I watched Thank You for Smoking on Monday night. The film's biting wit and perect "just over the top feel" should be commended. However, the element of this film for which I have the most respect is its length. In a tidy hour and 38 minutes the film is able to craft a fine story as well as give us something to talk and think about. After sitting through all of the award season movies, this feat seems like a marvel. Making a longer film does not mean you are making a better film. I don't have to take your work more seriously because the studio let you run past 120 minutes.
I must confess that there are some movies that need and deserve the time to develop. But for every Boogie Nights there are oodles of movies like What Women Want (the horrendous Mel Gibson-Helen Hunt picture where Mel hears what women are thinking for an unbelievable 126 minutes). More importantly, great films can be brief. Let's not forget that Alvy was able to meet, fall for, lose, and try to reconcile with Annie Hall all in an hour and 33 minutes, and still have time to bring out Marshall McLuhan for a cameo.
Like the films that I am praising I will be brief. Let us know some of your favorite short movies as well as those that earn the right to be long.
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1 comment:
I almost rented Thank You for Smoking yesterday; unfortunately I picked up The Human Stain instead.
Your challenge is a good one - it's easy to find movies that should have been shorter, much harder to find those that could be longer.
I just came back from seeing Zodiac which is almost 3 hrs. When it was over I couldn't believe 3 hours had gone by.
Peggy K
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