To make a long story short…

In this week’s podcast, Sasha, Craig and I agree that Simon Beaufoy’s screenplay for 127 Hours is a compact gem of concentrated narrative focus. I mention that the script itself — at a swift and riveting 84 pages — is one of the shortest I’ve read in quite some time. (Most screenplays run around 120 pages, pacing out roughly to one page per minute of screen time). Danny Boyle’s film is equally speedy. Craig said on Twitter that “127 Hours is among the most intense 90 minutes I’ve spent watching a movie outside of horror.”

In a break during recording I tried to gather some data about some of the shortest Best Picture winners. During the podcast I say the shortest BP winner was Marty in 1955 — 90-minutes. Today after more careful checking, I find conflicting estimates for the length of 127 Hours. Variety has it down for 93 minutes, but The Hollywood Reporter says 95. So if 93 minutes is the correct measurement, 127 Hours would tie with Annie Hall (1977). Just wanted to clarify — in case anybody ever pays any attention to what I say in a podcast — to intercept any fact-checkers before you call foul for a faulty factoid.

Either way, you can see the point we latched onto: Short Best Picture winners are a rarity. Over the past 20 years, the briefest BP winner was Crash, at 112 minutes. Of all the metrics that weigh into Oscar formulas, running time is among the least important, though there’s no denying winners usually exceed 2 hours. Just as we know length is less important than girth, it’s not a matter of how long a movie runs — it’s a matter of making the most of those, um, fluctuations. Lay the Best Picture winners side by side after the cut to see how they measure up.

You can see that over the past 55 years, only three Best Picture winners ran less than 100 minutes. Typically the prestige films weigh more toward 3-hour lengths more appropriate to epic subjects often favored by the Academy.

All the same, the brevity of Marty, Driving Miss Daisy and Annie Hall work so well because they’re 100% free of excess padding. 127 Hours is exactly as lean and mean as it needs to be.

(minutes)
131 — 2009: The Hurt Locker
120 — 2008: Slumdog Millionaire
122 — 2007: No Country for Old Men
151 — 2006: The Departed
112 — 2005: Crash
132 — 2004: Million Dollar Baby
200 — 2003: LotR: The Return of the King
113 — 2002: Chicago
135 — 2001: A Beautiful Mind
171 — 2000: Gladiator
122 — 1999: American Beauty
123 — 1998: Shakespeare in Love
194 — 1997: Titanic
162 — 1996: The English Patient
177 — 1995: Braveheart
141 — 1994: Forrest Gump
195 — 1993: Schindler’s List
131 — 1992: Unforgiven
118 — 1991: The Silence of the Lambs
175 — 1990: Dances With Wolves
99 — 1989: Driving Miss Daisy
133 — 1988: Rain Man
163 — 1987: The Last Emperor
120 — 1986: Platoon
160 — 1985: Out of Africa
160 — 1984: Amadeus
131 — 1983: Terms of Endearment
188 — 1982: Gandhi
124 — 1981: Chariots of Fire
124 — 1980: Ordinary People
105 — 1979: Kramer vs. Kramer
182 — 1978: The Deer Hunter
93 — 1977: Annie Hall
120 — 1976: Rocky
133 — 1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo‚Äôs Nest
200 — 1974: The Godfather, Part II
129 — 1973: The Sting
175 — 1972: The Godfather
104 — 1971: The French Connection
170 — 1970: Patton
113 — 1969: Midnight Cowboy
153 — 1968: Oliver!
109 — 1967: In the Heat of the Night
120 — 1966: A Man for All Seasons
174 — 1965: The Sound of Music
170 — 1964: My Fair Lady
128 — 1963: Tom Jones
216 — 1962: Lawrence of Arabia
151 — 1961: West Side Story
125 — 1960: The Apartment
212 — 1959: Ben-Hur
119 — 1958: Gigi
161 — 1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai
183 — 1956: Around the World in Eighty Days
90 — 1955: Marty