The 10 Best ’90s Movies That Are Over 3 Hours Long, According To IMDb

There have only been three major Hollywood movies in the 2010s that hit three hours in runtime: The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman. Movies of this length are a huge financial risk for studios, and half of the three-hour-plus movies released in the ’90s were box office bombs, even though they were critically lauded movies.

The 1990s was a great decade for movies, as studios were putting a lot of trust in writer-directors, and that often meant huge, indulgent, sprawling epics. Between biopics about assassinated political figures, an epic adaptation of a Stephen King novel, and heartwrenching war movies, the ’90s was arguably the best decade for three-hour-long movies.

10 Gettysburg (1993) – 7.6 – 4 Hours & 15 Minutes

War movies tend to be synonymous with epics. Movies like The Great Escape, Apocalypse Now, and The Bridge Over River Kwai all have behemoth runtimes and are full of wide shots featuring huge sets. Though it might not be the best of the lot, Gettysburg is by far the most epic war movie there has been.

The movie, which is about the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, has an all-star cast including Jeff Daniels and Martin Sheen, and it’s full of epic battles. Some think Gettysburg is an overrated war movie, but it’ll give viewers a new and deeper understanding of the Civil War.

9 Hamlet (1996) – 7.7 – 4 Hours & 2 Minutes

The 1996 adaptation of Hamlet is often considered the best film adaptation of a Shakespeare play thus far. It’s hardly surprising because, though it takes place in the 19th century instead of the 15th century, the text remains mostly the same.

The movie is also completely unabridged, meaning that, as it was Shakespeare’s longest play at almost 30,000 words, the film is more than four hours long. But what Hamlet does so well is that it uses the film format to its advantage, transforming the stage play into a stunning visual achievement. It is full of colorful settings, Victorian-era costume design, and has a non-linear narrative.

8 Malcolm X (1992) – 7.7 – 3 Hours & 20 Minutes

Up until this point, Spike Lee “Joints” were already known for their social commentary, but they were all also full of color, lively music, and excitable characters. They were also fairly lean in their runtime too, rarely going over the two-hour mark. However, Malcolm X broke the Spike Lee mold.

The movie is a very grounded biopic, and there wasn’t a hyperactive character in sight, as it’s based on one of the most stoic and influential activists of all time, Malcolm Little. It’s no wonder that the movie is so long, as it covers so much of Little’s life, including the racism he experienced, his incarceration, his time in Mecca, and his assassination.

7 Titanic (1997) – 7.8 – 3 Hours & 15 Minutes

It’s an incredible achievement that a film over three hours in length managed to be the highest-grossing movie of all time for over a decade. What’s more of an achievement is that people thought the movie was doomed when they heard it was having a troubled production. However, Titanic was the perfect storm, as it introduced Leonardo DiCaprio as a romantic lead and Rose is arguably Kate Winslet’s best role to date.

But what makes the movie so epic is that it’s able to balance being a modern-day adventure movie, a period piece, and a disaster biopic, all at the same time. After 90 minutes into the film, audiences almost forget that they’re watching a film about the Titanic itself. It’s a feat that director James Cameron even managed to fit it all in.

6 Dances With Wolves (1990) – 8.0 – 3 Hours & 1 Minute

Dances With Wolves is Kevin Costner’s passion project, as not only does he star in the Western epic, but he directed it too. The movie follows a Union Amry Lieutenant who takes control of a military post and strikes an unusual relationship with the Lakota, a Native American tribe.

There are some who think Dances With Wolves is overrated, but it is grandiose in every way, from the sweeping cinematography to the heroic real-life story to the runtime. The movie even revitalized the Western genre, as it had been unpopular for decades until its release.

5 JFK (1991) – 8.0 – 3 Hours & 10 Minutes

The assassination of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, is one of the most shocking televised events and biggest mysteries in history. The 1991 movie dramatizes the events that lead up to the assassination, but it also attempts to uncover the conspiracy too.

JFK does take liberties with what happened and it isn’t completely historically accurate, but the performances keep the movie compelling for its epic runtime. The director’s cut is even longer, at almost three and a half hours.

4 Magnolia (1999) – 8.0 – 3 Hours & 8 Minutes

Often dubbed the all-time great San Fernando Valley movie, Magnolia is a melodramatic epic that intertwines the stories of several complex characters. Being only 29 years old at the time of its release, director Paul Thomas Anderson was wise beyond his years. The movie tackles grief, the depressing feeling of inferiority, the stress of living up to people’s expectations, and so many other feelings that everyone has felt but can’t quite put into words. But along with the dense subject matter, the movie is beautiful and has a suitably epic and shocking ending to match its runtime.

In just a couple of months, Anderson is releasing what seems to be a spiritual successor to Magnolia. Licorice Pizza is also set in San Fernando Valley, and it also sports a cast that’s a long list of acclaimed actors, which hints at the movie being somehow connected. But more than anything, it marks the first time Anderson has worked with his longtime collaborator, John C. Reilly, since the 1999 movie.

3 Bound By Honor (1993) – 8.0 – 3 Hours

Out of all the three-hour movies released in the ’90s, film buffs will likely know Bound By Honor the least and perhaps never even heard of it. That could be because the movie was a huge box office bomb, as it wasn’t spearheaded by a prestigious director, was mismarketed, and didn’t feature any bankable actors. It was also lambasted by critics, but it’s one of the many cases where critics and general audiences didn’t agree.

It’s an incredible movie that depicts consequential and horrific violence without being gratuitous, as it follows three cousins who become involved in Mexican street gangs in Los Angeles. Bound By Honor is riveting from the start to the very end of its 180-minute runtime.

2 The Green Mile (1999) – 8.6 – 3 Hours & 10 Minutes

In 1994, director Frank Darabont made The Shawshank Redemption, a prison drama that has such a big scope and ended in an uplifting way that’s not typical of Stephen King adaptations. When a movie auteur makes a big statement-type movie, they tend to follow up with something completely different, such as P.T. Anderson following Magnolia with the 90-minute Punch-Drunk Love, but not Darabont.

Instead, the director doubled down on everything that was in Shawshank. The Green Mile is a prison drama, the abuse from prison wardens, a schmaltzy ending, and, of course, an exceedingly long runtime. The movie sits at three hours and 10 minutes, but not a single second is wasted. Surprisingly, like Titanic surprising every movie pundit at the time by making billions worldwide, The Green Mile was the highest-grossing Stephen King adaptation at the time too, despite its runtime.

1 Schindler’s List (1993) – 8.9 – 3 Hours & 15 Minutes

In 1993, Steven Spielberg directed one of the greatest, most epic movies of all time that was full of drama and high stakes: Jurassic Park. However, in the same year, the celebrated filmmaker also directed the most emotionally exhausting but beautiful war drama in history, Schindler’s List.

In today’s cinema landscape, movie studios are too scared to produce 3+ hour films because they don’t think they’ll be successful. But at three hours and 15 minutes, Schindler’s List just goes to show that people do love long movies and will show up to see them. But then again, not every director is Steven Spielberg.