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

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't mind technical commentaries; in fact, I enjoy them - so long as there's actual information being presented. Cinematographers interest me a lot, but I think those tracks are a real hit-or-miss - there are some DPs who are very good at putting their experiences into words, and then some who just can't. I don't fault them for that; they went into the business to express things visually, but the people who either can't or won't reveal more information than what brand of light bulb they like is a waste of commentary space.

On the other hand, I also appreciate more relaxed, conversational commentaries - provided that the people are at least interesting. I don't mind if a commentary isn't scene specific as long as it stays interesting.

It would be nice if on the DVD specs (or in the press release) if they could note if the commentary track was recorded live with all principles in the room, or assembled from seperate sessions. It would also be cool if they could point out if it's going to be a more technical, film school type commentary, or a more anecdotal, conversational type commentary.

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

I had a really ong rebuttal written out to this, but when I finished I decided to skip it and say simply that I think that is a really unfair comment.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The big difference between the Reiner Tap commentary and his other ones is that the former is edited, and he's not solo on it. I'm sure that if Criterion had expected a good, running, screen-specific piece from Reiner, his Tap commentary would have sucked as well. He's one of the worst commentators out there...

 

[Kevin M]

Dennis Hopper's DVD commentary for Easy Rider was an excruciating case of the viewer yelling at the screen "...come on..come on.....DAMN IT SAY SOMETHING FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!! IT'S BEEN TEN MINUTES!!"
It's a shame Columbia didn't port over the older 1996 LD commentary with Peter Fonda, production manager Paul Lewis & Hopper on the phone. Granted that LD track was more than a little annoying in it's self congratulatory manner but it was certainly more fact/story filled than Hopper's solo DVD snore-fest.

 

[Greg_S_H]

The end of Shane was like this. I was hoping the participants would discuss the ending, but they were still rambling on about some earlier point.

 

[MarkHastings]

This is a topic that I have been having so many issues with lately...

I've actually come to loathe listening to commentaries because there are so many that are a complete waste of time. Especially on the movies that weren't recently in theaters...Is it too much to ask that these people watch the movie once BEFORE they start the commentary so we don't have LONG pauses where they are just sitting there watching the movie and laughing. How are we supposed to get a decent commentary track when they haven't seen the movie in years and are now watching with a cloudy memory?

And to add on the commentary issue, did you ever notice how so many of the featurettes (i.e. extras) all start to sound the same?

Here's my list:

- (Insert name here) is an AMAZING director to work with!
- (Insert name here) is truly a gifted actor!
- (Insert name here) is an AMAZING costume designer!
- (Insert name here) is one of the funniest people I've ever worked with.
- This movie has (insert large number here) special effects sequences...which is the largest number of effects shots in a movie.
- Whenever several actors (from the film) are doing commentary, one will always comment on what he/she is doing in the film - i.e. "Look at what I just did!" or "Look at my hair!" or "Look at me trying not to laugh"
-In the deleted scenes commentary, a director will ALWAYS say something like "I HATED to cut this scene because it was my FAVORITE!" or
"I cut this scene for length reasons, even though (insert actors name) did an exclenet job with this scene"

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Here's a question I would like to pose:

Would you want the exact opposite?

"Damnit to hell, [insert actor/actress name] was a pain in the ass to work with."

"Man this shot sucked, and I have absolutely no idea why I put it here."

"I hate this movie. Oh why oh why did I make it?"

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

They made fun of this commentary on one of the Family Guy commentary tracks. They said that all Hopper did was say, "Whoa, I don't remember doing that!" over and over.

 

[Dewitte]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Army of Darkness audio commentary by Bruce Campbell and the Raimi brothers. It was a nice mix of technical and anecdotal information and a lot of fun to listen to.

De

 

[Josh Simpson]

Dewitte, I was just going to say that any Bruce Campbell commentary is good in my book. Sam Raimi seems to be pretty good when he's with Bruce as well, but seems pretty bored on Spiderman and other movies. Of course, I've seen him quoted as saying he doesn't really enjoy commentaries.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

God, WOULD I EVER! You bet. Sometimes filmmakers will say stuff like this on commentaries of earlier films or troubled productions or whatever and I have to rewind a bit to make sure I heard it right. Those commentaries are like gold because it doesn't feel like the participants are somehow being monitored by the studio suits so they won't say anything too detrimental.

If only EVERYONE was that candid!

 

[Mike Broadman]

This is why I rarely listen to commentaries anymore. It was cool when I first got into DVD, but now every disc has one, even if it's not merited. To paraphrase an old saying, "If you have nothing interesting to say, don't say anything."

The only commentaries I may find interesting are ones that are generally informative and explain some key things about the film in its historical context, some general technical stuff (I don't need all the details), or are entertaining in their own right (like the MGM Spinal Tap).

In general, commentaries by the film-makers, especially actors, are dull and self-important. There are exceptions (I plan on buying Remains of the Day at some point and listening to Emma Thompson because I'm in love with her), but the commentaries from scholars tend to be much more interesting, in no small part to their objectivity.

One of the many things Criterion does right is to have such commentaries. Of course since many of the films are old they can't have the film makers, but note that many of their discs have no commentaries. They only put it in when they have someone knowledgable talk about something interesting. I owe some of my love for Kurusawa to Criterion's commentaries.

And I'll add another accolade to Ebert on Citizen Kane. A great example of a wonderful comment on a scene was him explaining how they filmed and spliced the part where Kane is firing his friend. Not too technical, understandable, and very interesting.

