There I am, sitting at work, when the person next to me turns and says “I watched Drive last night.” Those five words sparked a giant debate amongst the six people in our area about their opinion on the movie. There were three categories the people fell into: Those who loved it, those who hated it, and those who liked it but preferred Ryan Gosling as a romantic lead. The last group was really just the person who watched it last night and I would have explained that it was a very romantic role for Gosling if not for being busy discussing the movie more with those whom hated the film. The idea of hating such a brilliant film seemed so unnatural until I was told the reason they didn’t like the film was its pace. Suddenly it made sense; people are very rarely a huge fan of anything they think moves along slowly. I proudly claim to not be a part of that group but I also am aware that I am in the vast minority in this discussion.
The best example of this scenario played out with the western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I talk about this film more than most because of how much it moved me and how well it holds up on a second (and fifteenth) watch. A guy I have known for over ten years and truly respect his opinion when it comes to movies was talking to me about how he considers it a great movie but it isn’t in his top ten because of its snails-are-running-laps-around-you pace. My immediate response, in full Mean Girls fashion, was to say that it was in my top ten BECAUSE of that pace. If a director feels they have a purpose to slow a movie down and fills it appropriately, I am completely down for the ride. In this case Andrew Dominik did just that. The title of the movie tells you exactly what is going to happen and yet it still takes until close to the two hour mark to get to the aforementioned assassination, then has another thirty minutes of film left to deal with the aftermath. The reason this works is a combination of a musical score that is second to none, the landscape and establishing shots are a true piece of artwork, and most importantly, it takes the full run time to feel the weight of the situation and to understand the hypocrisy in our society the film is trying to show us.
Another prime example here would be The American. Chances are if you saw the trailers and the poster of George Clooney running while carrying a gun you were expecting a fast paced action film and instead received an almost silent, slow film with the dialogue only occurring in your own head. This turned a lot of people off from the film. I had the good fortune of renting the movie months later and being told ahead of time that it was slow and awful. Going into the film with lowered expectations made it incredibly easy to enjoy a film that was very poorly received.
On the other side is it possible for a movie to move too quickly? Yes, but normally that depends on the type of film. You can easily make the argument that comedies cannot move too quickly and I would agree with you. Horrible Bosses is a prime example of a film that fits a whole lot of jokes and plot (for a comedy) in an 98 minute run time. However, for a drama that is not always the case. You need time to process the emotion behind what is happening. Friday Night Lights (the film) suffered from this problem in the original cut. The studio felt the pace was too quick and asked Peter Berg to go back and add a scene to let everything sink in for the audience. The result ended up being the perfect scene. The scene in question is when a few of the players are eating burgers at a local hang out. They are not only able to slow the pace but add the weight of expectations by showing the owner giving these high school students free food just for playing football and a dad getting a picture of his newborn with the team’s quarterback while telling him to enjoy this year because after this it’s “nothing but babies and memories.” Take the scene away and who knows if you will ever get the sense of celebrity and pressure this town has put on 16-18 year old kids.
I have had a movie’s pace ruin my opinion on a film too. If you do decide to run at a slow pace there better be a reason for it. If an action film is going to have lengthy monologues the character should be saying something very important and worth the break in pace. Avatar, for example, spends so much time focusing on being imaginative and beautiful it forgot to have a plot. I remember sitting in the theater and spending minutes spacing out multiple times only to realize there is a film going on, and that I missed absolutely nothing. Pacing can work for or against a film, but being slow should not leave you disliking a film.
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