What is your favorite commentary? (1 Viewer)

[Race Bannon]

A helpful tip offfered: get set-up to where you can listen to them in bed as you fall asleep. They're great for that -- it's like you're hearing an interesting conversation, but you don't need to stay awake and watch the screen if you get sleepy. (You can resume the next night where you left off).

 

[Briton]

Don't know if it's still available, but Terry Gilliam's commentary on the old criterion laserdisk of Monty Python and the holy Grail made my heart sing. He starts out with a really negative attitude toward the film and really picks it apart. But slowly the silliness of the film wins him over and by the end he's giggling along like one of his own fans.

 

[MielR]

No, it's a different commentary on the Blu-ray - they brought Edwards back from the dead to record it!

Lol. I don't actually own the blu-ray so I didn't know if they carried the old commentary over or not. That's what I meant to say.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Lol. I don't actually own the blu-ray so I didn't know if they carried the old commentary over or not. That's what I meant to say.

I know - I was just having a laugh!

 

[bujaki]

Ken Russell's commentary for his Lair of the White Worm. I was listening to it and my wife, who doesn't care to listen to commentaries, walked by asked who was the interesting speaker and stayed on to listen to the whole thing. Utterly fascinating.

 

[Bob_S.]

One of the only commentaries that I have listened to multiple times is the commentary by Katherine Orrison, author of “Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille’s Epic, The Ten Commandments”. She fills up the almost 4 hours of the film with wonderful anecdotes and information. It's obvious she loves the movie. Her book on the filming is also a great read if you're a fan of the film.

This is my favorite commentary as well. Katherine does a fantastic job of balancing the technical aspects of the film with behind the scene stories. Not one boring minute in it. I would love to contact her just to say how much I love the commentary (and her book) but I can't find any info on her anywhere. Upon reading her book about the making of The Ten Commandments, I found out the story behind the "George Washington Praying at Valley Forge" painting I have hanging on my living room wall. The painter Arnold Friberg was hired by DeMille as an artist for The Ten Commandments. Friberg used Henry Wilcoxon as the model for George Washington.

Since I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, I've listened to all the commentaries multiple times.

A helpful tip offfered: get set-up to where you can listen to them in bed as you fall asleep. They're great for that -- it's like you're hearing an interesting conversation, but you don't need to stay awake and watch the screen if you get sleepy. (You can resume the next night where you left off).

Sometimes after working the night shift, I'll pop in a commentary and go to sleep to it.

 

[Brian Husar]

I tend to like Oliver Stone's commentary tracks. Sometimes he goes off on a tangent, but he is very informative and he is watching the movie while the commentary was done. Scorsese did 2 where he was watching the movie, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver and I love those. His other tracks you could tell he recorded them without watching.

 

[Flemming Kristensen]

Ridley Scott on the unrated cut of The Counselor.

 

[PMF]

My favorite? Well, I've got about 187 more to go. So far it's been the Twilight Time discs. TT has been the most consistent, informative and engaging. Great topic.

 

[24fpsNinja]

John Carpenter commentaries have been mentioned and I would agree. One of my faves is his commentary on the UK DVD of “The Thing From Another World” from 1951.

 

[Johnny Angell]

John Carpenter commentaries have been mentioned and I would agree. One of my faves is his commentary on the UK DVD of “The Thing From Another World” from 1951.

Do you have a link to the one with the commentary?

 

[Brent Reid]

Do you have a link to the one with the commentary?

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=4131#9
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thing-Another-World-2-disc-DVD/dp/B000KJT7V4

 

[Tommy R]

I used to listen to commentaries all the time, but I don't think I've listened to one since my son was born back in '14. Now I have a daughter also almost a year old, may be a while before I get caught up. There are several movies in my collection I still want to listen to the commentaries for. But thinking back in the day when I had all the time in the world, I remember all the Evil Dead movies having the greatest commentaries. Bruce Campbell in particular was great on them.

 

[Johnny Angell]

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=4131#9
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thing-Another-World-2-disc-DVD/dp/B000KJT7V4

Sadly, at 40 pounds it’s out of my price range. Thank you for the info.

 

[Brent Reid]

Sadly, at 40 pounds it’s out of my price range. Thank you for the info.

Huh? There are many waaay cheaper than that; you don't have to buy the most expensive copy on offer, you know. The price usually hovers around the £5-8 mark and I paid 80p for mine just a few years ago.

 

[Bryan^H]

I really like the fragmented commentaries of the Star Wars movies(original trilogy). At first I was not a fan of them, but they have grown on me.

I was most excited for the planned lone commentary with Sigourney Weaver over all the Alien films. Sadly it got scrapped due to her schedule, and given the state we are in with home video will never happen now. Sad.

Funny thing is commentary tracks were so much the norm on DVD that I used to think I was cheated if a "special edition" was released without one. A couple really bad commentaries squashed that feeling though, after that I didn't really care as much.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Huh? There are many waaay cheaper than that; you don't have to buy the most expensive copy on offer, you know. The price usually hovers around the £5-8 mark and I paid 80p for mine just a few years ago.

Your link highlighted the expensive one and I assumed that was the only one with the commentary. There are 5 items for sale, two of which don’t ship to the US. There is one for 9.85 that does. Are you saying that all these sellers are selling the same disc?

 

[TJPC]

I just listened to a commentary of a Twilight Zone episode staring Leonard Nemoy as a soldier. I had watched the episode, and then with commentary and something happened that I never saw before. The commentary version was abridged so it only lasted 12 minutes or so. At first I thought the disc was skipping, but there was no interruption of the commentary, and wavy lines were used when parts were cut out. This is much better than long minutes of dead air you often get.

 

[JPCinema]

THE BAD SEED Patty McCormack and Charles Busch.

 

[TravisR]

I really like the fragmented commentaries of the Star Wars movies(original trilogy). At first I was not a fan of them, but they have grown on me.

I love the ones that were pulled from interviews done at the time they were making the movie.

I just listened to a commentary of a Twilight Zone episode staring Leonard Nemoy as a soldier. I had watched the episode, and then with commentary and something happened that I never saw before. The commentary version was abridged so it only lasted 12 minutes or so. At first I thought the disc was skipping, but there was no interruption of the commentary, and wavy lines were used when parts were cut out. This is much better than long minutes of dead air you often get.

Yeah, I like that too and considering that Nimoy has a fairly small part in the episode, it makes sense to do that.