Slowest Movies In The World

Claudia Cardinale & Henry Fonda

We watched Down By Law yesterday evening and Once Upon A Time In The West tonight. Boy, they were slow. The Sergio Leone (made famous by Clint Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns) Western, with all the great actors was two and a half hours long. Lots of long, slow-moving scenes punctuated with gunfire. And then we have Claudia Cardinale's bosom. That was a pleasant diversion. Henry Fonda (1905-1982) plays a bad guy.


Down By Law was shot in black and white and is some sort of art house film. It's got Tom Waits in it, for Pete sake. He and another guy get set up and end up in jail with Roberto Benigni of Life Is Beautiful fame. Time drags for them and for us. The only break is the "I scream for ice cream" scene. It is pretty good.

Eventually though Roberto figures a way out and the three of them escape. After days (weeks? months?) lost in the swamp they stumble upon a road, and eventually, a roadside cafe. Roberto goes inside to check it out and leaves the other two stumble bums outside. He's supposed to give them the all clear, but he doesn't. Eventually (again!) our two stumble bums go to find out what's happened to their Italian buddy. What's happened is that he has fallen in love with the lovely, single, Italian proprietoress of this fine institution, and forgotten all about them.