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Great Audio Commentaries (1 Viewer)

Joined
Nov 1, 2003
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19
Tarantino doing a full commentary on true Romance. If you're a fan of him at all, you'll love this commentary. Once he gets started...

All the Evil Dead ones are great too.
 

Jeff D Han

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 2, 2003
Messages
566
Yeah, Craig, I bought the 2 disc SE of True Romance
for the Tarantino track (I'm not a fan of the movie,
and Tony Scott is a hack).

It's unfortunate that Quentin wasn't interested
in recording a track for Pulp Fiction and Jackie
Brown. :frowning:
 

Matthew_Millheiser

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 1, 2000
Messages
657
I'm also a huge fan of the Seven Samurai commentary track. It's absolutely astounding, and full of fascinating pieces of information and insight. Great stuff.

Any time Rudy Behlmer contributes to an audio commentary track, you know its golden. Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Fantasia, Notorious are all fantastic.

Nuts.
 

Stephen Orr

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 14, 1999
Messages
1,099
Mr. Lunt and Larry the Cucumber from Jonah: A Veggietales Movie. I was on the floor laughing through most of this one.
 

John Simon

Second Unit
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Feb 6, 2001
Messages
449
I think the commentary by Donner and Mankiewicz on Superman - The Movie is one of the best I've heard. The commentary by Coppola for The Godfather Trilogy is exceptional as well.
 

Phil K

Auditioning
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Sep 12, 2003
Messages
10
I enjoy every Paul Verhoeven commentary. Just heard the newest from "Flesh + Blood". He got to be careful what he says :D

Suprisingly a lot of people here in Germany did not understand "Starship Troopers". They should listen carefully what the director has to tell them in the first minutes of the SST SE DVD. Well, the whole meaning of the film was changed due to the censoring dubbing. Its a shame :frowning:

Oliver Stone commentaries I like too generally.

Rodriguez gives much technical inside information.
 

richardWI

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 23, 2003
Messages
362
Instead of just listing which comms I liked, I'll go about it a different way:

The main thing I look for in a comm track is illumination. If I'm going through the movie a second time, doubling the amount of time I've spent on it, it better be worth my while and tell me things I didn't yet know: Ebert on Citizen Kane, Dark City. Every Werner Herzog track. Every Robert Rodriguez track. Rudy Belhmer. Annette Insdorf on the Three Colors Trilogy!!

The second thing I look for is enthusiasm. Not necessarily entertainment, but a track that isn't dry and dull sounding like Polanski or John McTerin, Paglia on Basic Instinct.

I guess that it. Ideally, great tracks are both illuminating and enthusiastic: Every Gilliam track. Most of the Simpsons tracks

Tracks I hate are "making this movie was the greatest moment of my life" tracks usually by actors. Even if it's true, it doesn't give me any useful information..(LOTR cast tracks) Most actors aren't exactly intellectual balls of fire. Some, like Ed Norton surprise me.
 

JasonJason

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 25, 2003
Messages
98
A lot of great commentaries mentioned. One that I think is great and hasn't been brought up is the commentary on The League of Gentlemen (British comedy series). Unfortunately, only Series One is available on Region 1, but if you have multi-region, the commentaries on all three series are equally excellent. Other great ones:

Little Shop of Horrors
Mr. Show
Family Guy
Donnie Darko (the director track w/ Jake Gyllenhall)
28 Days Later
Gangs of New York
Titus
 

Shane_Anthony

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 30, 2003
Messages
133
Another :emoji_thumbsup: for anything by Oliver Stone

JFK & Platoon were outstanding!

He's one of the most enjoyable and intelligent directors to listen too

Also gotta give it up for Jim(king of the world)Cameron his Aliens & T2 commentaries were very insightful also

Looking forward to the eventual Titianc SE track..assuming we get one of course :D
 

Ryan_TD

Stunt Coordinator
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Feb 8, 2002
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211
I'd have to go with any by Spielberg, but especially his commentary for Scindler's List.............
 

