# Movies with intermissions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 2, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673 "2014-03-02T14:54:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/1 "2014-03-02T14:54:02Z")
Is there some way to research how many movies have had intermissions? I just saw part of Oliver! today and had forgotten it had an intermission.
Just off the top of my head I can remember:
Oliver
My Fair Lady
Gone With the Wind
Gandhi
Ben-Hur
Spartacus
Quo Vadis
How the West Was Won
Dr. Zhivago
plus others I’m sure I’ll remember as soon as I post this thread.
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/2 "2014-03-02T14:56:19Z")
2001: A Space Odyssey had an intermission in its original run.
It’s a Mad Mad mad Mad World also.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/3 "2014-03-02T14:57:15Z")
2001, and any of the early 3-camera Cinerama movies. They had to pause to change the enormous reels all at once.
ETA: 2001 wasn’t a 3-camera movie, but it had an intermission anyway.
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/4 "2014-03-02T14:58:50Z")
Wikipedia lists quite a few:
> **[Intermission | Films](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermission#Films)**
>
> Intermissions in early films had a practical purpose: they were needed to facilitate the changing of reels. When Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth), starring Sarah Bernhardt, opened on July 12, 1912, in the Lyceum Theatre in New York City, the four reel film was shown in four acts, with an intermission at each reel change.
> The technology improved, but as movies became progressively longer, the intermission fulfilled other needs. It gave the audience a breather, and p...
The only time I can actually recall experiencing an intermission in the theater, is when we saw the TV version of Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander”, which ran 5+ hours.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/5 "2014-03-02T15:24:21Z")
Lawrence of Arabia.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/6 "2014-03-02T15:44:11Z")
Virtually all Bollywood (Indian) films have intermissions.
ETA: Oops, I see the wiki link mentioned this
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/7 "2014-03-02T16:05:15Z")
_Monty Python and the Holy Grail_
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### Author:  [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/8 "2014-03-02T16:05:15Z")
During my only trip abroad, in Switzerland, I went to see “Batman Returns”. Halfway through it, the movie stopped, the lights went up and everybody went out for a smoke. Even though this movie doesn’t have an intermission, I was told that this was common around there.
Now that I’m older, I wish that ALL movies had an intermission halfway through, for the needed bathroom break.
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### Author:  [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/9 "2014-03-02T16:13:21Z")
West Side Story.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/10 "2014-03-02T16:17:47Z")
> [@randwill](#):
>
> Now that I’m older, I wish that ALL movies had an intermission halfway through, for the needed bathroom break.
I sure could have used one for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2_. I didn’t get to see the conversation in King’s Cross until I got the DVD for Christmas.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/11 "2014-03-02T16:20:06Z")
I seem to recall _The Blue Max_ had an intermission. Many films back about that time did, IIRC.
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### Author:  [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/12 "2014-03-02T16:25:12Z")
I clearly remember _The Last Emperor_ having an intermission, as I didn’t know that going in and it struck me as odd. Plus, that’s got to be the most recent movie I saw in a theatre with an intermission.
_Titanic_ had my own, beverage-inspired intermission, but the movie didn’t stop for that.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/13 "2014-03-02T16:39:29Z")
> [@randwill](#):
>
> West Side Story.
And a prologue! (of sorts). Not an actual film of a band, but a prologue.
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### Author:  [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/14 "2014-03-02T17:03:14Z")
I’ll bet several of the films with intermissions had musical prologues. I know **2001** did.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/15 "2014-03-02T17:07:59Z")
I think “Dances With Wolves” did. Did the “Godfather” movies?
“JFK”, which is also 3 hours long, did not. I remember asking the concession people about this, and decided not to get anything when they said it didn’t.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/16 "2014-03-02T17:10:58Z")
[Hamlet in 1996 is one of the more recent ones to have one.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_%281996_film%29)
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/17 "2014-03-02T17:14:37Z")
The most recent film I can remember having an intermission was Braveheart (much needed at the time too)
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### Author:  [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/18 "2014-03-02T17:15:42Z")
Tess, the Roman Polanski film with Nastassja Kinski had an intermission
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/19 "2014-03-02T17:23:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> I sure could have used one for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2_. I didn’t get to see the conversation in King’s Cross until I got the DVD for Christmas.
Crivens! Wasn’t there over a year’s intermission between DH part 1 and part 2?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/20 "2014-03-02T17:49:21Z")
_The Great Race_
> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> Wikipedia lists quite a few:
> [Intermission - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermission#Films)
[As does TV Tropes.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Intermission)
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