{"id":660,"date":"2026-10-08T18:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T18:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/?p=660"},"modified":"2026-10-08T19:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:02:49","slug":"which-three-hour-film-is-precisely-three-hours-too-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/?p=660","title":{"rendered":"WHICH THREE-HOUR FILM IS PRECISELY  THREE HOURS TOO LONG?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"961\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-charldurand-6486115-961x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-564\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.9384819495845262;width:192px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-charldurand-6486115-961x1024.jpg 961w, https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-charldurand-6486115-282x300.jpg 282w, https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-charldurand-6486115-768x818.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-charldurand-6486115-1442x1536.jpg 1442w, https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-charldurand-6486115-1923x2048.jpg 1923w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 961px) 100vw, 961px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FOR ME, THAT&#8217;S A NO BRAINER: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN&#8217;S <em>THE ODYSSEY<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It might have been a smidgeon less unbearable as a silent movie. Then my wife and I and my son and daughter-in-law wouldn&#8217;t have had to spend three hours with our fingers in our ears. I didn&#8217;t dare to take mine out even long enough to eat my pocorn! Besides, no one said anything worth hearing. Why did all the characters talk in in a monotone, as if they had recently taken at least 19 sleeping pills? To invest the story with epic gravitas? Why didn&#8217;t they just talk like soldiers do in wars, one grunt to another?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poor old grey-bearded Matt Damon in his soldier&#8217;s costume! Why didn&#8217;t he refuse to talk like somebody&#8217;s addled Uncle Joe on Halloween, trick or treating with the kiddies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Calypso? She was a <em>goddess<\/em>, for goodness sake! Why make her look and act like a middle aged suburban mom on a Club Med beach? And a <em>Replublican<\/em> one at that! I was relieved when she gave Odysseus lotus flowers to eat. I was expecting she&#8217;d offer him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the battle scenes! My goodness, did they really have to go on and on and on and on? Swords on helmets, swords on shields. That&#8217; an auful lot of clanking noises! I wonder what the ketchup budget was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh well, it finally ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I still had a big cardboard bucket of popcorn to eat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR ME, THAT&#8217;S A NO BRAINER: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN&#8217;S THE ODYSSEY. It might have been a smidgeon less unbearable as a silent movie. Then my wife and I and my son and daughter-in-law wouldn&#8217;t have had to spend three hours with our fingers in our ears. I didn&#8217;t dare to take mine out even long enough [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-writers-blog"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"newstephenddev","author_link":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendavenportauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}