
Versus (Kind of like a never-ending reincarnation twist)
Trog/Iceman/Encino Man :)

Something tells me there's a Ken Russell movie that fits in with this question. But nothing comes to mind.

The Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and pretty much any other time-travel movie.

Highlander. And some vampire movies, ghost movies, and various others about immortal characters.

Intolerance.

Edit: took too long to write this.

Is it Altered States with William Hurt?

Sunshine (1999) - maybe not quite 100 years in total, I don't recall exactly, but it is pretty close. Great movie too.

12 Monkeys

First one that came to mind. :up:

Should pare the question down to not include immortals or time travel. Makes things more complicated.

lol, yeah, just thought of that a few minutes ago. But that involved a quick
time-travel scenario with the primal man running around town.

Russell's Gothic seems to come to mind with the conclusion of the film taking place in contemporary times. But that's probably way too brief to be included.

Monster Squad

A miniseries but a fine one : Roots.
I believe some of the Hellraiser movies do - Bloodlines for example. Not so fine.

That was my first thought.

Things to Come covers 100 years (1936 - 2036).

It's kind of a cheat, but I think Little Big Man covers over 100 years (Jack Crabb is 121 years old in 1970, Little Bighorn was in 1876, and scenes of Jack's early years are likely before 1870). In the book, Jack was 37 in 1876 and narrated his story in 1954.

It's kind of a confusing movie, but after seeing it a couple times, and based on my interpretation, I would say it doesn't count. I won't say any more about it to spoil it, since you haven't seen it, but maybe you can come back here after you've seen it and tell what you think.

Surprised nobody has said Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. (I know, it's another time travel movie. :))

The Mummy, and Mummy II

Technically, you could say that the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring covers about 3,000 years.

I don't think flashbacks like in LOTR would count, since the events in the story actually only take place over a period of about 14-16 months (IIRC).

Nick Danger did.

How old was Moses supposed to be when he died?

The Ten Commandments

Well, technically Gandalf left Frodo with The One Ring in Bag End for 16-17 years ;)

But, yeah, Frodo's quest was right at a year. April 12, 3018 - March 25, 3019 (per the appendix, I'm only so geeky).

Other than Roots, are there any movies that cover multiple generations over many decades? That's a lot less common than, say, Spock going back in time and saving the whales.

Oopsie. My bad.