Ken Stuart

Second Unit
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Jan 31, 2000
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468
Actually, I hope that practice is not adhered to by anyone!

What you have just described is not a commentary, it is a "Making Of..." interview. It belongs in a Special Features Second Disk, preferably with the image of the person being interviewed, so that you can see the facial expressions that go with the words.

A commentary is when someone involved with the film watches the film and their experience of watching the film prompts them to say something about it, like "... oh I had forgotten about this scene - the funniest thing occurred when we were shooting it...".

Interviews, on the other hand, should be presented as... interviews.
 

Seth Paxton

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Nov 5, 1998
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There are many great ones, some of the film art variety and others of the funny or entertaining variety.

The one that always jumps to my mind is Elizabeth. Great insight into the motivations behind the director's choices. To me this commentary is what all artists' commentaries should be like, except Kevin Smith's. :)


I will say that I own many others that I've yet to listen to, so there may be a lot more really great ones like that one. As for film historian or critics commentaries, those are almost always outstanding and interesting.
 

Jon Robertson

Screenwriter
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May 19, 2001
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Well, Ken, that's all very well if you just want a commentary full of cutesy anecdotes, but it's a very risky way of constructing a feature-length track. Some personalities like John Waters or Bruce Campbell can just sit back and reel off hilarious monologues, but the vast majority cannot. Blake Edwards' recent commentary on Days of Wine and Roses is simply excruciating and some directors need one hell of a lot of prompting to get anything good out of them (Robert Altman, for one).

Personally, I'm sick to the back teeth of commentaries full of "he really was great to work with and it took us nine takes to get that shot and I spoke to him just the other day" type inanities that result from a one-take session when the commentator is just sat down and talks about whatever pops into their head. A commentary should definitely be given the same amount of preparation and editing as a documentary - it's got the bonus of being much longer than most 30-minute or hour-long featurettes as it takes up less space than a separate video program and runs the full length of the film, so one should cram in as much information and detail as possible.
 

Haggai

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Nov 3, 2003
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Gotta disagree on the LOTR cast tracks. Even though there's quite a bit of clowning on them--particularly from the hobbits--that doesn't reveal much information (though I still find it very entertaining), there are a lot of great tidbits that are really fascinating.

Brad Dourif on TTT talked about the importance of the Rohirrim as Middle Earth's "cavalry," giving the heroes a distinct advantage in that column over Sauron and Saruman, who can only "overwhelm" on the battlefield with huge numbers. Great story insight for me, particularly since I haven't read the books. And in the FOTR track, Billy Boyd talks about the loss of Gandalf as being like a kid out in public with your dad--as long as he's around, you know that nothing too bad can happen, but if you get separated or lose him, it's a terrible experience. I thought that was a beautiful analogy, bringing the story close to home in a way that we can all identify with. Just a couple of examples, but there's other great stuff in there too.
 

James Reader

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Messages
1,465
I actually like Commentary track by Executive Producer Mark Altman on the "House of the Dead" DVD. It's clear he's not 100% happy with the final film, and points out all of the problems that plague a low budget production... from disagreements with the director, to budget and time constraints.

It's a very informative track, and he never resorts to bitterness or snide comments. It's much better than the normal "genial back slapping" more and more DVDs get these days.
 

Magnus Nord

Agent
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Jun 7, 2003
Messages
37
I like both the Donnie Darko commentarys

Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas commented by Terry Gilliam is great too.
 

Dave T.

Auditioning
Joined
Feb 15, 2004
Messages
4
I recommend Emma Thompson's hilarious commentary (with producer Lindsay Doran) from Sense and Sensibility, if you appreciate cleverness and a bit of droll British wit -- very funny, as well as informative. She had me laughing right from the Columbia logo, where she describes the difficulty of having to stand with her arm up for half an hour to get the shot of her holding the torch -- "I kept that wrap, though", she quips.
 

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