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But he’s one of the few acts I’d to see for 210 minutes straight. Whether it’s a concert or a Broadway musical or a movie or a stand-up act, longer isn’t necessarily better.
I’m not in showbiz, but any time I’m asked to host and event or give a speech, I tell the organizers the same thing: Nobody ever leaves an awards show or a charity dinner chock-full o’ speakers and says, “Geez, I wish that had gone on for three hours.”
As soon as a movie screening is set and I’m adding it to my calendar, one of the first things I look up is the running time.
Part of that is a practical consideration. I need to know if the time fits into the pocket of availability I have for that particular day.
But it’s also about the experience. Unless a Scorsese or a Tarantino or a Christopher Nolan or a Ridley Scott is directing the film, if I see a running time exceeding 120 minutes, the first reaction is to groan. Really? Adam Sandler needs nearly two hours to tell the story of “That’s My Boy”? “Annie Hall” was 94 minutes!
With maybe half the films I see these days, I’d say about 15 minutes could be cut and they’d have a tighter, stronger story. Around the one-hour mark, there’s inevitably a moment when you look at your watch and wonder when they’re going to get on with it.
Now, as Roger Ebert once pointed out in the screening room years ago, the same people who complain about a movie’s running time will sit and watch football for nine hours straight. Point taken. And if you look at some of the longest American movies ever made, some are classics, from “The Right Stuff ” (193 minutes) to “The Godfather Part II” (200 minutes). When the material is so multi-layered and epic, of course the extended running time is warranted.
I could watch 200 hours of “The Godfather Part II” and still be left wanting more. When I screened “30 Minutes or Less,” which had a running time of only 54 minutes longer than 30 minutes, it still felt too long.
When former President Bill Clinton took the stage at the Democratic National Convention last week, he managed to give an electric speech about policy. For 20 minutes, he killed.
Problem was, Clinton wasn’t finished. He owned the arena — and then it felt like he was holding us all hostage.
If it’s Springsteen doing “Twist and Shout,” we’ll stand and cheer. If it’s an extended version of “Do the Math,” we’ll sit and squirm.