“But I think we pulled it off” and other DVD audio commentary inanities (1 Viewer)

[Ken_McAlinden]

William Friedkin is the king of the narrators. He does drop the occasional nugget of information, but he really seems to like describing the onscreen action.

Ang Lee tends to do a better job when he has writing collaborator James Schamus to play off of.

I was amazed that Michael Lehmann made it through the entire "Hudson Hawk" commentary without offering a formal apology to the audience.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Interesting that you bring up William Friedkin. I'm going to finish watching The French Connection SE DVD tonight and was planning on bringing the disc to work tomorrow to listen to the commentary. Has anyone listened to his track on this film? Does he narrate this one too? Is it worth a shot, or am I in for an ear-glazer?

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I started off really loving commentaries, and refused to give an A grade in my www.digitallyobsessed.com reviews to a disc that didn't include them. However, I've heard so many repulsively bad ones that I've had to revise my stance. I'm about to the point of commentary overkill--unless I'm really fired up about a movie a commentary may cause me to put the disc back! Way too many movies (and TV shows, like The Simpsons) that don't require them have them, and good god, Cabin Fever has FIVE commentaries?!? Forget it. Life's short enough as it is, don't seriously suggest I sit through this thing SIX times. I can't imagine ANY movie that I'd want to hear five commentaries on--the four on Lord of the Rings (and I adore those movies) is too many.

In Warner's defense, the Ben-Hur DVD acknowledges (at least my copy does) there are gaps in the Heston commentary and it even has an onscreen icon to skip ahead to the next bit. So I don't count that as one of the "dead-space" offenders. I've never seen that on any other disc.

 

[Jeff Swearingen]

If you want a new take on commentaries you really need to pull out the Monsters Inc. Disc 2 and listen to the commentary for "Mike's New Car." There's no dead space, its scene by scene, it deals with some "technical" matters, and is the most unique commentary I've ever seen/heard. Plus its only 3 1/2 minutes so its not a big waste of your time.

It's done by the kids of the directors.

 

[Britton]

Well, this is something you'll find more in promotional featurettes that commentaries, but I can't stand it when an actor says that the director "took it to the next level."

 

[Jason Walstrom]

The Blade 2 commentary with Guillermo Del Toro and Wesley Snipes has some funny moments, Like when Del Toro tells you; "There are some CGI shots in this movie and I f@#king hate them! And I'll tell you when the film gets to them." or something like that, he's really funny and is genuinley excited to be sitting there doing the commentary.

I can think of one commentary that actually has an uncomfortable moment, Gremlins with Joe Dante, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates and Dick Miller and Howie Mandel.

In the scene wher Billy discovers the Mogwai have become Cacoons in his room Zach Galligan starts to tell the story of how early it was when they filmed the scene, and that's when Joe Dante interjects; "Don't tell that story, No one wants to hear it!" followed by about 2 minutes of dead air before one of the others on the commentary breaks the uncomfortable silence. Check it out, it really is odd.

 

[Eric_E]

One that I found particularly boring was Alan Ball and Sam Mendes on American Beauty. It was pretty obvious they ran out of steam early on, and Ball said virtually nothing unless Mendes prompted him for something. He just kind of sat back and said "I never knew that," or other awestruck-sounding comments. Oh, and enough about Conrad Hall's lighting already.

Another one that got a bit repetitive was John Frankenheimer on the Ronin commentary. I swear, he described DeNiro, Reno, Skarsgard, Pryce, and several others ALL as "phenomenal actors." It got old.

And the all-time worst commentary offense I've ever heard was on the Platinum Series edition of Se7en, in the second commentary track (the one devoted to the writing of the film). There is a film studies professor who proceeds to ruin the plot of AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MOVIE - He completely destroyed any chance I had of being surprised by Spoorloos (The Vanishing), by giving away what would have been an incredible ending (those who have seen the movie know what I'm talking about). To spoil the plot of the movie you're commenting on is one thing, but to ruin another, different movie is just infuriating! ARGH!!! I still get mad thinking about just how completely unnecessary that was.

