How Slow Motion Became Cinema’s Dominant Special Effect

The turbulent late ’60s saw the technique’s popularity explode—and it’s been helping moviemakers (and literary artists) engage with the unsettling tempos of modern life ever since.

It’s a way of expanding run time while (sometimes) creating dramatic emphasis. Done well, it’s a great story-telling device. Done poorly, it’s cheap garbage.

Kind of like Brando with his dramatic pauses.