At first I'm irritated by this, but once I adapt I actually like the time it gives me as a viewer to appreciate the subtleties of what's the characters and what they're up to.

Agreed, though I feel they went overboard during the seventies. On the other hand, modern movies make me desperate for a breather.

> Its almost like there was nothing else to do.

Until now I forgot that people saw theaters as social venues, would eat buckets of popcorn, go the toilet etc.

From that lens, viewers fully focused and digesting every second of the movie was definitely not the average target.