An Epic Marathon

You know what would make for an extremely long feeling movie marathon? Epics! I just had the idea that if you showed only Historical Epics, you could get away with maybe 6 movies in a whole day. I decided to see what I had in my collection and how much time it would eat up if I watched them all. I’m giving a slightly loose definition of epic, but I’m adamant about a 180 minute (3 hour) minimum run time. I’m going by the times on my particular DVD boxes, because the times vary from website to website. I’m leaving out things I don’t own and I’m leaving out Braveheart because screw Mel Gibson.

Seven Samurai
Criterion Collection Edition, 2 DVDs 207 minutes (3 hours, 27 minutes)

Ben Hur
1959 version, 2 DVDs, 212 minutes (3 hours, 32 minutes)

The Ten Commandments
1956 version, 2 DVDs, 220 minutes (3 hours 40 minutes)

Lord of The Rings Trilogy
Extended editions (each movie is over the 180 mark), 6 DVDs, 682 minutes (11 hours, 22 minutes)

The Last Emperor
TV Cut, 1 DVD, 218 minutes (Three hours, 38 minutes)

Godfather Triolgy*
4 DVDs or 3 Blu-Ray, 549 minutes (9 hours, 9 minutes)

Kingdom of Heaven
Director's Cut, 2 DVDs, 194 minutes (3 hours, 14 minutes)

Spartacus
Criterion Edition 1 DVD, 196 minutes (3 hours 16 minutes)

Amadeus
Directors Cut, 2 DVDs, 180 minutes (3 hours)

Hamlet
Branagh Version, 2 DVDs, 242 minutes (4 hours 2 minutes)

Schindler's List
2 DVDs, 196 Minutes (3 hours, 16 minutes)

Once Upon a Time in America
Diector's Cut, 2 DVDs, 229 minutes (3 Hours 49 minutes)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
There are two main editions, this one and the Special Extended cut. 1 DVD, 177 or 179 minutes (Because I feel bad about it missing by a minute or two. By the time you get through the menus and the warnings, it gets to 3 hours)

Casino
2 DVDs, 179 minutes (Another one I felt bad about missing the 3 hour mark by 1 minute)


Total:
18 Movies
3683 Minutes (About 62 hours, which would put you into the third day of solid watching.)
30 discs (So you'd pretty much end up swapping discs as many times as you would without the epics.)

If you start on Thanksgiving, and go all the way to Sunday, you could do it. You'd have to park it for about 16 hours a day and really be into very long movies, but if you've got no other plans for next weekend, give it a whirl.



* Yes, yes, Parts 1 and 3 are only 170 minutes each, but who cares? It would feel strange just watching Part 2, wouldn't it? Tell you what, take some minutes from Braveheart, which we aren't watching anyway and give them to the Godfather movies. I guess you could watch both halves of Red Cliff or Kill Bill instead if you really want, but those are both cheats as the theatrical releases were split into 2 movies each.