I recently purchased Clue: The Movie, and realized that the whole thing takes place over the course of a single night. It got me to wondering what other movies take place pretty much in real-time and therefore take place over the time period of at most, two or three hours.
Russian Ark (the long continuous shot thing) is one, I think, though I’ve never seen it.
Any others?
Please note: I’m not looking for “flashback” (or flash-forward, for that matter) movies, in which most of the action takes place a long time ago (or a long time in the future). Forrest Gump, for example, wouldn’t qualify.
Searched through my movie collection and found my “shortest” movie is Clerks, which takes place in one day.
Pulp Fiction takes place over about 2 days and 1 night, if I remember correctly. Reservoir Dogs is a few hours, but has flashbacks from weeks before so it doesn’t really count. Shrek takes place over about 4 days.
At the other extreme, Shawshank Redemption lasts something like 19 years.
[spoiler]from the time Andy gets the rock hammer to the time he breaks out, Red says is “Less than 20 years.”
Also, the first parole hearing Red attends, he’s served 20 years of a life sentence. At the last one, where he’s approved for released, he’s served 40 years.[/spoiler]
So, the entire movie runs about 20 years and some change.
Oh, yeah! I forgot about the one film that I may have watched more than any other - The Breakfast Club (1985), starring Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald and… Judd Nelson!. It may not technically be a real-time film, but it comes pretty close.
Other films in the most-watched category - the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983), and Transformers: The Movie (1986), starring Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack and… Judd Nelson!.
However, I actually own copies of those films. I don’t own a copy of The Breakfast Club. But, it’s on TV all the time, and whenever it’s on I can’t help but watch. And I tend to be so absorbed in the film, that I often don’t even change the channel during commercials. :eek:
Dr Strangelove takes place within the span of a couple hours. Which I always find confusing, because I thought that it took place in the middle of the night but the outdoor combat scenes appear to be shot in broad daylight…
Halloween takes place over the course of a few hours. Sort-of. In the first ten minutes of the movie we see something that happens one night, then another night (and the following morning) 18 years later. But then the real action begins at about 3:00 PM that afternoon. When it ends is open to interpretation, but I’d say no later than about 10:00 PM.
indeed, it’s the small hours of the morning, but it also takes place across several timezomes. The military admin guys are somewhere in the US while the bombers slowly fly towards Russian airspace, so the daylight scenes can be accounted for…
no they can’t. Cos it’d still be dark in the USSR when the sun was rising in the US.
How interesting. Given the VERY small number of films made here every year (yes, i’m in Singapore for those in the know) that one just completely slipped by the radar of this resident! I asked the rest of the house and a couple of colleagues just now and nary a one has heard of it! [/pointless post]