The long take is, well, fairly self-explanatory. It’s when a director eschews a traditional style of cutting between differing shots during a given scene and allows the take to roll on for an extended period of time. It’s a pretty ballsy move to adopt this particular trick, and the longer and more complicated the set-up, the greater the potential for mistakes to be made. Just remember, if you’re 15 minutes into a planned 20 minute take and someone flubs a line or the boom mic slides into shot, you have to cut, reset the scene and go again from the beginning. It can be a technical, and potentially a financial nightmare.
To celebrate the latest from this (in my view) excellent director, I present to you ten of the best long takes to come from the movies in the past ten years. I opted for this narrower parameter for two reasons: 1) I like the almost numerically alliterative nature of the title; and 2) By focusing only on films to come out since 2003, I can shine a light on those shots normally outshone by the usual suspects of Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil, Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend and Scorsese’s Goodfellas.
This Oscar-winning thriller from Argentina follows a retired federal justice agent who begins writing a novel based around an unsolved case from his past, leading to much of the film being set in the mid 1970s, during the Argentine Dirty War. What is also features is an incredible five-minute long shot set within a football stadium during a live game. Moving from a standard aerial view, swooping in, down and across the field before centring in on the protagonist in the crowd. The shot continues on into what becomes a huge foot chase in and around the stadium. From initial planning through to final rendering, the shot took about a year to fully realise, blending live footage seamlessly with computer graphics, it’s a frankly stunning sequence to behold.
Tony Jaa can kick your ass. And not just yours, but everyone who is in the approximate vicinity of your ass. Tom-Yum-Goong (aka The Warrior King, aka The Protector) is a Thai action flick that follows a young man from a small village in Thailand as he travels to Australia in an attempt to find the elephants that were poached from his home. Entering a shady world of black market trading of endangered animals, the young man goes to a restaurant to get some answers, but they seem reluctant to give them. The subsequent fight is an astonishing show of endurance from Tony Jaa as he proceeds to beat almost every living person on a four-plus minute journey up several floors of the building. No tricks, no pads and no breaks, you can see Jaa physically tire as he goes… but he just keeps going.
(*Note: the below video only shows the first 10 minutes. Want to see the rest? Go watch the film.)
On the other side of the scale from the previous two examples on this list, sometimes its enough to just sit back and let the actors make the onscreen work so damn compelling. When Steve McQueen made his theatrical film debut by directing the story of Irish Republican Bobby Sands and his protest hunger strike, it was bound to get some notice. However, the real revelation for all was giving Michael Fassbender a chance to deliver a fiercely committed and courageous performance as the central character. The most talked about sequence from the film saw a single take of around 17 minutes in which an emaciated Sands speaks with a priest (Liam Cunningham) about the morality of his protest, the latter individual trying to talk the former out of his punishing agenda. It’s an astounding scene, made electric by the face-off onscreen.
Almost as if to purposely combine the previous two examples on this list, the second film in Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy, sees the director rest back in a mostly profile vantage point and lets carnage reign onscreen. Oh Dae-su (played by Choi Min-sik) has been imprisoned for 15 years, without any indication as to why. Now, suddenly released for seemingly no reason, he wants to know who did it and why. His journey obviously brings him against some unsavoury characters, but there are few things more dangerous than an angry man with a hammer. It’s a relentless scene in which the protagonist is heavily outnumbered, but fires into everyone with a ferocity that is as impressive as it scary. More than once it looks like he’s done for, only for him to surge back again and keep going.
I feel like I’ve been trying to turn people on to the work of Johnnie To for some time now. An incredibly prolific Hong Kong director capable of working in pretty much any genre he wants, though known mainly for his crime and gangster pictures. Working from the heights of the Hong Kong action era that brought John Woo to the world, To has proved himself to be more consistent in his output, making films that stand as high quality across multiple genres. With Breaking News, To brings us something that’s part crime thriller and part media satire, and it all opens with a glorious extended take that starts with the quiet moments before a massive shootout between the cops and the criminals they were staking out. It’s a wonderful opening, and a testament to To’s abilities as a technical craftsman and visual stylist. See this, and then get to watching the rest of his stuff.
Birth is a film that is very easy to feel uncomfortable about. It tells the story of a well-to-do New York woman who becomes convinced that her dead husband has been reincarnated as a 10-year old boy. The gradual shift of her life and how she relates to those around her, including the boy, can seem a little off-putting (I’ve heard at least a few people say the film basically advocates, or at least legitimises paedophilia… I disagree on that). However, there is some exquisite artistry in this film. Jonathan Glazer’s direction, Harris Savides’ cinematography, Alexandre Desplat’s music, all excellent work. For me, though, it’s all about Nicole Kidman who absolutely shines in this film. The shot in question here is one of quiet power as Anna (Kidman) goes to the theatre with her fiancé, though only moments before being confronted with the unapologetic and determined young boy claiming to be her husband. As the camera slows moves in on Kidman in her seat and holds, her face is a torrent of emotion being concealed as best as she can. Honestly, her flinch makes me flinch.
Ah, Serenity, that good old nerdy favourite. Rising from the ashes of the much-beloved Firefly TV series, cancelled before its time, Serenity is the miracle the fans wanted (their involvement was chronicled in the 2006 fan-made documentary Done the Impossible). Joss Whedon reassembled the crew for a feature film and one last blast. And the credit sequence is genuinely kind of genius. Starting on the bridge, what follows is a continuous take that moves with Mal through the halls, dining area, engine room and other significant parts of the ship. In doing so, it deftly establishes the physical layout of the ship, introduces the characters and their varying personalities and relationships with each other, and sets up the humour of the film (even series catchphrases “goram” and “shiny”). It does all of this in about five minutes. That’s a staggering amount of information passed along without being clubbed about the head, and with an excellently handled feat of technical proficiency. And keep in mind, this was actually Joss Whedon’s first feature. Talented swine.
(Note: Again, sorry this video doesn’t show the whole shot.)
Serenity Opening Credits from KayleeThrace on Vimeo.
Director Joe Wright is another contemporary director who has proven himself to be, like Cuarón, a fan of the long take, having used it quite a few times now (the staging of his Anna Karenina is a wonderful thing to behold, and Eric Bana’s subway fight scene in Hanna is some excellent fight choreography and camerawork). However, for sheer scope, detail and just artistry, the Dunkirk sequence in Atonement is a breathtaking piece of work. Following Robbie (James McAvoy) as he wanders aimlessly around the beach during the First World War, taking in all manner of things around him, it’s an odd mix of madness and melancholic beauty, with Dario Marianelli’s score echoing this strangely ethereal landscape. This really was a standout sequence from that year.
I just had to put in one from Cuarón himself, and this is what I went with: a heart-pounding car chase as Theo (Clive Owen) tries to escape a group he longer trusts with a woman he has been charged to protect. The technical logistics of filming this scene must have been a nightmare. Watching ‘Making Of’ featurettes on this shot show just how complex the whole endeavour was, having the camera sitting in the very centre of the car and slowly turning to take in the chaos around it. And damn is it effective. So much happens within this one shot, this small space, it’s amazing how much of the film’s emotional turning points are packed into it.
Feel free to suggest your own selections for the best long takes in film in the last ten years in the comments below.
Follow Paul onTwitter!