10 Great Movies Over 3 Hours Long

There are few things better than a movie that doesn’t overstay its welcome, clocking in at a tight two hours or anything under. It’s the average length of time a person can sit in a seat without having to stretch their legs or use the bathroom, and we as a culture have come to expect that our filmic entertainment keep to that understood rule.

There are, however, exceptions to that rule that prove that sometimes movies need to take a little bit more time to let us explore their worlds. There has been plenty of talk lately about how movies ought to be shorter by far (and with two decades of bloated studio blockbusters pushing two and a half hours, we don’t necessarily disagree), but sometimes longer really is better. To prove our point, we’ve selected ten of the most beloved movies that clock in at longer than three hours, and yet still manage to keep our eyes glued to the screen the entire 180 minutes (or sometimes way more than that). Don’t be afraid to sit down for the three-plus hour film, and don’t be afraid to get up if you need to—as James Cameron once said, “They can see the scene they missed when they come see it again.” Exactly right.

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