I think that in today's DVD market, audio commentaries are an emerging art, and one that few people have mastered. So, this is a topic to discus audio commentaries, visual commentaries, text commentaries, and any other commentaries. To start off, I have 2 questions:

#1: What is you favorite/least favorite commentary? Also, who is your favorite/ least favorite audio comentator? (In my case, my favorites would probably be Sean Astin, Dominic Monohan (sp?), and Billy Boid from Lord of the Rings.)


#2: What styles of commentaries have you noticed out there? For example, I've noticed 5:

1. Humor/Trivia. My personal favorite, a cast/crew member tells humorous anecdotes about what happened during filming, or give interesting background trivia.

2. Audience Member. A director or producer sits there silently for 15 minutes at a time, watching his own movie, laughing at the jokes, and ocasionaly saying something along the lines of "that was great! I love that part."
I don't like this type, because there's little point. If I wanted to hear the sounds of someone watching the movie, I'd watch it sitting next to someone.

3. Interview style. This is fairly rare. I don't care for it because the comentators are usually talking to each other instead of the listeners, and what's being talked about rarely matches what's on-screen.

4. Play-by-play. The director/producer/writer seems to think that audio commentaries leave you unable to see the picture or hear the uadio. They spend most of their time describing what you're seeing: "And so here, Billy is climbing the stairs. I always liked those stairs, but they had kind of a creak... Okay, and now he's arrived at the bedroom. And you'll notice he's looking around nervously, because he still doesn't trust his stepdad. Oh, there he goes to open the window, and see how high up he is... etc."
This tends to be annoying, but occasionaly a nugget of something interesting turns up.

5. The Praise and Worship flick. The comentator speaks about like this: "And here we have Mac Linsky. He's a classicly trained shakespearean actor. He's great fun to work with. He really loves to get into character. An interesting thing in this scene is- Oh look, there's Tom Wanzle. Tom was a great presence around the set. He really got deep into his role. And you'll notice in this scene- oh, wow. Look at Mac Linsky act. That's good acting right there. And here's Shauna Mcrain. She was such an enjoyable person to have around. She was, uh, a Harvard graduate, I think, and she... wow. That was a great Tom Wanzle moment right there, wasn't it?"
In other words, the comentator spends the whole movie giving every actor's life story, and praising how good it is to work with them, and never really gets to the topic of the movie.

How 'bout you? Any other types you've noticed?

Well, if anyone's still awake, hopefully this should be enough to get the conversation started.

All the View Askew commentaries, except the priamry one on Drawing Flies, where you can't hear a gorram thing anybody is saying. I also liked the commentary tracks for UHF, Star Wars Episode I, and Freddy vs. Jason.

I like a commentary that doesn't leave too much space between the comments. The movie sound is usually muted so it's pointless to try to get back into the flick when you're waiting for the next info bite.

One of the first full commentaries I heard was Roger Ebert's for Dark City, and that spoiled me for most of the rest.

I agree with the View Askew group. Very entertaining -- I felt they could have done a whole 'nother one on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

The comentaries I don't like, with rare exceptions, are the ones where it's the director by himself, and it sounds like he's reading from a script. Robert Altman was guilty of this on one of his moive. Unfortuantely I can't remember which one. I know it wasn't Dr. T & the Women cause that was a group commentary, and it wasn't M*A*S*H becasue I actually haven't watched it with the commentary yet.

Exceptions include Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) and Joss Whedon (The "Objects in Space" episode of Firefly).

The cast commentary on Scooby-Doo is very good, even if it obscures most of the diolouge.

Does someone has the Last Starfighter dvd commentaries? I can t seem to access the director s commentary track for some reason, thanks

CCabe, wouldn't that be *why* it's good?

My very favorite is the director/cinematografer commentary for "The Mummy". They are old friends and are very funny. I think I've watched the film as many times with it as without. Also, Peter Deloise commentaries on the Stargate SG-1 DVDs. He is not only funny, but gives great background info on the production. The worst I've found so far has been Jack Lemmon on "Mr. Roberts". There are very LOOONG stretches where he says nothing.

For a commentary that combines much of those styles, there is Mel Brooks' one for "Spaceballs" (actually the same as the laserdisc version, making it rather dated). Brooks apparently is watching the film for the first time in some years, so some of it is just him laughing at jokes he forgot, some of it is stories about production, a lot of it is name-dropping about the cast and crew (who are all wonderful, talented people), and some of it is Brooks describing what is happening on the screen (occasionally, he gets things wrong too, like calling Dark Helmet Darth Vader or mixing up the plot).

