A Short Look at the Long Take

Rainy Saturdays are a good excuse to watch old movies. Good Will Hunting proved to be a good choice this weekend. It is also a great example of using a long take to good effect.

The long take is not used as frequently as other emotionally manipulative shots but when it is the audience’s attention gets grabbed. It’s a bold move and arguably the riskiest. What is the attention span of the average teenager? For that matter, what is the attention span of our entirely impatient McCulture? I would be afraid to find out.

Will and his psychiatrist talk and talk and this easily could have backfired. It does work but I wonder why director Gus Van Sant felt this was the best way to convey all that information. Aside from The Untouchables and Citizen Kane, I could not recollect too many long shots.

With a fair amount of Googling I developed a list of directors who routinely favor the long shot. Familiar names include:

Martin Scorsese                    Alfred Hitchcock

Quentin Tarantino               Paul Thomas Anderson

Brian DePalma                      Orson Wells

Glad I didn’t place any bets that the long take isn’t popular. So, it seems I should remember more scenes with the long take. Better go watch more movies.

~Peace

Tina