Wasn’t there a McKenzie Bros. comedy album to accompany the movie, where they talk about how Shakespeare stole “Hamlet” from them?
Kingpengvin: “The Best still is This Is SPINAL TAP.”
“God I miss Ross McLochness!” LOL! Although Spinal Tap doesn’t really fit CyberPundit’s request for commentaries that illuminate the filmmaking process, like for Ronin.
Steven Soderbergh’s track for Out of Sight actually detracts from the film, oddly enough. He keeps pointing out weird editing tricks, saying “I didn’t think that would work.” I found that the jump cuts bothered me, after he pointed them out. Still a good movie, though.
I was going to use Conan as an example of a bad commentary track… …though it was funny in places. Its just unfortunate that the commentary post-dates the movie so much that the Dir and Arnold spend a lot of time saying things like: “Well, I can’t remember why we did that…”, which rather defeats the purpose of commenting. :rolleyes:
On the other hand, the commentary for Highlander (I think the one I have is the 10th Anniversay Ed) was great fun. The bits that most stick in my mind were the Director/Producers talking about how they hired Christopher Lambert and then realised that he couldn’t speak english… and how almost all of the movie (though set in New York) was filmed in London and the problems that entailed.
Along with This is Spinal Tap, also check out the commentary on Best in Show. Not quite as funny, but quite good. Especially on the deleted scenes, which are worth the price of the DVD alone.
Another vote for this one. I’ve recommended it to other people who have the CD; Fellowes’ background commentary on the era is fascinating, plus he’s very helpful in sorting out some of the relationships of the characters and pointing out little details I’d missed even after watching the movie 3-4 times.
Other commentaries I’ve enjoyed:
Terry Gilliam on the big boxed set of Brazil.
Rod Steiger on Dr. Zhivago. Even after so many years, he still seemed intrigued, almost infatuated, with the character of Komarovsky.
Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn on the 25th anniversary set for Rocky Horror. Funny in a dry, understated, matter-of-fact way.
Stephen Fry and writer Julian Mitchell on Wilde. Maybe I’m biased, since I’m a big fan of both, but I loved listening to them talk about this movie, Oscar Wilde, and all the pretty boys in the cast who later became famous (Jude Law, Ioan Gruffudd, Orlando Bloom).
For those who liked the Spinal Tap DVD, I’d recommend seeing The Rutles. It’s a great movie whose humor has held up and Eric Idle gives a good commentary.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show DVD has a great commentary by Richard O’Brian and Patricia Quinn. They’re obviously close friends and play off well together. My favorite part was when O’Brian is talking about the various characters’ accents in the movie and gives an impression of Meat Loaf’s Texas drawl.
I recently listened to the commenary track for the movie Leaving Scars. This was perhaps the most unlikely movie I’ve ever seen with a commentary track; it’s a very low budget sex/crime thriller that was released stright to video. During the course of the commentary, the producer and directer get a pizza delivered, continue to record while they accept the pizza, have to borrow money to pay for it, and short-tip the delivery guy.
Alexander Payne is quickly becoming one of my favorite filmmakers. When I heard the commentary, it is an amazing contrast to the irreverent humor he uses in his film. He is a very thoughtful filmmaker and his commentary touches not only on the process but on sybolic aspects as well. By the time I got done listening to it, I wanted to learn more about filmmaking. As educated as he sounds in his commentary, he is also very humble and at times self-effacing.
The Stunt Man has a great audio commentary mixing the director explaining his technique with funny stories and memories from most of the principle cast. It one of the more entertaining commentaries I’ve heard so far, as added to my enjoyment of a neglected gem of a film. It’s worth seeking out.
I’ll say the commentary by “Weird Al” Yankovic for UHF. A running joke in it is how he gives the address of all the filming locations in Tulsa. Also, Michael Richards drops on by and at the end, Al calls Victoria Jackson.
Jeffrey Combs & Bruce Abbott MST’ie their masterwork BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR- I was in hysterics laughing! I haven’t yet gotten the DVD to RE-ANIMATOR yet.
BTW several movies mentioned here: 7 samurai, This is Spinal Tap,Brazil etc. appear to be from the Criterion Collection. http://www.criterionco.com/asp/browse.asp
I get the impression that these DVD’s are full of quality special features including audio-commentaries (unfortunately the links to the special features section of the individual films don’t seem to work so I can’t be sure). A lot of great older movies too.
My favorite DVD commentary is the one for Blood Simple. But that’s not what you’re looking for, since it err, doesn’t really add to your understanding of the film. It’s brilliant, though.
So I’ll just second The Seven Samurai. The guy can be a little dry, but there’s some really interesting stuff in there for the patient.
Doh! I can’t believe I forgot this one! Some of the best commentary can be found on For All Mankind. Al Reinhart’s (screenwriter for Apollo 13, BTW) film of the Apollo missions. It features him, astronaut Eugene Cernan and Alan Bean talking about the Apollo program. Best commentary, ever!
I’d also add the commentary for Trinity and Beyond, Fight Club and American Beauty.
…though it was funny in places. Its just unfortunate that the commentary post-dates the movie so much that the Dir and Arnold spend a lot of time saying things like: “Well, I can’t remember why we did that…”, which rather defeats the purpose of commenting. :rolleyes: