Movies For Marathons

[[old] Bayko]

With Marathon season coming up I thought it would be a good idea to start compiling a list of movies long enough to do a whole erg marathon without having to get up to change the VCR/DVD. <br /><br />This past Sunday I got my feet wet with a sub-maximal effort to test the waters. I put LOTR, The Fellowship of the Ring into the DVD player and it ran out and went into the credits during my last couple of minutes of erging. That's acceptable. I think that LOTR, the Two Towers & LOTR Return of The King will probably work as well. <br /><br />Any other good movies that last about 3 hours or so? <br /><br />Rick<br />

[[old] Kudos]

Dances with Wolves directors cut.

[[old] whp4]

A handful of other movies that run about 3 hours and are (I believe) available as single DVDs:<br /><br />Apocalypse Now Redux<br />The Godfather<br />A Bridge Too Far<br />The Longest Day <br />My Fair Lady<br /><br />Sadly, Marathon Man only runs about 2 hours...<br /><br />I found that watching Kill Bill, vol. 1 while rowing a HM sped me up considerably <br /><br />Bill

[[old] cityeast]

TITANIC goes for just over 3 hours. <br /><br />Just watch out for icebergs

[[old] kjgress]

I know this may be juvenile, but if you like japanese animation there are a lot of them out there. For example Rouroni Kenshin has 12 DVD's each about 4 hours in length (that's a lot of marathons). Also the 20 minute episodes have catchy music at the beginning and end to give you a pick me up. I just did a marathon on Sunday and can go about 6-6500K per episode, nicely dividing up the time.

[[old] Steve_R]

<!--QuoteBegin-Bayko+Feb 22 2005, 01:54 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Bayko @ Feb 22 2005, 01:54 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->LOTR Return of The King will probably work as well. <br /><br />Any other good movies that last about 3 hours or so? <br /><br />Rick <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />My LOTR Return of the King special extended edition is 4hrs 10min, and has two discs... for us who need a little extra time. Not sure though 'cause I never tried a FM.<br /><br />Two Towers is 3hrs 43min for the extended edition.

[[old] seat5]

My favorite for long rows:<br /><br />True Lies. It's got lots of crazy twists, exciting chase scenes and fights and what not. Enough action to keep you fairly distracted. It ran longer than my marathon did.<br /><br />

[[old] grams]

It takes me nearly 4 hours to do a marathon. One of my very favorites is 'Das Boot' the long version - 3 hours 45 mins.<br />grams

[[old] arakawa]

The West Wing DVDs have an option where you can play all episodes back-to-back. With four ~43 minute episodes per DVD, it's getting close to three hours.<br /><br />I used to look at the five-disc carousel DVD players and think, who in their right mind would sit so long in front of a DVD player as to need five discs in there at once? Now, I'm thinking it's not such a bad idea, especially if I lose my mind and try a 100k.

[[old] DIESEL]

You gotta go with HEAT starring Pacino and DeNiro - the best heist flick ever <br /><br />or in the alternative try MIAMI VICE, SEASON ONE <br /><br />As you can see I am a huge Michael Mann fan. <br /><br />Cool visuals, cool characters, and awesome soundtracks... can't go wrong. <br /><br />my only problem erging to movies is that I get too sucked into the movies and my splits suffer... <br /><br />peace, <br />D

[[old] DIESEL]

You gotta go with HEAT starring Pacino and DeNiro - the best heist flick ever <br /><br />or in the alternative try MIAMI VICE, SEASON ONE <br /><br />As you can see I am a huge Michael Mann fan. <br /><br />Cool visuals, cool characters, and awesome soundtracks... can't go wrong. <br /><br />my only problem erging to movies is that I get too sucked into the movies and my splits suffer... <br /><br />peace, <br />D

[[old] michaelb]

For the marathon I did in December, I wasn't sure I wanted to actually pay attention to a whole full length movie, in part because I was going to row online with rowpro (and so I spend a lot of time looking at that display). Plus, since I was rowing the M duing the day, I had to have something kid appropriate, and while LOTR would be a great choice for me, no way could I row with that on and my kids watching in back.<br /><br />So I went with an extreme skiing DVD and the live led zeppelin in concert DVD. The skiing was much better and very entertaining. One problem that I have with DVDs generally is sometimes they mess up and get stuck, and you don't know that is going to happen until you watch it (and not always predictably either). So Led Zep stopped playing after about an hour.<br /><br />Changing DVDs, or dealing with DVD related issues, was much harder than I thought it would be while I was rowing or taking breaks. So I am not sure I would use a DVD again, or if I did, I would pick something (like skiing) and just use the images, and have music playing separately, so that if the DVD stopped, I would still have music.<br /><br />My lovely assistant was not available to switch DVDs, but that would be a good idea too for several reasons.

[[old] Bayko]

Thanks for the suggestions. <br /><br />For those so inclined, I also found a 3-hour DVD at the library of Buffalo Girls. It was a TV miniseries starring Anjelica Huston, Melanie Griffith, Reba McEntire etc. Based on a novel by Larry McMurtry about Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok etc. <br /><br />Still waiting for the library to get me The Two Towers, Braveheart, and a few others.<br /><br />Rick

[[old] andyArvid]

I'd pick a good concert DVD and put it on Repeat All. That way it never ends. I do this to a very short Coltrane DVD. But it is too short for a 'thon. I'd end up watching it <b>9 </b>times.