# Long, slow moving movies that are worth watching **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532 "2008-02-28T18:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/21 "2008-02-29T09:18:29Z")
[_Two-Lane Blacktop_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067893/), one of the best movies ever made (if you ask me). ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/22 "2008-02-29T11:54:27Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] Ebert said \*\*City of God \*\* was one of the best movies he’s ever seen so I had to rent it. It was long, but WELL worth sitting through. [/QUOTE] One of my favorite movies as well, but I would hardly call it _slow_. It has fantastic pacing and a lot of shocking action. To the OP, I would say Grave of the Fireflies. I’m not sure how long it was, but the film really took its time and the content was excruciatingly moving. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/23 "2008-02-29T12:21:25Z")
[The Kingdom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_%28television%29) by Lars von Trier. Although it was originally a miniseries, I saw it in the cinema with all the episodes strung together. Quite an experience. Recommended. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/24 "2008-02-29T12:37:51Z")
[The Straight Story](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/) moved very slowly. Liked it. ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/25 "2008-02-29T12:44:59Z")
Betty Blue (Director’s cut) - has very slow sections, and although there are intermittent fast sections throughout even these tend to be continuous scenes so the pace never really picks up. An amazing emotional rollercoaster of a film with a fairly long, drawn-out and pretty harrowing ending. I absolutely recommend watching the Director’s cut rather than any other version though - it adds ages to the film but unlike the the edited version which leaves so much out, the ending really makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/26 "2008-02-29T12:59:20Z")
[QUOTE=Surok] [The Kingdom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_%28television%29) by Lars von Trier. Although it was originally a miniseries, I saw it in the cinema with all the episodes strung together. Quite an experience. Recommended. [/QUOTE] That must have been some marathon! My vote would be [Solaris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_%28movie%29). Nearly three hours long and nothing happens. But it happens beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/27 "2008-02-29T16:30:55Z")
Good choices so far – _The Staight Story_, especially, IMHO. Ill add _Tous les Matins du Monde_, and _Tokyo Story_. And also that German production from last year, about an East German playwright and the secret police guy who is assigned his case. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/28 "2008-02-29T16:33:55Z")
> [@](#): > > My vote would be Solaris. Nearly three hours long and nothing happens. But it happens beautifully. As I’ve said in another thread recently, I find this movie (and the American remake) intolerably boring. I’ve fallen asleep several times in trying to get through them. Stanislas Lem’s original book (which these both change considerably) isn’t anywhere near as slow and boring. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/29 "2008-02-29T16:36:58Z")
[QUOTE=Windwalker] One of my favorite movies as well, but I would hardly call it _slow_. [/QUOTE] I thought it was a bit slow, actually. Very good movie, but not fast-paced. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/30 "2008-02-29T16:50:06Z")
_Reds_ is this exact type of movie. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/31 "2008-02-29T17:10:34Z")
I adore **Gosford Park** , which I wouldn’t really call fast-moving. I love all the long, slow tracking camera shots. I also love the Coen Brothers’ first movie, **Blood Simple** , which has pretty slow pacing but still mesmerizes me. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/32 "2008-02-29T22:04:33Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] The Good Shepherd [/QUOTE] I’d like to insert my Jason Boring joke here. I enjoyed Thin Red Line although it is long and slow for a war movie. Jarhead as well. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/33 "2008-02-29T22:37:06Z")
[**Kwaidan**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058279/). Four Japanese ghost stories, told with great deliberation, in one 183-minute movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/34 "2008-02-29T22:53:03Z")
_The Painted Veil_ with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts was a movie I thoroughly expected to loathe. An upper-class English love story set in a cholera epidemic in China at the turn of the century? Riiiight. Instead, I found it remarkably well-done, and nicely paced. As it turns out, I DID loathe the movie, but for personal reasons, not due to any failing on the movie’s part. It’s one of those “amazingly well done, but I’ll never watch it again” movies for me. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/35 "2008-02-29T23:37:47Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I’d like to insert my Jason Boring joke here. [/QUOTE] Gee, hadn’t heard that one before. 