But these are the exceptions. What one usually hears on commentaries are that so-and-so is wonderful to work with, a genius, open, wonderful, great, wonderful, blah blah-bady- blah. Everyone's so great. Gee, I'd like a job where everyone is so great.

I don't have the energy to figure out how to rip commentary tracks on my MP3 player or any such thing. If I do listen to commentaries, it's at home while doing stuff, but it's still time-consuming or I'd rather be listening to music. The DVD makers have to realise that films are long, and therefore so are commentaries. Please make it worthwhile.

I haven't even tried listening to commentaries on films I don't love. I wouldn't see the point.

The commentary review site is a great idea.

 

[Matt Pelham]

While Bruce Campbell's solo track was great on the Evil Dead, I thougth Raimi's track was rather boring.

And for some reason I can't make it through the Die Hard John McTiernan commentary. He's just too monotone and technical for me.

And I find Morgan Freeman's commentaries to be quite uninteresting.

 

[chris_m_white]

The most useless commentary I've listened to is the cast/crew commentary on Christmas Vacation. A major disappointment since it's the only special feature on the disc. Beverly D'Angelo spends most of her time talking/complaining about her hair, and there are a lot of "this was the studio...this was location" comments throughout. Too bad because it was a nice mix of the cast (Beverly D'Angelo, Johnny Galecki) and the crew (Director and Executive Producer). I can tell how useless it was because I can't remember a single anecdote or point of interest. Avoid.

As many people have pointed out, I think the actor commentaries tend to be the most uninteresting. Director/Filmmaker commentaries are hit and miss. It depends on the charisma of the commentator, and how willing they are to be candid. I've found critic/film historian commentaries to be the most informative. I think it's because they can be objective, since they weren't involved in the production, and because there is usually more perspective the older the movie.

These are other commentaries I consider subpar:

Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock/Marc Lawrence - Two Weeks Notice
Todd Haynes - Far From Heaven (a lot of interesting information, but I found it boring)
Emmerich/Devlin - The Patriot
Gary Ross/Steven Sodebergh - Seabiscuit (I was surprised by this - I love Sodebergh commentaries and this even has the neat feature of stopping the film to elaborate on points. I just found it to be quite dry, and very congratulatory).
Robert Zemeckis/Producers - What Lies Beneath
Sam Raimi/Kirsten Dunst - Spiderman (I've heard Raimi is usually good, but he was pretty boring on this one, and Dunst and the producer didn't offer anything worthwhile)

 

[Steve Christou]

This may seem like a thread fart in this particular thread but commentaries remain by far my favorite 'extra' on dvds, some are good, some are bad, but I've purchased many dvds solely because they contained a commentary. I find them fascinating, even when I'm yawning thru some of them.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I like commentaries that are informative and make me think, the Criterion laserdisc of The Graduate comes to mind, but I especially like commentaries that are pure fun.

I really love the ones for Donnie Darko, Mr. Show, Boogie Nights, Hard Eight, Chasing Amy, and Cannibal: The Musical. I was/am really looking forward to the commentaries for Orgazmo. The one for American Pie is fun too.

It would be great if an SE of Dazed & Confused were to ever come out that multiple commntary tracks would be made, one of which would be the whole cast, and one would be just Richard Linklater complaining about how much it sucked to work for the film company.

A middle ground commentary would be any of the Criterion Martin Scorcese laser discs. Marty is informative, but he also sounds so coked up that sometimes it's hilarious.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Hey, no farting in my thread!

I'm always hopeful when a DVD contains a commentary, and as I've mentioned in the opening post, I take the discs to work so I can listen to all of them (I'm listening to the critic commentary on disc 2 of Reservoir Dogs as I type this). Still, when they suck, they suck bad, and it can't hurt to spread the pain around if it saves others a big waste of time. I hope this thread will provide a continuing outlet for people to post silly little nuggets as they discover them from here on out.

By the way, the critics track on Reservoir dogs really offers nothing over the obvious and, naturally, only reinforces the subjective nature of film criticism, whether its practiced in national film magazines or on internet forums, and leading to the big question of critics should be able to enshrine such thoughts for all time on little plastic discs. All three critics take the "this is my interpretation" route, which is inherently subjective (and only mildly interesting) and which speaks to a certain arrogance rarely found on the tracks provided by proper film historians on older films.

 

[Jason Borchers]

.

 

[MarkHarrison]

That would be fantastic. Nothing like a little honesty to spice things up. It doesn't have to be all negative, but you can learn a lot from seeing where things went wrong. I like the fact that on the Daredevil commentary they weren't afraid to point out where the CGI sucked. That was one of my biggest complaints and I was pleased to hear that it bothered the director as well.

Terry Gilliam does honest commentaries like this and his are probably my absolute favorites to listen to.

So bring it on!

 

[MarkHastings]

Ah Yes! The typical humbled director who has to make the comment that no one would ever want to listen to the commentary track...Argh! I can't stand it! They say things like:

"...to the 12 people actually listening to this commentary..."
or
"...the 3 people who actually bought this movie..."


One of my favorite comments was during the Finding Nemo commentray when one of the guys was making fun of all the other horrible commentaries by saying "Oooo! Remember this scene?...." and then he wouldn't comment on it...basically he was busting on all those directors that just sit there and watch the movie instead of commenting on it.

and to Dome, as everyone else has said, I too would love to hear real honest comments about a particular actor or scene. I understand that there are a lot of talented actors out there, but once you start calling all of them "the most talented actors you've ever worked with", it looses all meaning and starts to become a cliche that we dread hearing on every commentary track.