Martin Scorsese’s 10 Longest Movies, Ranked

Martin Scorsese loves making long movies, and because he is an established director, studios have always trusted him enough to let him have his way. It’s thus rare to hear of a Scorsese Director’s Cut. What audiences get is what the filmmaker intended for them to get. Thankfully, there have never really been complaints of his films being too bloated or some scenes dragging out longer than they should.

When the Hindustan Timesrecently asked him about his penchant for making movies with a longer runtime, he had a satisfactory answer. “You can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.”

Here are the longest Scorsese movies that were hazards to the human bladder.

10 Goodfellas (1990)

2 Hours and 26 Minutes

Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fiction book Wiseguy, Goodfellas tells the story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), an Irish-American mobster who became an influential associate of the Lucchese crime family. Despite being shown love by an organization that was primarily created for Italian-American gangsters, Hill bit the hand that fed him.

He would later commit one of organized crime’s cardinal sins by becoming an FBI informant. As a result of his testimony, several key mob figures were cuffed and caged.

Doing Much with Little Material

Wiseguy only has 256 pages. With such a thin story, it’s easy to achieve a running time of 90 minutes or less on the screen. Interestingly, Scorsese managed to push it to 146 minutes. It’s a remarkable feat, considering that he omitted some book details, such as the full story of the Air France heist, and details of Henry’s time under the Witness Protection Program.

The lengthy running time is partly a result of actors being granted the freedom to improvise. For example, Joe Pesci’s iconic “Funny How?” rant runs at a little over four minutes, yet it was never in the script. Interestingly, it became the movie’s most iconic scene.

9 The Departed (2006)

2 Hours and 31 Minutes

The Departed is a duel of moles. In it, South Boston officer Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is tasked with going undercover in an organization led by the notorious croaky-voiced crime boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). At the same time, the criminal, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), also joins the police department to feed information to his superiors. Things eventually turn ugly when both organizations realize there are masqueraders within their ranks.

A Star-Studded Affair

The movie’s lengthy running time feels justified because there are plenty of stars in need of screen attention. Apart from DiCaprio, Nicholson, and Damon, there are Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Anthony Anderson, among others. Thankfully, Scorsese was able to split the cake accordingly.

Internal Affairs — the Hong Kong movie sampled by Scorsese — stops at the 101-minute mark. The director, therefore, needed to add some flesh. And he did so in the form of extended dialogue and the use of symbolism. Andy Lau, one of the main actors of the original views had mixed views. He acknowledged that The Departed had “golden quotes” but stated that it “was too long, and it felt as if Hollywood had combined all three Infernal Affairs movies together.”

8 Silence (2016)

2 Hours and 41 Minutes

Scorsese was brought up in a Catholic family, so he is fascinated by God as much as he is fascinated by crime. His most recent religious movie, Silence, takes audiences back to the 17th century when being a Christian was illegal in Japan. When two Portuguese priests learn that their mentor has shunned his religion to avoid persecution in the Asian country, they make their way there to find out if it’s all true.

A Passion Project

Silence’s lengthy running time is understandable since Scorsese took 25 years to develop it. During this period, he must have gotten several new ideas and inserted them.

Unfortunately, it was a box office bomb. After The Wolf of Wall Street, fans were probably looking out for another movie about people who broke the law and fornicated in the office. Instead, they were offered a depressing tale about religion. Still, the movie is ideal for any history buff who wishes to learn more about the Kakure Kirishitan (“Hidden Christians”).

7 The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

2 Hours and 43 Minutes

Scorsese’s first religious movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, was very controversial. The film strays from biblical accounts and features a version of Jesus who is plagued by lust, fear, depression, doubt, and reluctance. The responsibility of being the messiah is a huge burden to him, and at some point, he dreams of a normal life where he is married to Mary Magdalene. A sex scene between the two is even included.

Exercising Creative Liberties with the Scriptures

In the bible, Jesus’s story on Earth ends after his resurrection and ascension into heaven. In The Last Temptation of Christ, this is only the beginning. After being put on the cross by Pontius Pilate, he is reduced by his guardian angel and goes on to marry Mary Magdalene.

And after Magdalene dies, he starts a family with Martha and Mary or Bethany. It, therefore, makes sense for the movie to be longer than the average Jesus biopic. It’s an interesting creative choice. Unfortunately, the backlash was so much that Scorsese began walking with bodyguards.

6 Gangs of New York (2002)

2 Hours and 47 Minutes

Events in Gangs of New York kick off in 1846 in the slum of Five Points, New York, where two religious-based gangs, the Anglo-Protestant Confederation of American Natives, led by Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), and the Irish Catholic Dead Rabbits, led by Vallon, are engaging in warfare. Bill kills Vallon, causing the latter’s son, Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio), to be taken to an orphanage. 16 years later, he returns with revenge on his mind.