😉 What would people do if Damon hadn’t done the Bourne movies? If people found it “boring” because they expected some jacked-up Jason Bourne thriller spy thingy, it’s their own damn fault. It’s a slow, quiet movie about one man’s slowly losing his moral compass. It’s not a perfect movie (I wouldn’t have minded seeing Jason Bourne pop up just to blow away Wilson’s stupid grown son), but I found it fascinating, and one of the best movies of that year. Anyway, a lot of the ones I was going to mention have been mentioned, such as 2001 and The Straight Story and The Painted Veil. cymk mentioned The New World, and I’ll go further and say anything by Terrence Malick: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line (which msmith537 mentioned). Also, Fitzcarraldo Dersu Uzala Wings of Desire Until the End of the World Northfork There Will Be Blood The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring The English Patient The Fountain Sunshine (until the end, anyway) Brokeback Mountain I’m still scratching my head at how City of God is considered either long or slow. It’s longer than I remembered, at 2:10, because I could have sworn it was a 90 or less-minute film. It zipped by so quickly. But also, the memory I have of it is of a constantly moving camera, rotating continuously, and practically non-stop action with lots of gunplay and chase scenes. I need to see it again. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/36 "2008-02-29T23:54:26Z")
[QUOTE=cmyk] The New World [/QUOTE] That was the one I was going to mention. I couldn’t stand the movie, but many people think it’s a [masterpiece.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402399/) I’ll quote one of the rave-reviews, that I found very well written: > [@](#): > > … ‘The New World’ does have problems and I think it falls very much into a ‘buyer beware’ category. Malick’s movie is long – very long – and feels every moment of it. I don’t mind these things because I found it enchanting; many in the audience with me did not. These are not people who are ‘dumb,’ or who ‘don’t get it.’ They are people who are used to 99% of the films that you will see. ‘The New World’ is very self-indulgent at times. No one can reasonably defend the pace of the film. I want to and I can’t. This is a movie so full of substance that it is detrimental. It is so rich and textured that it would be hard to say where things could have been improved, but aside from the first forty minutes which deal largely with the question of whether or not the Europeans can survive the first winter or not, the dramatic ‘action,’ that is, the engine of a script that pushes one scene into the next, is idling at best. ‘The New World’ has a plodding pace and it took me on a nice quiet stroll that I enjoyed immensely. I can not, in good conscience though recommend to the man on the street that he go to see it. If less than a third of the theatre I was in walked out, I’d be stunned. I lost count because so many people left. Mostly the middle hour and a half of the film is to blame. Scenes drift from one to the next – they’re stunning and textured and personally I enjoyed them – but they involved a lot of hanging out. Two people hanging out in the woods. I understand that the film has deep meditative and philosophical meanderings about man’s relationship with nature and how one impacts the other. I get it. But a lot of the love story is about two people hanging out in the woods. All the time. If one of them had said ‘Let us go watch the grass grow for the afternoon,’ it would have been the most honest line in the entire film… ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/37 "2008-02-29T23:59:16Z")
Blade Runner. Go ahead and Pit me if you want, nerds. It’s slow as hell, and took me a few tries over a few years to finally get through. I admit it was good, though. Just slow. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/38 "2008-03-01T00:00:51Z")
City of God- Long- yes Boring- no Slow moving- no ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/39 "2008-03-01T00:02:08Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] Gee, hadn’t heard that one before. 😉 [/QUOTE] Actually, I thought I just made it up. ☹ [QUOTE=Equipoise] What would people do if Damon hadn’t done the Bourne movies? If people found it “boring” because they expected some jacked-up Jason Bourne thriller spy thingy, it’s their own damn fault. It’s a slow, quiet movie about one man’s slowly losing his moral compass. It’s not a perfect movie (I wouldn’t have minded seeing Jason Bourne pop up just to blow away Wilson’s stupid grown son), but I found it fascinating, and one of the best movies of that year. [/QUOTE] I didn’t expect a Jason Bourne movie. I just didn’t find it as compelling as I thought I would. It was supposed to be “The Godfather of spy movies” but ended up more like The Godfather III of spy movies. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532/40 "2008-03-01T00:33:55Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I didn’t expect a Jason Bourne movie. I just didn’t find it as compelling as I thought I would. It was supposed to be “The Godfather of spy movies” but ended up more like The Godfather III of spy movies. [/QUOTE] I’d echo this - I went into it expecting something cerebral but was still bored to tears by it. As much as I love them pretty much all the LOTR films are a bit too long for their own good. I had a Rings-athon with a friend a couple of years back and it took us two days to watch them whilst not completely tuning out (and she’d not even seen the later two). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-slow-moving-movies-that-are-worth-watching/439532.md?page=3)