God, I’m glad his films aren’t as boring as he is. I picked up The Exorcist Special Edition DVD and attempted to listen to the audio track with Willima Friedkin’s comments. I mean, geez, with as famous a movie as this, I thought it would be really interesting to hear some insight into the decision about the directorial process, or at least some stories about the filming. But noooooooo. The only thing this lameass does through almost the whole thing (at least thr part I listened to before I gave up about halfway through) is TELL THE FREAKIN’ STORY.
“Here’s Chris MacNeill walking down the street. Now she’s entering the apartment. Here we’re introduced to the housekeeper.” Yeah, lame-o, we can SEE that. How about some comment on what it all mean? Geez, the only thing I got out of thw whole thing was the “rising” motif that he used for Father Karras. Next time at least get someone who’s halfway interesting to do an audio track not someone who sounds like he hasn’t seen the movie since he made it 25 years ago!
Now that is lame. They could have alerted you to the fact that the only benefit to the commentary was that if you were blind, you’d be able to tell what was going on.
Hey, Euty, sorry you’re disappointed with the DVD extras. FYI: if you are interested in the film, the Web site for the film’s rerelease has some pretty great info…about the scenes, the sounds and the symbols in the film. I found it pretty neat (particularly the process of getting the “demon voice”).
Be forewarned, the site is kinda Flash-o-rific, so you need the plug-in. Otherwise, enjoy.
I ran into the same thing with ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and John Frankenheimer abd ‘The Sound of Music’ with Robert Wise. The director’s commentary on both films was really dull. I think when they release an old movie the director has just forgotten a lot about the making of movie.
The really sad thing about the “Version You Never Saw” DVD is that all the extras that we DVD nuts wanted to see on it had already been done… for another disc.
If you want all the goodies, I’d suggest looking for Warner’s “Anniversary Edition” DVD of The Exorcist. True, it contains the original theatrical cut, but it also has a wealth of extra material. Friedkin’s commentary track is the one you WISHED he had done for the recut version, full of background detail and production anecdotes, not tedious at all. There is also a beautifully-done new documentary containing interviews with EVERYONE connected with the film (and I do mean everyone, right down to the two Jesuit priests who appeared as Frs. Bermingham and Dyer). The infamous “deleted” footage is included on the disc separately from the film, and there are even some fascinating taped interviews featuring Friedkin and Blatty discussing the ins and outs of the deleted footage.
I don’t know if the disc is still in print, but I’d recommend that anyone who really loves the film put their “Version You Never Saw” up for auction and try to get a copy of the “Anniversary” version instead.
The liveliest commentary track on a DVD that I’ve heard so far is a dialogue between Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs on “The Limey.” Dobbs was pissed off by the review “by that fucker in Variety” which called his script “underwritten” while Soderbergh had cut a lot of scenes which had contributed to character development. Soderbergh also notes that for a scene in which the protagonist buys a gun, he had tried and failed to get permission to film at a gun show and had shot the scene at a school instead.