 

[Jeff D Han]

Hey Brian-

The Friedkin track on The French Connection isn't bad.
He tells some interesting stuff about the frantic car
chase- you will be surprised.

The Hackman-Scheider track is OK too, but they speak
seperately, and for only about 25 minutes apiece.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I disagree on that- while American Beauty commentary could ahve been better, I thought that their respect of Hall was on par with where it shoud be... enough words could not be said about Hall in general, nor how much he brought to American Beauty. I wish more directors would gush about the work of Conrad- American Beauty only lacked in specifics on Hall.


-V

 

[Stas T]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned what I consider by far the worst commentary, and yet also one of the most unintentionaly hilarious: Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes track.

Admittedly, I never listened to the entire track, only the last five minutes, just to hear him attempt to explain the absurd and non-sensical ending (a perfectly awful and yet appropriate capper to one of the worst movies ever, IMHO), and wound up alternately laughing and marveling at how someone so inarticulate could possibly be an A-list filmmaker or ever communicate his thoughts to the cast and crew.

Essentially, Burton rambles for five to ten minutes in sentence fragments, saying nothing of substance, barely even completing an entire thought.

The antitheses to Burton's blathering include the edifying/entertaining commentaries from Fincher, Brad Pitt, and Ed Norton on "Fight Club," various Pixar people on all their films, and pretty much any Joss Whedon track.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Yes, everything Pixar does- including commentaries, is genius.

-V

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'd absolutely love this, not to the point that it would become as common as the other set of buzzstatements but still it would be nice from time to time, because not everybody is nice.

Mena Suvari and the gang on American Pie 2, Oh...dear...God. I found Mena to be especially awful, she had this high pitched laugh/scream combination that caused my dog to cover her ears. Plus, she got going off when she apparently invented the word: "Manties" because that seemed to be in every sentence she said for the rest of the track. I thought the track on the original pie was good, AP2 had 4 tracks which was really unnecessary and I've not yet worked up the courage to sit through the cast track on Wedding.

Talking of long gaps of silence, I forget which commentary I was watching when this happened but it fell silent for so long I actually had to double check and make sure I didn't shut it off by accident.

I'd love a site devoted to reviewing audio commentaries.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I liked Michael Bay's commentary on Armageddon.

But anywho, if I were to do an audio commentary, I don't think I could ascribe to the HTF's notion of honesty.

 

[MarkHastings]

Funny Story...While listening to Tim Burtons commentary on Sleepy Hollow he got completely silent during the windmill scene and he was quiet for SO long that I started getting into the scene and forgot I was listening to the commentary...when he finally spoke up, it scared me to hear his voice over the speakers. :b

 

[Hans M.]

To have high expectations for an audio commentary by a filmmaker whose real means of expression is already on the screen is misguided. These people chose to express themselves in the art form of cinema. How can you expect them to talk about something they think they have already expressed on the screen? It would be redundant to them.

Also, I think you are putting too much faith in the filmmaker to want to gain much insight into the substance of a film from a commentary track by a director. It's the viewer that ultimately decides what art means to them. Hence the reason why film scholars are so much more interesting to hear on audio commentaries, be they interviewing the filmmakers or commenting on the film.

As for technical information, some directors can be quite good at it (no wonder Michael Bay could probably be interesting). Those are often the guys of technique. Some of the more artistic ones won't give great commentaries (see Tim Burton) because their means of expression is cinema not exposition-- they naturally show and do not tell.

Stanley Kubrick probably never did a commentary track for this reason-- though I do not know for sure that he ever has. I do recall Kubrick stating in an interview, when prodded for the meaning if 2001, that to explain what is on the screen would be equivalent to emasculating a Beethoven symphony. He knows what he has to say is already on the screen. I'm sure many real directors feel the same way.

 

[Vincent_P]

With regards to William Friedkin commentaries-

While I agree that the commentary on THE EXORCIST: THE VERSION YOU'VE NEVER SEEN is downright awful, Friedkin's track on the previosuly-released EXORCIST 25th Anniversary Edition is really quite good. In fact, I remember it being one of my favorite commentaries.

