The 15 Longest American Films So Far, Ranked By Duration (2024)

People are frankly not used to watching films that last longer than 150 minutes. When a film passes the 3-hour mark, let us say that people start feeling like they are sitting on fire, or perhaps the walls are closing in?

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Maybe once a year one will sit and watch films on the longer side like Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (running 3 hours and 4 minutes), but what about those films that really attempt to challenge audiences by reaching even the 4-hour mark? As this list shows, they can be beautiful epics really worth the extra devotion their creators ask of viewers... or they can just fall flat.

Updated on May 25th, 2021 by Kristen Palamara: The length of movies is more important than it might seem as if there's not enough time to fully tell the story it could feel rushed or if it's way too long it can feel like it drags on forever. These are the longest movies ever made that took the risk of potentially frustrating their audiences with long runtimes. There are older epic classics like The Ten Commandments, recent releases in the category of longest American movies like The Irishman, and recent re-releases of movies with longer run times like Zack Snyder's Justice League.

War And Peace (1956) - 3h 28m

• Available on Hoopla and Pluto TV

Although not the longest film ever, War and Peace certainly makes the list at almost 3.5 hours long. The epic movie is based on the epic Leo Tolstoy novel of the same name and is available to stream on Pluto TV.

Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer star as Natasha and Andrei and the movie follows the intricately detailed lives of the Russian aristocracy leading up to Napoleon's invasion from relationships beginning to babies being born to people dying and everything else about the lives of the protagonists.

The Irishman (2019) - 3h 29m

• Available on Netflix

Everyone has heard of and/or watched this Netflix film by now and for good reason: Martin Scorsese’s latest masterpiece and another great collaboration between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (referring here to Heat, not Righteous Kill, even though it was bashed more than it deserved), this film was one of the few Netflix Originals to receive 10 Oscars nominations and 5 Golden Globes nods.

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The film follows the narration of an elderly Frank Sheeran (De Niro) as he tells of his time as a hitman for a criminal organization in 1950s Philadelphia.

Titanic (1997) - 3h 30m

• Available onStarz

One of the most beloved epic love stories,Titanicis based on the real-life tragedy of the Titanic sinking and the thousands of people who perished on the ship.

The movie is almost split into two genres with its long run time as the first half focuses on Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) meeting. Their love and admiration for each other grow in the first half while the second half focuses on the boat starting to sink and the mayhem that ensues as everyone, including Jack and Rose, tries to survive.

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) - 3h 30m

• Available onTubi and Pluto TV

This epic comedy film by Stanley Kramer (famous for Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and Inherit The Wind) tells the story of the race for the $350,000 that "Smiler" Grogan hid after he committed a robbery and before he was imprisoned for 15 years.

When he crashes on the highway, five people stop to help: a dentist, a mover, two friends going to Las Vegas, and an entrepreneur (sounds like the beginning of a joke). Moments before his demise, Grogan talks about $350,000 buried in Santa Rosita State Park under a large W marking. This film had so many cameo appearances by then-famous or soon-to-be-famous actors (including the comedic trio Three Stooges) that it would be difficult to list them all.

Ben-Hur (1959) - 3h 32m

• Available for purchase on Prime Video

This epic of magnificent proportions, and true marvel of cinematography (especially considering its time), tells the story of Jewish nobleman Judah Ben-Hur. He lives in Roman-occupied Jerusalem with his family and dreams of a free Jewish people; the latter causes him to clash with his friend and Roman Tribune (officer above a Centurion) Messala, who will later betray him in his anger and send him as a slave in a Roman galley.

After many journeys and trials, Judah returns home to free his family and take revenge once and for all. At the time of its release, Ben-Hur broke the record for biggest film budget as well as largest original sets built and was the first film to win 11 Oscars.

Heaven’s Gate (1980) - 3h 39m

• Available for purchase on Prime Video

This Western film by Michael Cimino (known for The Sicilian and the celebrated The Deer Hunter) is roughly inspired by the Johnson County War and depicts a fictional clash between land-barons and European settlers in Wyoming towards the end of the 19th century.

It is notably one of the biggest box office failures in history, earning $3.5 million against a budget of $44 million. Another noteworthy tidbit about this epic is that it was alsothe very first film to feature Willem Dafoe. Although it was critically scathed by its contemporary critics, later edits of the film won universal acclaim and restored it as a significant part of cinematic history.

Gods and Generals (2003) - 3h 39m

• Available for purchase on Prime Video

This 2003 period war drama from director Ronald F. Maxwell was a prequel to his 1993 film Gettysburg (another considerably long film). It studies the early days of the American Civil War through the points-of-view of three men: Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels), who abandoned a simple life as a college professor to develop into one of the Union's supreme strategists; Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), a deeply religious man who defended the Confederacy, and the infamous Gen. Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall), who led the Confederate military.

