The Lost Art of Editing
So glad to read someone arguing for shorter movies:
Some stories are better longer, of course. Even at three hours, The Godfather doesn’t waste a millisecond. But lately too many directors are indulging themselves at the expense of your time. What they don’t realize is that you might enjoy a short movie that you would hate if it were long. Say you come across Crank: High Voltage. It might be terrible, but it’s only 96 minutes — which is more or less three Family Guys. So even if it is terrible, it won’t really be terrible. But if it were two hours? Not worth the risk. Might as well watch Old School again. It’s only 90 minutes.
Say what you will about Zoolander, but it’s 89 minutes long. I actually think this needs to be applied across the board. Despite the fact that the overwhelming trope of the world is that attention is at a premium, editing seems to have all but disappeared. Stories in the Times, for instance, consistently feel a few paragraphs longer than necessary and new books could knock off a few chapters. Come on people.
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Banlieue 13 is a great example of this: 84 minutes, unceasing action.
Books and periodical aticles won’t be much shorter until the compensation model (per word) changes, no?
I agree with everything you’re saying but the bit about the Times. Yes it could benefit from editing but that is less a story by story problem than an editor problem and quite literally a cultural institution problem. I have felt the same thing but it is less about people who do the editing and more about what ‘feels’ like a Times story and the desire to have gravitas vs. the reality of how people read today.
I also think that shortness you desire is compounded by blog posts such as this one – which is a very fine one – but it is the quick hit mentality of the world we live in which the Times is out of step with. To wit, it is a deeper issue of how we no longer equate length with depth and the Times would feel like they were headed to USA Today territory if they started to alter article length.
You can see this even better with music. LPs were 45 minutes max and a whole lot of classic albums were made that were flawless for every one of those minutes. Then CDs came along and while of course a few people have done it, it’s pretty rare to find one that really is flawless for the whole length. All a mute point now that the discs are dead too though, interesting to see what the internet will bring in the ways of new long players…
agree.
Amen to this. I have been thinking exactly the same thing about film lengths lately. And it’s definitely an indulgence thing.