On the two-disc set of Untitled, the director’s cut version of Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe includes a scene set to Stairway to Heaven in which a couple of William Miller’s teachers try to convince his mother to let him go on tour with Stillwater (helpfully pointing out that Led Zeppelin was inspired by Tolkein). Crowe couldn’t get the rights to StH for the movie’s release and cut the scene from the movie (and, truthfully, it’d be a little long to include in the film), but on the DVD, he includes a helpful on-screen countdown so that viewers know when to start their own copy of the song.
Except for the dialog before and after the song, the scene on-screen is absolutely silent: the viewer supplies the totally awesome rock n’ roll at home.
We watched this scene (and listened to StH) just last Friday night.
I’m surprised nobody has generally nominated Criterion for their fine work. I’ve only ever splurged on one Criterion disc, The Third Man, but the features are an amazing supplement to a remarkable film. Two commentaries, one being with Steven Soderbergh, three documentaries, radio treatments, including an Orson Wells radio episode of The Lives of Harry Lime, and entirely breathtaking photos of post-WWII Austria that appear throughout the film and as research.
I loved the bit from 8 Mile where they had Eminem “battling” against the kids who played extras in the movie. IIRC, the director wanted Eminem to just mime his words to protect his voice, but when the kids started heckling him he turned the mike on and pulled out his A-game. Fantastic stuff.
Clerks had a music video for Soul Asylum’s “Can’t Even Tell,” filmed with the Clerks cast plus the band members. It was shot as the roof hockey game that closes down the store, cast vs. band. Commentary going into the game is something to the effect of how they’re playing (probably badly paraphrased) “some guys from Minnesota; they’re in a band.”
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the extras on the Galaxy Quest dvd! The outakes of the Alan Rickman character’s bathroom is a scream!