Daniel Day-Lewis at His Usual Best

Scorsese fans are unlikely to notice as time flies while watching Gangs of New York because it has many great supporting characters whose arcs are solid. From Cameron Diaz’s Jenny Everdeane to Jim Broadbent’s William “Boss” Tweed, there is no shortage of cool 19th-century New Yorkers.

Daniel Day-Lewis also catches the viewer in a spell, due to his wonderful performance. By the time each of his scenes ends, several minutes have whisked by. It’s thus hardly surprising that he got an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

5 The Aviator (2004)

2 Hours and 50 Minutes

The Aviator is another of the many great Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio collaborations. The film tells the story of the multi-talented tycoon Howard Hughes, who served as both a film producer and an aerospace engineer. The biopic covers his life from 1927 to 1947, during which Hughes found success in Hollywood while also launching TWA Airlines. There is also a great focus on his battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The Conclusive Story of a Polymath

The biopic’s lengthy running time feels justified because Hughes did a little too much during his lifetime. Everything about his life was interesting, hence Scorsese might have blundered if he chose to omit anything.

From an eight-year-old Hughes learning how to spell “quarantine” (because of the cholera outbreak) to him colliding with the FBI over allegations of war profiteering, the movie digs deep and wide. By the time it is over, audiences feel way more knowledgeable about aviation, filmmaking, and war-related politics.

4 Casino (1995)

2 Hours and 58 Minutes

Casino has often been described as an unofficial sequel to Goodfellas since it’s also about the mob lifestyle and has pretty much the same cast. The events mainly revolve around the Jewish American gambling handicapper, Sam “Ace” Rothstein, after he is tasked by the Chicago Outfit to oversee operations of the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas.

Everything flows smoothly at first, but problems soon emerge in the form of his enforcer Nicky (Joe Pesci), and his party-loving wife Ginger (Sharon Stone).

It Could Have Been Longer

At nearly 3 hours, Casino feels long, yet it could have been longer had Scorsese told the full story. The character, Sam “Ace” Rothstein, is inspired by Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, who oversaw operations in the Marina, Stardust, Fremont, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit in the ‘70s.

The movie ends in 1986, but Lefty lived up to 2008 before dying of a heart attack. The gambling expert’s post-Vegas life was interesting too, but Scorsese did well by restricting his movie to the activities that happened in Sin City. If the story continued, there would be only Ace but no Ginger and Nicky, two essential characters in the movie.

3 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

3 Hours

A tale of fraud and hedonism, The Wolf of Wall Street takes audiences through the wild years of infamous Wall Street broker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). In the late ‘80s, he gets an entry-level job at a brokerage firm, and by the early ‘90s, he founds his firm, Stratton Oakmont. He soon becomes wealthy by defrauding clients out of millions. As he lives life on the fast lane, the FBI and the SEC build a case against him.

Loyal to the Source Material

Jordan Belfort’s memoir has 528 pages, and all of it is quite mindblowing. Screenwriter Terence Winter was, therefore, right to not leave anything out. Furthermore, the movie does better by analyzing Belfort’s business practices in a more detailed manner. In the book, Belfort mostly focuses on his debauchery, but Winter and Scorsese explain exactly how he conned so many people. With such extra information, the running time was always going to be huge.

2 Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

3 Hours and 26 Minutes

In Killers of the Flower Moon, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) starts living with his uncle William King Hale (Robert DeNiro) in Oklahoma after returning from World War I. He soon falls in love with an Osage woman and marries her, only to learn that his uncle hates her people. He has a mega-plan that involves killing wealthy Osage members in order to acquire oil headrights from them.

Defending the Running Time

Following the release of Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese was asked why he had been making such long movies, and he answered by insisting that everyone should “give cinema some respect.” If there was ever a Scorsese movie that deserved a longer runtime, then it’s his most recent release.

The film not only dissects the relevant themes of racism and greed but also tells a wonderful love story. It strays from the source material by focusing on the Osage people instead of the FBI and, for that reason, it feels culturally rich and more thought-provoking.

1 The Irishman (2019)

3 Hours and 30 Minutes

Based on Charles Brandt’s book, I Heard You Paint Houses, The Irishman stars Robert DeNiro as Frank Sheeran, an Irish-American truck driver who becomes a top hitman for the Philadelphia crime family and a close associate of union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). When Hoffa begins acting erratically, Frank is ordered to whack him.

A Deliberate Choice by the Director?

The Irishman marked the first time Scorsese made a movie specifically for a streaming site rather than theaters. With that in mind, it’s safe to presume that he deliberately made a longer movie, knowing that audiences would pause and play whenever they wished.

After all, he had previously talked about his new viewing trend before. Additionally, the story was long and the director had employed all the mob movie heavyweights (DeNiro, Pesci, and Keitel). Hence, he had to make it worth their time.