The other kind of commentary that was left out was the "Joke-a-Minute" kind of commentary where whoever's doing it just makes a lot of jokes and in fact, sometimes even MSTs his/her own film in a way. A lot of comedies will do this.

The first two commentaries I ever listened to were from Toy Story 2 and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and were they worlds apart! The boys from Pixar were clearly having a great time, pointing out references, in-jokes and anecdotes. George Lucas and associates were very flat, very disinterested. I wondered if we'd've gotten the same results from Lucas if he had contributed a commentary for the original Star Wars at the time of its release.

Ben Affleck's part of the Armageddon commentary is like that with the MST3K. He constantly does Sling Blade imitations every time Billy Bob Thornton is on screen and makes fun of the corny dialogue.

There are a few other forms of commentaries:

1. The Critic. This guy had no real association with the film at all, but the film was made so long ago, he's been asked to say a few words. The Looney Tunes collection features commentaries of this nature, which are very informative, but very dry. They also do something I can't stand in a commentary--use the opportunity to merely say general facts. For instance, in one of the Bugs Bunny commentaries, the commentator spends the entire time talking about composer Carl Stalling. Now Stalling was a great composer who deserves some attention, but why not a featurette? Shouldn't the commentator talka bout the cartoon?

2. Big Group Party. The Simpsons commentaries are like these where we get sort of a party ambience--everyone is telling stories and jokes and having a good 'ol time. These are fun if a tad disorganized (it kinds of galls you when someone will mention the inkling of a story only to be shouted down by someone's William Shatner impression).

3. Ultra-Technical. These are commentaries where the only people doing commentary are technical people like editors, special effects guys, and etc. You can hear a lot about how they created the look of the film, but not much about the people involved.

Dark City had a second commentary with film critic Roger Ebert, who picked it as 1998s best movie of the year.

That was one of the very first (and best) commentaries I've ever heard.

The new DVD of Goodfellas has two commentary tracks. One is by members of the cast and crew - Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, director Martin Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, et al. (No Robert DeNiro, unfortunately.) The second track is the "Cop and Crook" commentary, by the real Henry Hill (is that guy in and out of the Witness Protection Program?) and the Federal agent who put Hill there, Edward McDonald (who plays himself toward the end of the movie, BTW.) Fascinating stuff, especially if you like the movie, as I do (why else would I shell out $16 for the DVD?)

I've been going through the commentary track for the 2002 release of The Hustler. It's kinda annoying. Instead of commenting on what's on the screen, what you get is basically a questions-and-answer session. Someone asks Paul Newman, director Robert Rossen's daughter and a few others all these questions and they give their answers. Doesn't really pertain to what's on the screen. Heck, the movie might as well not be running. I mean, come on, it'd be nice to even hear a "And in case you didn't know, that's boxer Jake LaMotta doing a cameo as a bartender" or something like that.

Of course, the one for Enter the Dragon was worse. There's a lot of long stretches where the only thing you hear is the movie. When producer Paul Heller or screenwriter Michael Allin do speak, it's usually to comment on how great an athlete and martial artist Bruce Lee was. Bo-ring!

William Peter Blatty's commentary for The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen* is not only boring, but it's amazing how unintelligent Blatty comes across. IIRC at one point he mixes up the story of Jonah and Noah. Oh, now I remember. He said something about Noah being at Ninevah. No, Peter, that was Jonah. There are other such comments that make you wonder if he's going senile or what.

Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Frankfurt's commentary for Blade II is annoyingly self-congratulatory. You're better off with the one featuring Wesley Snipes and David Goyer. And while we're talking about self-congratulations, let's not forget Nick Meyers' commentary for STAR TREK VI. Hope your arm didn't snap off from all that patting yourself on the back you did, Nick.

On the plus side, Ghostbustes' commentary track is a standout. Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman give it an MST3K treatment. Right down to being silhouettes in front of the film. It's hilarious.

Unfortunately, I don't have the Criterion version () but I do have MGM's release of This Is Spinal Tap. And it's also classic. The commentary is done by Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls. It's almost as funny as the movie.

I thought Citizen Kane, Boogie Nights (with a drunk Marky Mark Wahlberg participating), Reservoir Dogs, and Se7en had good commentary tracks, too.

To be honest, my favorite "commentaries" are the trivia ones that are subtitled across the bottom of the screen. Those are often the most interesting ones. Then again, I'm a sucker for trivia.

"I like to watch." - Chauncy Gardner


*That statement holds true only once. After you've seen it, it can't be said that you've never seen it. It really should have a better title.

The commentaries for the Lord of the Rings films are pretty good, but considering you have four to choose from....

Red Dwarf commentaries are fun as well.

