For as long as the feature film has existed as a form of artistic expression, two hours have seemed a comfortable maximum runtime for most movies. Maybe some filmmakers or stories can justify making a movie that's up to two and a half hours, or sometimes even three. But exceeding three hours is rare (though not entirely unheard of).
Still, some films push their runtimes even further. These are not defined as miniseries', nor are they experimental films, as they all have a concrete narrative and set of themes they explore (for example, the longest officially released experimental film — which shows electronic products being transported internationally, in real-time — is approximately five weeks long!) The following films are still daunting in their length, starting at eight hours and ending at 14 and a half, but may prove rewarding watches for the bravest cinephiles out there (or maybe just the ones with the most free time).
'Dead Souls' (2018) — 495 minutes
Wang Bing is a contemporary Chinese filmmaker whose name is synonymous with long films, usually epic-length documentaries that span multiple hours. Dead Souls is one of his longest, running over eight hours and interviewing numerous individuals who survived their time in brutal labor camps set up by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1950s.
With the event having occurred so long ago and the remaining survivors all in the latter stages of their lives, it's likely the length came from Wang Bing wanting to document as much as possible from the people who experienced the ordeal firsthand before it's too late. In that way, this documentary that spans one-third of a day honors and remembers as many of their stories as it can.
'Heremias: (Book One: Legend of the Lizard Princess)' (2006) — 519 minutes
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Lav Diaz is another filmmaker known for the incredible length his films reach. In his case, they are often fictional, though they achieve a sense of realism and immersion through minimal editing and lengthy scenes that can play out in agonizing real-time.
Heremias: (Book One: Legend of the Lizard Princess) may have a somewhat deceptive title, as while it sounds fantastical, it's a crime drama about a man who becomes involved with a gang of criminals in a remote location... but he does a lot of wandering through the wilderness first; for hours, really. Diaz had made a handful of films of a comparable length before 2006 and continued to demonstrate his unwillingness to bow to cinematic conventions.
'Death in the Land of Encantos' (2007) — 540 minutes
Lav Diaz returned in 2007, just a year after making the almost nine-hour long Heremias, with Death in the Land of Encantos. He seemed to want to compensate for not hitting the nine-hour mark in 2006, as this time, the runtime was right on nine hours to the minute.
A bleak, despairing, personal epic about the struggles to continue living after a devastating typhoon leaves hundreds dead and even more without homes, Death in the Land of Encantos pulls no punches in its content nor on the bladders of those who choose to view it.
'Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks' (2003) — 551 minutes
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks isn't quite the longest film from Wang Bing - he has a pair of longer documentaries classified as experimental - but it is his most well-known. And even if it doesn't hit 14 or 15 hours like his very longest, it still clocks in at a more than respectable nine hours and 10 minutes.
It takes a comprehensive and heartbreakingly detailed look at the struggles of a group of factory workers dealing with living in an area where factory closures and poverty tear lives apart. Considering it was filmed over about ten years, the fact it condenses so much time into just 551 minutes while retaining its depth is quite impressive.
'Shoah' (1985) — 566 minutes
There's no shortage of Holocaust-related films, given it was one of the 20th century's most significant and horrible events and one of the largest losses of life in human history. Steven Spielberg made what is arguably his masterpiece in 1993 when he tackled the subject, and the more recent Son of Saul was another excellent Holocaust-related film that made for a difficult but brilliantly effective watch.
Shoah stands out amongst them all, though, as it's a documentary on the subject, it runs for about nine and a half hours, and it documents the event primarily through dozens and dozens of interviews, with no archive footage used. It's an emotionally taxing but immensely rewarding watch, and it does a remarkable job at trying to document and explore an incomprehensibly awful and shocking period in history.
'Evolution of a Filipino Family' (2004) — 647 minutes
Lav Diaz's longest film is also one of his most famous. It spans about a decade and uses its runtime of almost 11 hours to document the trials and tribulations of a family of farmers in the Philippines.
Like many narrative films that reach these kinds of epic lengths, Evolution of a Filipino Family is challenging yet hopefully hypnotic for patient viewers. Concerned more with presenting an experience through its characters rather than a straightforward A to B plot, it's a definitive film in the Slow Cinema movement.
'How Yukong Moved the Mountains' (1976) — 763 minutes
One of the longest documentaries of all time at about 12 and a half hours, How Yukong Moved the Mountains is a French film about the final years of the Cultural Revolution in China, filmed between 1972 and 1974.
Therefore, it shows an outsider's perspective on a specifically Chinese topic. While it is defined as one film, it's divided into 14 shorter documentaries that focus on one key area or subject of the overall movement. This decision would also make it easier to digest for anyone willing to give it a watch.
'Out 1' (1971) — 775 minutes
While Jacques Rivette might not be as well-known as other French directors of his time, like influential Jean-Luc Godard or the talented and subversive Agnès Varda, he's just as deserving of attention from fans of the French New Wave. His films were often dauntingly long and strange, and none are as long (or weird) as Out 1.
That being said, Out 1 might also be his very best film, even if the nearly 13-hour runtime makes it his most challenging. It's an odd, unpredictable descent into paranoia and endless intrigue, with its unusual narrative that weaves together conspiracy theorists, shadowy organizations, and theater troupes. There's no other film that gives a similar experience to watching Out 1, and there will never be.
'La Flor' (2018) — 803 minutes
Mariano Llinás's La Flor is perhaps best described as six different movies that weave together because the same cast is featured in each. Different viewers will likely find other connections within, depending on their own experience, whereas some may feel like they've marathoned half a dozen separate films.
Regardless, it's hard to fault the film's ambition. If assessed as one whole movie, it's the longest non-experimental, non-documentary film of all time, with a runtime exceeding a whopping 13 hours.
'Resan (The Journey)' (1987) — 873 minutes
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The longest non-experimental film of all time is a documentary on nuclear weapons and the paranoias and tensions that come with them, made at the tail end of what's generally considered and defined as the Cold War.
It's a topic that director Peter Watkins had explored before, about 20 years earlier in the excellent The War Game. The key difference? That film is one of his shortest, at just 48 minutes, while Resan (The Journey) is approximately 18 times longer! Perhaps the rest of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s gave him much more he wanted to say on the subject...