If you’re looking for insight into a film or film-making, try “Spartacus”. One of the audio tracks has an actor reading the (now-deceased) screenwriter’s copious notes on the movie, supplemented with some other materials. He had very strong opinions about the cast and crew and argued passionately against some of the changes that were made.
I’ve already lost count of the votes, so let me just add another for The Two Towers Extended Edition. The cast commentary bugs me because of John Rhys-Davies, but the commentary track from Peter Jackson, Phillippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh is just excellent. Lots of details on the making of the movie and why they made the choices they did, plus it’s really pretty funny and they all seem very personable.
The most entertaining I’ve ever seen/heard is to Blood Simple. It’s definitely not the one to watch if you’re looking for real insight into the moviemaking process, but it’s brilliant all the same.
Not worth buying the DVD for unless you’re a big fan of the movie, but Bring it On (the cheerleading movie with Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku) has a pretty funny commentary track from the director. He pretty much acknowledges that it’s a slight movie for slightly pervy guys to get off on watching beautiful young women in cheerleading costumes, but points out some of the more clever things they did, raising it a notch above the usual teen movie. (Okay, I admit it – it just gave me an excuse to watch the movie again.)
And I’m ambivalent about The Seven Samurai. The material is very interesting and insightful, but the commentator (a film historian) presents it in about as dry a way as possible. It’s basically a lecture from a film class.
If we’re talking about worst commentaries, the one for the first Men In Black movie must be on the list. An absolute waste of air, nothing insightful from the director and nothing interesting from Tommy Lee Jones.
I really liked the commentary track for Blade, probably one of the best commentary tracks I have listened to. I can’t really say why it was a good commentary track, other than it was very well rounded. It had interesting information about the technical details of making the movie, amusing anecdotes, and gave a lot of insight into the direction and editing - the director points out a lot of things he would have liked to do differenty but couldn’t for whatever reasons. It was all very interesting, which you can’t say about many commentary tracks.
One I listened to recently that I did not like was the one for Donnie Darko. Part of it was that the director’s interpretation of the story differed from mine - now, I know he’s the one he should know, but it really seemed like he didn’t understand the story and misinterpreted several key elements. He also spent too much time explaining what was happening and didn’t seem to interested in explaining why he made the artistic choices he did.
I was far more interested by the commentary track for Ronin than the actual film. Really interesting insight into the technical aspects of filming all those car chases.
I found the Seven Samaurai commentary insightful, but yeah, the delivery left a lot to be desired.
The commentary on any of the Python films (or Time Bandits, for that matter) is pretty informative…Holy Grail has two, one from the directors only (Jones and Gilliam) and the other one is the rest of the actors and writers.
I loved John Lurie’s commentary on Fishing With John, which is dryly humorous but very informative in a “here’s what it was actually like off-screen” way. Apparently his co-stars (save Willem Dafoe) had somewhat rocky relationships with him during their work on the show.
Worsts: all versions of the Mr. Show DVDs. Not especially informative, and basically an excuse to hear the actors do character voices and bore you to tears in the process. There are a few informative nuggets in there, but whether you’ll want to wade through all the other to stuff to get 'em is another story.
Also, the commentary tracks on the films in Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues…two films don’t have them (Scorsese’s and Eastwood’s, IIRC), and the rest vary across the spectrum from okay to dull, dull, dull (Warming By The Devil’s Fire has long, LONG silent stretches, a la the early-era Fawlty Towers episodes mentioned earlier by Torgo.
Sounds like I really need to stop waffling and get Spinal Tap on DVD…(and thanks for the heads up on what to expect!)
The Usual Suspects’s commentary by Director Bryan Singer and Writer Christopher McQuarrie is very good. (There’s also another commentary by Editor John Ottmann on the disc which I haven’t watched yet.) Very few dead spots and a good mix of funny anecdotes about the shoot, some analysis of the filmmaking process, and discussions of the performances. Singer and McQuarrie have obviously been pals for many years and they play off each other very well. The bit they do over the end credits is also hilarious.
–Cliffy
I second the commentary to The Limey with the sparring between Soderbergh (director) and Dobbs (screenwriter). Dobbs clearly respects Soderbergh as a director, but at the same time is annoyed at all the character development that was left out.
One very funny example: as we watch Terence Stamp’s character drive up the hill towards Peter Fonda’s house, Soderbergh includes a couple of shots to establish that there are two routes back down. This helps clarify a later car chase down the hill.
Dobbs, still aggrieved at the pages of character backstory that didn’t make the final cut, interjects: ‘Oh sure- don’t tell them who any of these people are, but let’s make sure they know there are two ways down that hill!’
The special effects commentary for Contact is interesting.
On the bad side, John McTiernan’s commentary for The Thomas Crown Affair suffers in three ways. One, McTiernan has the most distractingly deep voice- it’s like listening to a commentary by Barry White. Two, he ‘aaahhhhhs’ and ‘mmmmmms’ while collecting his thoughts, which given his basso profundo intonation, makes it sound like there’s a whale humping in the commentary booth. God help you if you’ve got surround sound. Three, he gets stuck in ‘namecheck’ mode- whenever an actor who hasn’t been mentioned before hoves into view, there’s the obligatory ‘Ah, this is Jack Johnson- he’s a fabulous human being, very generous actor’. Yawn.
Also, any commentary featuring Robert de Niro is a great insomnia cure.
I’ll 3rd the Fight Club recommendation. the one with the cast is great, as is the one with screenwriter Jim Uhls and Chuck Palahniuk, author of the book.
Exception: In the original Criterion version of Spinal Tap, they do the commentary as themselves. Personally, I liked that one better.
The Beastmaster has a good track, very interesting stuff about one of the most shown-on-cable movies out there. Don Coscarelli & Paul Pepperman have a blast.
Another good and funny one is Deathstalker 2. Jim Wynorski, John Terlesky and Toni Naples are a hoot, and fully aware of how cheap the movie was,and they totally enjoyed it.
Yes, Resident Evil is pretty good,and it helps to fully cement my belief that Michelle Rodriguez would be a LOT of fun to go drinking with and just generally hang out.
On a slight hijack, has anyone ever heard an adult movie commentary? I’ve heard that there are such things, but I can’t imagine what useful info would be in them. Also, I would hate to miss the plot development listening to them. 