Dances With Wolves commentary: new or not? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Miller]

I'm a big fan of DWW, but have just now gotten around to listening to the Costner / Wilson commentary on the recent DWW SE release by MGM. Is this a new commentary? DVDFile indicates it is:

By comparison, Costner and Wilson's track is a must-listen, and is not just a regurgitated version of the commentary on the Image release.

However, there are a few things Costner says on the commentary to lead me to believe it is not:

1. "We'll, here we are nine years later..." That would make it 1999. Now the Image release came out in 1998, so the very next year they did another commentary??

2. "And there's my wife..." Costner was divorced in 1994 wasn't he?

3. And in reference to the older Sioux woman who is memorialized on one of the special supplements, he says "I believe she's still teaching at that college."

Now, I realize that the packaging does not say the commentary is new, and I've checked other review sites that are nebulous on the issue. I haven't done an A/B comparison w/ the Image release, but they can't be the same commentary b/c in the new SE there is commentary over the extended scenes that were added back in.

So is it new, old, or a re-edited combo? Maybe some of you old laserdisc people can help me out.

Peace,

DM

 

[PaulP]

I have the Image and the new SE versions and though I've not done comparisons, I believe the commentary's old, with just new commentary recorded for the added footage. It makes logistical sense, first of all, and it was stated in one of the reviews I read.

 

[Jeff(R)]

Yes. That is what I understand was done.

Jeff

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I did comparisons between the old DVD and the new, and those parts of the movie that appear on both clearly use the same commentary. Only the parts that apply specifically to the extended verison of the film are new - the rest DOES "regurgitate" the old commentary. The folks at DVD File don't do a lot of fact-checking - they occasionally put out some odd and erroneous remarks like this...

 

[Paul.S]

Bump.

Thanks for the more precise info, Colin. I had the same question as OP Dave in connection with considering sale of the Image (and just hanging on to the MGM SE) in preparation for a BD release. (Now the remaining big questions have to do with what supps get ported over and whether Fox will use branching to include both cuts of the picture.)

 

[PaulP]

A blast from the past, whoa!