Spørger du Martin Scorsese, der for nylig har haft for vane at lave meget, meget lange spillefilm, så bør man ikke brokke sig over længde. Hans nyeste film, Killers of the Flower Moon, er da også et hit blandt anmeldere og biografgængere, men spørger du en anden kendt filminstruktør, så bør film generelt ikke være så lange.
I et interview med IndieWire siger Alexander Payne, der har stået bag film som Sideways, The Descendants og den Oscar-nominerede Nebraska, at film bør være så korte som muligt, og selv hvis de er lange, så skal de være den korteste udgave instruktøren kan mønstre:
"You want your movie to be as short as possible. There are too many damn long movies these days. If your movie is three-and-a-half hours, at least let it be the shortest possible version of a three-and-a-half-hour movie. Like The Godfather Part II [and] Seven Samurai are super tight, three-and-a-half-hour movies and they go by like that. So, there's no ipso facto judgment about length."
Scorsese lader til at være ret ligeglad, og for nylig har han sagt dette om Killers of the Flower Moon, der er tre timer og 26 minutter:
"People say it's three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, there are many people who watch theater 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."