The film was badly received and criticized for being sanctimonious with obvious Confederacy sympathies, but even its harshest critics found it hard to not be awestruck by Gods and Generals' sheer scale and the spectacle of the recreated battles between the North and South.

The Ten Commandments (1956) - 3h 40m

• Available for purchase onDirecTV

The Ten Commandments tells the biblical story of Moses (Charlton Heston) who is in the Egyptian pharaoh's court until he learns of his Hebrew heritage.

The movie follows Moses' story as he attempts to free his people by leading them out of Egypt and away from the tyrant rule of the pharaoh. The movie attempts to show almost everything from the original story from the parting of the Red Sea to Moses talking to God on Mount Sinai.

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) - 3h 42m

• Available for purchase on Prime Video

This epic historical drama is based on the autobiography Seven Pillars Of Wisdom of British Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, who served as a contact officer with revolutionary forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks in the 1916-1918 period. Probably in the fashion of Citizen Kane, this film starts after Lawrence’s death at his memorial, where a journalist tries to gain insight into his life. Then, through a lengthy flashback, we follow his days in the Ottoman Empire during WWI.

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It should be noted that even though this film is rightfully recognized as a cultural and artistic milestone, it is nevertheless a prominent and early example of the white-savior trope in American films, as well as of whitewashing in cinema.

Once Upon A Time In America (1984) - 3h 39m

• Available to buy on Prime Video

This crime drama film by Sergio Leone (famous for his many collaborations with Clint Eastwood for the Dollars Trilogy) spans almost 40 years and follows David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish friends Patrick Goldberg and Philip Stein. The epic chronicles their youth on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, their mobster dealings in the 1930s, and concluding with Noodle's 1968 return to New York from self-inflicted banishment, upon which he finds out the reality of the ultimate fate of his friends and once more faces the nightmares of his earlier life.

The full film was highly praised for its stunning cinematography, performances, and Leone’s directing although the same couldn't be said for its debut. Its initial theatrical run - which was heavily edited and shortened to a mere 2 hours and 19 minutes - received mixed reviews at best before the full director's cut redeemed it years later.

Gone With The Wind (1939) - 3h 58m

• Available onHBO Max

Gone with the Wind, available to stream on HBO Max, is an epic love story based on the romantic historical novel of the same title.

The movie follows the life of southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) during the U.S. Civil War and the Reconstruction era and focuses on her love affairs with Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). The depictions in this 1930s filmare dated and offensive in many instances, and it has character depictions and themes throughout that modern audiences should be made aware of before viewing.

Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) - 4h 2m

• Available onHBO Max

Zack Snyder's director's cut of Justice League, available on HBO Max, shows what the director had in mind before personal tragedy initially kept him from completing the project.

The director's cut still follows the iconic superheroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, and The Flash teaming up to try to save the world from the villainous Steppenwolf and the Parademons. The movie was originally released in 2017 with a 2-hour runtime (including credits and post-credits sequences) and the reviews of the movie were not good especially compared to this recently released cut as most critics enjoyed Snyder's direction and ability to bring more depth to the superhuman characters. But it was still criticized for its over 4-hour runtime.

Hamlet (1996) - 4h 2m

• Available onHoopla

Anyone out there who majored in English and/or Theater Studieshas probably watched this gargantuan adaptation. One of the longest (if not the longest) Shakespeare films ever made, and by far the most faithful one, this film brings to the big screen the story of Hamlet, the melancholic prince of Denmark who is visited upon by his father’s ghost, who urges him to unveil his uncle’s crimes and avenge his murder.

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The film gained prominence under the direction of Kenneth Branagh (who also portrayed the titular hero) and with Derek Jacobi (a celebrated Shakespearean actor) as King Claudius.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011) - 4h 7m

Do not get too excited, this is not a new or different version of Kill Bill; instead, it is the two volumes united into one very long film with extensions to the animated sequences, a colored version of the big “House Of Blue Leaves” fight (instead of the original black-and-white cut) which really adds to the gory aesthetic, and a couple of very small omissions.

Tarantino announced the creation of this at the 2008 Provincetown International Film Festival that would be released in 2009. These cuts of the two films had never been screened in the US before the time, but only at the Cannes Film Festival.

Cleopatra (1963) - 4h 8m

• Available to buy on Prime Video

This visually striking (and almost too much, sometimes) epic historical film tells the story of Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor), the most famous female pharaoh in Egyptian history. The movie narratesher efforts to resist the imperialist and authoritative tendencies of the Roman Empire while navigating political rivalries and romantic relations with Julius Caesar and later his adopted son, Marcus Antonius.

This film broke Ben-Hur’s record of the most expensive film up to that point at a budget of $31.1 million, nearly bankrupting 20th Century Fox.However, the risk was worth it as Cleopatrabecameone of the highest-grossing films of its decade, gaining almost $100 million.

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