Most preferred - commentaries by Directors, Screenwriters, Critics, Historians, Technical Advisors (e.g. those who lived it)

Second most preferred - commentaries by Actors

Least preferred - commentaries by Editors, Cinematographers, Composers

My Rules for Commentaries

1. Use at least two people. One person talking at you, unless he's a very good speaker, just gets monotonous after a while. I think two or three people is at the right level.

2. No more than four people, please. The big groups, while fun, turn into a shouting contest as time goes on. There's always like one or two people who never say anything anyway.

3. Watch the film/episode beforehand. Sometimes, understandably, filmmakers or actors haven't watched their work in a long while. That's okay. Just bone up before doing the commentary. There's nothing more annoying than when the filmmakers get quiet in the commentary because THEY want to hear or understand some part about the movie. Also, giving incorrect information about a plot is a big no-no, something that occasionally pops up in commentaries (there are about three different Simpsons commentaries where we are told that this is the first appearance of a character when it is not).

4. Don't Explain Jokes. Unless it's something fairly obscure or subtle, I don't want it explained. That just kills the joke. David Mirkin on his Simpsons commentaries indulges in this quite a bit, although he tones down as the season goes on ("Homer is so dumb that he forgot to wear pants...").

5. Don't Hold Back. If you don't want to say anything interesting at the risk of perhaps offending someone, please don't do a commentary. If Keenan Wynn was a big meanie on the set, let us know! Don't wimp out.

Regarding the more than four commentators. Another problem with those sort is that frequently the commentators are in different rooms so you get the same effect as a one person commentary.

Kinds of commentaries, divided along a different axis than the first post:

1. director/actor/someone else from the production crew (the latter usually spliced in), alone, together, or edited together
2. film critic (Criterion Collection does this a lot, and to good effect), actor's biographer or film historian (Warner Brothers) (Universal Monster series had historians who did an encyclopedia dump. Would have been better as text commentaries.)
3. fan (good idea, geeky in execution)
4. novelty (actors in character, Meaning of Life)

I'd like to see celebrities who are uninvolved with the movie except as fans themselves, like Bill Cosby doing one for his favourite B&W movies.

I don't know if I mentioned this elsewhere, but wouldn't it be cool to have Nitpicker's Commentaries--you'd have to be careful not to be too smug or fanboyish, but I think it would be funny.

Several verbal commentaries and text commentaries will point out nits that exist in films. In the one for Friday Night Lights, director Peter Berg mentioned that several people pointed out that Jesuit was not in the playoff games. Unfortunately, he did so rather ungraciously. I got the impression that he felt any nits in his film should be ignored; it wasn't the viewers' business to find them. Personally, I can't help but think, "Dude, once you release a film, it's the audience's. Let them approach it how they want to. Let them watch how they want to."

Besides, the biggest nit is that Permian did not play Carter High in the Texas State Final. It was in the Semi-Finals that the two team met.

Anyway, I personally like it when the creators of a film point out mistakes made in the flick. It humanizes the creators and the creative process. (And in some cases, like Night of the Living Dead, they'll try to provide answers for the nits.)

Carl Reiner and Dick van Dyke on a commentary for the Dick van Dyke Show DVDs (the DVDS DVDs) point out a nit--and even call it a 'boner'--in the episode where the flashback to bringing Richie home from the hospital when he was born that the house is a different house than in the episode where they flashback to when Laurie goes to the hospital to deliver him.

Geez that was a long sentence.

I'd like to see celebrities who are uninvolved with the movie except as fans themselves, like Bill Cosby doing one for his favourite B&W movies.

Shannon Doherty ("Beverly Hills 90210", "Charmed") actually did an episode commentary with either a director, screenwriter, or producer, for a 4th season DVD episode of "24" (Doherty is in no way affiliated with the show, other than as a fan). This was explained by that director, screenwriter, or producer at the beginning of the commentary in that Doherty was a big fan of the show and visited the set during the filming of the episode. Out of that experience, Doherty was offered the opportunity to participate in the commentary.

Also, Michael McKean ("This Is Spinal Tap", "Laverne & Shirley") and Christopher Guest ("This Is Spinal Tap", "Waiting for Guffmann") both participated in the audio commentary for the Criterion Collection DVD release of "Sullivan's Travels" (1941).

Mike Nelson of MST3K fame did the commentary for Reefer Madness and I think Night of the Living Dead. Also, occasionally Jon Lovitz will do commentaries on Simpsons episodes he had nothing to do with.

One of the best commentaries I've heard was the one for The Shawshank Redemption. They gave quite a lot of insight into the production and some of the vauger details of the story without being overly self-congratulatory.