Eli Roth's stand-alone director's commentary on CABIN FEVER is really fantastic, too. Very informative and loaded with helpful information for would-be indie filmmakers.

Vincent

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I seem to remember Ernest Lehman's commentary track on "North By Northwest" as being unbearable.

"I think Saul Bass did these titles, they're very nice... yeah, he did. I think they're too small, though.... Bernard Herrmann wrote the music... there's my name... and here's Hitchcock's cameo..."

 

[Stas T]

I understand your point, but I disagree. Plenty of filmmakers, including those I mentioned (Fincher, Whedon, the Pixar folks) provide amusing and edifying insights into their work, usually without becoming pedantic. If a filmmaker has nothing interesting to offer commentary-wise, then why bother to record a track?

My intention in mentioning the Burton track is to illustrate my belief that the man had little idea exactly what the point of the "Apes" remake ending was, a problem evident by seeing the movie, and only further confirmed by his inability to explain it to anyone unfortunate enough to tune in for the commentary.

Fact is, a director needs to be able to communicate his ideas, not just to the audience via the finished film, but also to his cast and crew during the production of the film. For me, Tim Burton failed at the former and left me wondering exactly how he manages to communicate his thoughts to his cast and crew.

Granted, not everyone's as articulate as the people I mentioned, and some of my favorite filmmakers, despite making brilliant cinema, opt not to comment on their work for one reason or another, including, I'm sure, their desire to let their collective work speak for itself.

Ultimately though, if a director's going to do a commentary track, he should have something interesting to say. It's possible Burton recorded the track reluctantly, at Fox's urging, to help sell more DVDs, but other high-profile directors (the Wachowskis, for example) get out of doing it, so if Burton didn't want to do a track, I'm sure he could easily have said no.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

The reason that critics commentaries tend to be better overall is because they actually, like, PREPARE for it.
They don't just sit on their arses telling us that "that guy over there, by the moosehead, that's my good friend Tom and his wife ".

The fact is that most commentary participants don't seem to respect the worth of this feature and don't seem to be considering the viewer's enjoyment at all. I find it hard to believe that so few directors have anything interesting to say about a project they probably lived with for years, through conception and execution. One track shouldn't be ENOUGH to say all there is to be said !

I think Oliver Stone is pretty exemplary in commentaries. You may hate the guy, but at least his films are about something, so he can switch between talking about the production of the film and talking about the subject of the film itself. Then again, I guess even Stone'd have a hard time talking about something like INDEPENDENCE DAY.

The message to the majority of participants is : DO YOUR HOMEWORK ! WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST ! FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO SAY !

HAVE SOME RESPECT !!

 

[Hans M.]

Fincher, Whedon, Pixar = technique. Robots in human shells. They have expression down to a science. That’s all I will say about them.

I think it is preposterous to crack a whip at directors because they do not provide entertaining commentaries. Tim Burton makes terrific films. That is what matters. His commentary tracks are supplemental. Get from them what you will, but know that you are asking a true artist to explain his art. It’s not going to happen.

No, directors do not need to communicate his true ideas directly with cast and crew. Not even co-writer Arthur C. Clark got exactly what Kubrick was doing with 2001. For example, if you have ever seen a director work with children you will see he/she never directly explains the plot and meaning of what the film is about. It would make little sense, as a child’s mind may not be developed enough to understand the depth of a film’s subject matter—yet the director can still get an excellent performance out of the child just by making faces at him/her while standing next to the lens. Heh, I’m sure many actors work the same way.

The reason film scholars are interesting to listen to is because they study film. They write papers on film. They go to film forums to discuss film. They have lots of time just watching and thinking about film. They are viewers just like DVD collectors are viewers. Filmmakers, on the other hand, are visionaries. It’s pointless to expect great commentaries that explain what is going on screen, although there are some insightful exceptions, of course (see Brazil: Love Conquers All cut with commentary [by a film scholar, no less]) or entertaining (see Spinal Tap: Special Edition).