Watching movies with commentaries.

Spoonman75

I've always made a point of rewatching good films with the commentary on by cast and crew members. I'm watching Return Of The Jedi with commentary by Lucas and the cowriter Lawrence Kasdan at the moment. Interesting stuff.

What's the best commentary you've seen and why?

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller

Spoonman75 wrote: »

What's the best commentary you've seen and why?

The French Connection.

I remember watching it about ten years ago and loving it. Hard to believe they filmed most of the car scenes with no permits and on public roads where other cars / pedestrians where unwittingly made part of the film with not all that much regard for their safety, it has to be said

humanji

The Thing has a fantastic commentary with Kurt Russell and John Carpenter. It really comes across as two friends fondly reminiscing about a great time they had together and they give so many hilarious little stories about things going wrong. It always makes for a great commentary when it seems more like you're overhearing people watching their home movies than listening to people dissect the film because their contract said they had to do the commentary.

Spoonman75

humanji wrote: »

The Thing has a fantastic commentary with Kurt Russell and John Carpenter. It really comes across as two friends fondly reminiscing about a great time they had together and they give so many hilarious little stories about things going wrong. It always makes for a great commentary when it seems more like you're overhearing people watching their home movies than listening to people dissect the film because their contract said they had to do the commentary.

Yeah I've seen that commentary. Fantastic like you said. I recall them discussing Russell's loner character and somebody mentioning to Russell some years before, "No man is an island, you know" and Russell responded "No you're wrong. Some people just want to be alone".

So true.

Spoonman75

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller wrote: »

The French Connection.

I remember watching it about ten years ago and loving it. Hard to believe they filmed most of the car scenes with no permits and on public roads where other cars / pedestrians where unwittingly made part of the film with not all that much regard for their safety, it has to be said

I've never seen it. It's a classic by all accounts. Must check it out.

Adamantium

I find Arnie's commentaries on Terminator 1-3 surreal and hilarious ,in the matter of the fact way he describes literally what's going on as we're watching and you have James Cameron politely nodding along or that's how I imagine it, and he doesn't have the politeness to stop Arnold so he lets him ramble on.

Irvin Kershner on Empire Strikes Back is a fantastic storyteller like your Grandad telling you tall tales. He talks about filming in the worst winter Norway had in 40 years for Hoth, Hamill with the Yoda puppet and how they would improvise on set and say screw the script
Such a real guy, so quirky. no BS.

Here's an interview of him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-g0nlreeUo

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller

Spoonman75 wrote: »

I've never seen it.

Really?

It's a classic by all accounts.

Oh, it sure it is.

In particular I love the way it moves from slow, tense scenes to edge of your sit, thrilling ones and yet does it all so seamlessly.

Must check it out.

Oh do. Nice big screen and it's a pure joy.

Spoonman75

One more springs to mind. An American Werewolf In London. The commentary by the 2 male leads is great. You get the idea that it was a lot of fun for both of them. Apart from the hours in the make up chair. There's one scene where the're having a conversation and one of them accidentally blows snot out of his nostril. The 2 lads in the commentary count down the moment to when it happens and when it does they go into hysterics!

Meanwhile their younger counterparts on screen are also trying to rein in the laughter. Landis decided to keep the shot and put it in the movie.

This is why I love commentaries.

shazzerman

Peter Bogdanovich clearly knows his stuff, but as soon as his starts doing his "impressions" of Welles, Ford, and Hitchcock (as he does on the commentary for The Searchers) I have to knock the commentary off. Michael Mann is fairly interesting - if a trifle dry - on the ones he has done.

Spoonman75

Adamantium wrote: »

I find Arnie's commentaries on Terminator 1-3 surreal and hilarious ,in the matter of the fact way he describes literally what's going on as we're watching and you have James Cameron politely nodding along or that's how I imagine it, and he doesn't have the politeness to stop Arnold so he lets him ramble on.

Irvin Kershner on Empire Strikes Back is a fantastic storyteller like your Grandad telling you tall tales.
Such a real guy, so quirky. no BS.

Here's an interview of him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-g0nlreeUo

I was watching his commentary on The Empire Strikes Back 2 days ago.
Carrie Fisher noted that he was "an actor's director".

Kersh, as he was fondly remembered in the commentary, seemed like a sweet old man.

Adamantium

I found the BSG commentaries fantastic, in terms of just how educated and knowledgeable the main cast and Ronald D Moore was about all facets of storytelling. He was very honest and open about episodes he didn't like and how the Sci-Fi would tell them to lighten the story tone and have a bright episode for the sake of it, but would never ask again after the 6th episode of the series. And from then on, were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic and the writers and producers were to make the show with unlimited creative freedom

He said "OK I will ,here's your light episode, that I feel I should do, because the studio has been great to us so far"

In the opening scene, a pilot is celebrating after his 1000th flight with this comrades, abut 20 other officers in the hangar bay. They have him sitting in a wheelie bin pushing him around. Drinks and champagne all around A trolley of missiles is being pushed around. The straps hasn't being fastened properly. A missile falls to the ground ignites it's tail and flies directly into the crowd of 20 officers. 15 die.

The rest of the episode is figuring who was careless enough to let the bloodbath happen.

Duggy747

Evil Dead 2's commentary is hilarious, they give good insights into how they filmed certain scenes but also rip the piss out of it too.

vidor

Been a while but Jeunet's coomentaries are usually fun and insightful. Remember enjoying PTA's one for Boogie Nights as well, pity that it's the only one he's done. Seemingly he learned lots from the commentaries on laser discs when he was a kid.

bnt

I enjoyed one commentary for Miss Congeniality by Sandra Bullock and writer Marc Lawrence. Mostly Sandra. She was a Producer on the film, not for the first time, so her commentary is a mix of bad jokes and interesting production details. Most of the details in the IMDB trivia came from her this way. Sample quote: "we had no stunt mouth on this production, I did all my own eating". :cool:

Corkfeen

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly had a great commentary if memory serves me correctly. I love looking at the scenes as is so watching them all over again while they discuss is nice.

Spoonman75

Corkfeen wrote: »

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly had a great commentary if memory serves me correctly. I love looking at the scenes as is so watching them all over again while they discuss is nice.

Does Eastwood do any commentary? That would be interesting.

IvaBigWun

Anything by David Fincher. Love his commentaries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9VJQYm0rtw