Commentary Tracks -- who listens? (1 Viewer)

[Nick Pudar]

Even though I am deeply disappointed when a DVD does not contain a commentary track, I am sorry to admit that of the approximately 200 movies that I own that have commentary tracks, I have only listened to two of them. I barely have time to WATCH the movies I own let alone listen to the extras. Now with all the great season sets that are coming out, I fear that I will forever be behind on the original content.
How many of your movies that have commentary tracks have you listened to? Do you do it in a disciplined way, or just when it occurs to you. For me, given the choice of listening to some commnentary track of a movie I have already seen or watching one I haven't yet seen, I'll always pick the latter. How do you do it?
Nick
EDIT:
Oops... I just now noticed the other thread about the extras. Sorry for the duplication. However, I still am interested in how other people approach listening to commentary tracks.
Nick

 

[Eric T]

I just listened to the Gladiator commentary track last night, with Ridley Scott, the directory of photography, and one other guy (can't quite remember their names). It was quite interesting.

Some of them are well done. But not all of course. For example, I listened to the commentary on my CC Rushmore DVD, and I didn't find it all that interesting, just a lot of babbling.

 

[Bill J]

It depends on the film and who recorded the commentary track.

 

[Marc Colella]

I think it's cool when an upcoming DVD I want has a commentary track, but in reality out of the 150 DVDs I own (77 which have a commentary track) - I've only listened to Boogie Nights.

 

[Adam_WM]

Of the 100+ DVD's I own, I have listened to 2 commentary tracks. The Arnold/Paul Verhoeven on Total Recall and the Star Wars Episode I with George Lucas and friends. I just wish I had time to listen to more.

 

[Matt Stone]

Depends on the film. Out off the 150 or so that I have, I've probably listened to 20 or so. The Kevin Smith ones are obviously good...as are the Boogie Nights ones. Off the top of my head I've listened to those + all the Fight Club ones, American Beauty, and all 7 commentaries on the Twin Peaks Season 1 set. I'm sure I've listened to more, just can't think of them right now.

 

[andrew markworthy]

I always listen to the commentaries by film historians (e.g. on the Criterion Bergmans), because they genuinely inform. I'll start to listen to other commentaries, but they go off the moment there is any comment like 'X was absolutely wonderful to work with and look how well they do the next scene'.

 

[TheoGB]

I have listened to almost every commentary on every DVD I own - click the 'My Novelty Coasters' link in my sig. It's the vast majority of my 80 titles that have at least one commentary. Some have two or more and I've listened to the other tracks on most too.

I tend to stick them on while I do other stuff around my room like cleaning or restringing my guitar or something. For me they're like a version of Radio 4 with the odd necessity to watch the action.

 

[Jon_W]

I listen to all commentaries, beside the film itself they are the best part of a DVD.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

I listen to the commentaries on all of my DVDs. In most cases, I'll watch the movie and then immediately watch it again with the commentary. In the case of Fight Club, I watched it six times over a weekend -- once for the movie, then once for each of the four commentaries, and then once again to pick up anything I missed.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I'm a big commentary guy as well. I have a 500 disc collection- I'd guess the majority have commentaries and I've probably doing better than 65%. Over the summer (when I have a smaller course load at school)- I plan to catch up and do the rest.
One interesting note, I have a friend who started turning on commentaries and doing a workout. He'd start with stretching and whatnot, but actually would do a full workout during the film (situps, crunches, pushups, aerobic stuff, the works). He found this to be an excellent use of time- and usually would do 1/2 a film a day- and he lost 40 pounds! Learned more about cinema, and lost weight- he said the workout seemed to fly by when he was disctracted listening to a commentary. Perfect!
Just food for thought!
Also, I'm considering putting up a commentary review site in the future- doing reviews specifically of the commentary tracks. Maybe I can find some saff reviewers in this thread
-Vince

 

[Chas_Michael]

They are a great addition...especially on a favorite movie!

 

[Jeremiah]

I have about 60 DVD's but I just found out about 2-3 months ago what a "commentary track" was!LOL. After watching Fight Club I decided to check it out and I thought it was only going to be like 15-20 minutes but I was HOOKED. I also liked the commentary for The Usual Suspects and that was not only good but it was quite funny at times especially when they were pointing out flaws in the film. Used Cars has a very funny commentary also and I think these were the only 3 I have seen so far.

IMO commentary tracks are very good entertainment and will show you some solid insite to a movie and now I look to see if a movie has it just in case I want to see it.

 

[Stewart Storrar]

I currently have 199 titles with at least one commentary (out of 423 titles)
and have listened to every single one. To my mind there's no such thing
as a "bad" commentary. It is by far my favourite extra as I always learn
at least something from listening to them, although of course some are better than
others. What I love is the varied types of people who feature on them, director's,
actors, writers, producers, cinematograpers, special effects people, visual effects
people, stunt co-ordinators, film historians, historians, the real people potrayed
in the film, etc, etc...To a certain extent I love the "film school in a box"
aspect, especially when the sum of these commentaries is considered as a whole.
Quite often I will watch the commentary almost straight after the film, if not,
usually on the same day or the same weekend. This can be quite a time commitment
if the film is long, but I wouldn't have it any other way In fact, just
yesterday I finished listening to the Coppola commentaries on the Godfather
Boxset and they were excellent...

 

[Jon D]

Vince, you should market that workout plan .

 

[Gord Lacey]

Vince, good idea about the commentary site. I found a commentary on one release to be as good, or better, than the film
Gord

 

[Jeremy-P]

It can be hit and miss, depending on who contributes, but I try to watch all the commentaries on my DVDs. If there's more than one on a DVD i'll pick whichever seems more interesting and hope I get to the next one in the future. If the commentary features someone incredibly boring like tim burton, I'll just avoid it altogether.

 

[Jason Hughes]

My approach to watching a commentary is track is a follows. Since I don't have the time to watch all of them, I will narrow the field by reading a review of the DVD first.

My opinions may greatly differ from any DVD review on the internet on the merit of the track, but if I read a review that says there were HUGE gaps of silence or it was nothing but "Ben Affleck was so great to work with, blah blah blah...." I know to avoid them.

Again, my mileage often varies from the reviews take, but not usually when they describe what I mentioned above.

I won't do the above if I have a positive previous experience with a particular director or actor (in other words I pretty much assume any Kevin Smith, Ridley Scott, etc is great and they usually are). Same goes for a negative experience (see above post about Tim Burton).

With so many tracks out there, you have to do something narrow the field!

 

[DanR]

That is so funny about your friend Vince. I do the same thing when I work out, and I thought I was a weirdo. I also listen to commentaries when making dinner (I set up my laptop on the kitchen counter). When I was getting my MBA, I'd always have a commentary going in the background when studying.

There's very few films where I can sit down and just listen to the commentary. But they are great to have going when your attention is partially on something else, and you can still hear the whole thing in the background and get everything out of it.

-Dan

 

[Steve Christou]

Commentaries are the best extras on dvds in my opinion, its just like having the director or stars watching the film with you in your room, and many times you get fascinating bits of info that you wouldn't get in any documentary, there are also funny entertaining commentaries like Bruce Campbell's Evil Dead anecdotes, or Arnie laughing at scenes from Conan the Barbarian, Ben Affleck poking fun at Bruce Willis, Billy Bob and Armageddon, etc.

Some commentaries are subtitled so you can listen to the original soundtrack and read the commentaries, Contact and Hannibal have subtitled commentaries, there are more.