What is your favorite commentary? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

Tom Weaver's commentary on The Creature From the Black Lagoon is really entertaining and informative. It is the first time I went back and looked for movies with commentaries by Tom and then used that to determine whether I would buy a disc or not.

Weaver's great - his "Wolf Man" is terrific, too!

I've always been a Rudy Behlmer fan as well....

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Is this the one where he trashes Kirk’s acting? I know someone did that and I found it refreshing though I disagreed with him.

I haven't heard the Trumbo "commentary" in years, but according to my review, it's Tony Curtis he attacks the most harshly....

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I am really at the point where I think twice about buying any disc without a commentary. The classic movies are the best, especially those for silent movies. The latest ones usually just deteriorate into “she was wonderful to work with”. It is interesting to hear the commentary recorded just after the movie was made, telling

I love commentaries too, but if I only bought BDs with commentaries, there'd be massive gaps in my collection!

No Spielberg!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

One of the best commentary tracks I've ever heard was on Black Hawk Down where four members of Task Force Ranger discuss the mission and contrast it with the film's version of events. I believe it was in this track that we learn that one of the stunt pilots who flew one of the 'Little Birds' for the film actually flew that same craft and mission in real life in Mogadishu.

In the same vein, the Jim and Marilyn Lovell track for "Apollo 13" is very good.

And the track with 9/11 survivors/rescuers on "World Trade Center" is amazing!

 

[Race Bannon]

I've enjoyed the Junior Bonner commentary over the past few days. Nick Redman moderating a bunch of Peckinpah historians.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I love the commentary on the “Untitled” version of “Almost Famous” - writer/director Cameron Crowe and his mother!

 

[Will*B]

I've always absolutely loved the David Warbeck / Catriona McColl commentary on The Beyond.

It's probably partly due to the bittersweet nostalgia of hearing Warbeck being charming & hilarious despite being so ill and with so little time left to live, but it's also due to the sheer entertainment value of it. Absolutely fantastic.

 

[MielR]

The Victor/Victoria commentary with Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews was great.
Edit: I'm referring to the DVD; I don't know if if the same commentary is on the blu-ray(?)

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The Victor/Victoria commentary with Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews was great.
Edit: I'm referring to the DVD; I don't know if if the same commentary is on the blu-ray(?)

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

I think the "VV" tracks works pretty well for an hour or so, but it becomes a deflating balloon after that. Edwards essentially goes MIA, and Andrews doesn't carry the load well on her own...

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I've enjoyed the Junior Bonner commentary over the past few days. Nick Redman moderating a bunch of Peckinpah historians.

Yes, any of the Redman-moderated commentaries with those three Peckinpah scholars are great. They also did 5 or 6 commentaries on Peckinpah's short-lived TV series The Westerner which were well worth listening to!

I love Tom Weaver's commentaries, but prefer him solo or moderating with a older film star. The ones where his commentary is interrupted by David Schechter talking about film music for 20 minutes straight (i.e. The Monster That Challenged the World) put me right to sleep (no offense to Schechter fans). Conversely, I enjoy listening to Jon Burlingame talk about film music. Perhaps his delivery is less dry.

I like the packed audio commentaries by Tim Lucas, Rudy Belhmer (where has he been lately?) and Stuart Galbraith IV, among others by film scholars, where they balance their deep knowledge of film with enthusiasm.

Agreed about the James Bond commentaries; patchwork though they are, they have tons of great information in them.

Basically, I prefer little to no "dead space" in my commentaries.

 

[Vic Pardo]

It's important to have moderators when the actual participants are discussing the film, because someone is needed to ask crucial questions, steer the discussion back to the film, keep things going when the energy level of the participants starts to flag, and correct misinformation or misremembering of details from the set. When this doesn't happen, the results can be a chore to sit through. I was so happy to get the STALAG 17 DVD because two of the actors plus one of the co-writers of the original play were sitting together to do the commentary, but there was no moderator and the conversation went all over the place. Very frustrating.

 

[Craig Beam]

Basically, I prefer little to no "dead space" in my commentaries.

My number one pet peeve. I can cut commentators a lot of slack (different delivery styles, varying degrees of enthusiasm, etc.)---- but dead air frustrates me to no end.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I think you mean George Sidney.

yes, of course. Don't know what I was doing. Jet lag does strange things (trip to Iran and Italy)

 

[actionsub]

I know a lot of you on the forum love the commentaries of the films. I would like to know what is your favorite(s). It may not be your favorite movie but the commentary was insightful, or thought provoking, or entertaining or ????? A commentary that stuck with you. And please let us know why you selected it (them)

I posted this in Blu Ray but if your commentary only appears on the DVD or LD please let us know.

Looking forward to your answers and a bunch of new stuff I gotta watch.

One of the few movie commentaries I enjoyed was the one to Henry Fonda's "My Darling Clementine", which was Fonda playing Wyatt Earp. The commentary was from Earp's grandson. In one particular scene where Earp came in and clobbered a disorderly person over the head with a pistol stock, grandson commented, "That's pretty accurate. Wyatt was too cheap to waste a bullet on someone when assault and battery would achieve the same purpose."

 

[schmo]

John Frankenheimer talking The Manchurian Candidate. In fact, any Frankenheimer commentary is pretty good.

 

[Burning Olive]

Every David Cronenberg commentary is as clinical and fascinating as his movies.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My number one pet peeve. I can cut commentators a lot of slack (different delivery styles, varying degrees of enthusiasm, etc.)---- but dead air frustrates me to no end.

I often bitch about dead air in my reviews.

I'd take an excellent commentary that only fills half the film over a crappy one that occupies the whole running time, though!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

One of the few movie commentaries I enjoyed was the one to Henry Fonda's "My Darling Clementine", which was Fonda playing Wyatt Earp. The commentary was from Earp's grandson. In one particular scene where Earp came in and clobbered a disorderly person over the head with a pistol stock, grandson commented, "That's pretty accurate. Wyatt was too cheap to waste a bullet on someone when assault and battery would achieve the same purpose."

That commentary's more from historian John Eyman than from Earp III. The grandson really didn't say much.

I like the track, but that's 99% because of Eyman's contributions...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

John Frankenheimer talking The Manchurian Candidate. In fact, any Frankenheimer commentary is pretty good.

Frankenheimer's "TMC" track is indicative of what I mentioned above: a great discussion that fills only part of the film is superior to a bad discussion that fills the WHOLE film.

JF goes quiet more than I'd like, but when he talks, he offers good info...

 

[Race Bannon]

The Victor/Victoria commentary with Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews was great.
Edit: I'm referring to the DVD; I don't know if if the same commentary is on the blu-ray(?)

Oh, that was a good one. One of my favorites.