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Movie Commentary Tracks Are Back (wired.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last spring, long before Get Out's eventual Oscar win, the movie was released on home video with a commentary track from its writer-director. A decade ago, in the pre-streaming era, this wouldn't have been news: Back then, seemingly every movie got a commentary track, even Good Luck Chuck. Then the DVD market began to decline, and the commentary track went from a being standard-issue add-on to relative rarity. Even recent Best Picture nominees like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave, and Spotlight were released sans tracks -- bad news for anyone looking for behind-the-scenes intel on Mark Ruffalo's little-Ceasar haircut.
In the last few years, though, several high-profile films -- everything from Star Wars: The Last Jedi to Lady Bird to Get Out -- have been released with commentary tracks. That means you can spend your umpteenth viewing of Peele's film listening to him talk about how he modeled the opening credits on those of The Shining, or how the film's title was inspired by a routine from Eddie Murphy Delirious. For casual movie watchers, such details may not be too thrilling. But for film nerds who absorb behind-the-scenes trivia and how-we-made-it logistics, tracks like the one for Get Out remain the cheapest movie-making education available.
In the last few years, though, several high-profile films -- everything from Star Wars: The Last Jedi to Lady Bird to Get Out -- have been released with commentary tracks. That means you can spend your umpteenth viewing of Peele's film listening to him talk about how he modeled the opening credits on those of The Shining, or how the film's title was inspired by a routine from Eddie Murphy Delirious. For casual movie watchers, such details may not be too thrilling. But for film nerds who absorb behind-the-scenes trivia and how-we-made-it logistics, tracks like the one for Get Out remain the cheapest movie-making education available.
I think the only thing I've seen them was some episodes of the original Survivors.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This site is so gay now.
It seems like it would be very important to keep those commentary tracks as a nice added feature you don't get if you stream it on Netflix. It would make getting the disk worthwhile.
The Shining has a whole other film as a commentary, for the conspiracy nuts.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
You should be able to tell five minutes into the commentary - unfortunately most are pretty dry and not really that interesting (Star Wars, I'm lookin' at you).
Generally the great ones have the actors and directors together and they actually like each other and can riff off of each other. For the most part great ones are quite funny, but they can really expand on the movie experience and in many cases make the movie a lot more enjoyable.
In the poor ones the director rambles on and on about the different shots and what made it memorable to them (but of little interest to anybody else including wanna be filmmakers) and the actors talk about clothing, makeup and how hard it is finding a good meal while they were on location.
Here are a few of my favourites:
- Big Trouble in Little China by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell
- The Silence of the Lambs Criterion DVD (not on the Criterion BRD version of the film) with Jonathan Demme, Jodi Foster & Anthony Hopkins
- Dogma with Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck (he's not too stuck up here) and Jason Mewes
- UHF by Weird Al Yankovic
- Transformers by Michael Bay (seriously)
- Blackhawk Down by Ridley Scott
- Shaun of the Dead by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (As well as the commentaries on the other two Cornet movies)
- The last two seasons of "Breaking Bad"
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I would expect the best ones to involve people who were involved in every aspect of production (e.g. directors), rather than people who have a more limited view into only part of the production process (e.g. actors, writers). Of course, it helps if the people are good at storytelling, so writer-director commentaries ought to be some of the best. Your list reinforces that suspicion.
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The best commentary track ever is by "The King" on Bubba Ho-Tep. It is an entire track of Bruce Campbell in character as Elvis, not having the first clue what he's watching. "Commentary! The Musical" on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is pretty good too.
I guess the thing I enjoy about both of those is that they aren't actually commentary tracks, they're additional productions along side the original video.
If anyone created a decent .srt file to go with the best ripped versions of these films, I'd be ok with it.
I kinda like 'em and if it's a movie I really like and there's no commentary, I tend to go reeeeee about it.
These tracks may not interest most of the populace, but I enjoy the film-makers pointing out things one may not have noticed (tape holding up bits of airplane interiors, and the prescence of cardboard people, in Airplane!, Milos Forman pointing out the huge black floofcat in the beginning of Amadeus, just two examples)..
I enjoy them retelling of the difficulties in making the film (Star Wars, how they had nothing and had to invent it all pretty much,) etc etc.
Some do it better than most. Cameron came off super-arrogant in Titanic's commentary, but then again, that's how he is, so it kinda worked out. I thoroughly enjoyed that particular track.
I do think Weird Al's commentary on UHF was the best.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
film making has been streamlined and standardized. The documentary on Star War's EP 4's Special effects was cool because of all the tricks they had to do to make it work. Nowadays it's just "We used CG" and call it a day. Logistics are a lot better so you don't get stories like when Harrison Ford got sick and just shot the guy in Raiders to skip the fight scene.
Maybe it's better for indie films though. I don't want a ton of movies anymore. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing that movie making isn't a huge mess anymore (there are other reasons why modern movies kinda stink, e.g. having to cater to an international audience and water everything down). But it just means the commentary isn't often a good story in and of itself...
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- Big Trouble in Little China by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell
That is a good one if only for the parts when they talk about how many tries the stunt you just saw took and the mishaps that occurred on the failed takes (like a breakaway door that didn't break away.) Also the Carpenter/Russel commentary for "The Thing" is extremely informative as well and has a few similar moments, like Kurt Russel talking about how that stunned look on his face after dynamiting the Palmer-Thing was for real as the pyrotechnic explosion was much bigger and closer to him than he had expected.
Another great one is the commentary for "The Usual Suspects", quite a number of details in the film I had missed entirely until re-watching it with the commentary on and hearing Bryan Singer talk about various background details in certain scenes.
I get my movie commentary from Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbet
I always wondered where those cool comments came from :) Now I know, and Knowing is half the battle, or so I've heard.
The real American hero ; GI Joe....
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I think the commentary to Muppets from Space might have it beat.
Kermit, Rizzo, Gonzo, and the director watch the film (MST3K-style), with some excellent one-liners.
What is a DVD?
If you're a fan of Futurama you should really listen to their commentary
Michael Bay does pretty good commentaries. The one he did for Bad Boys was really interesting.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
> Movie Commentary Tracks Are Back
I wasn't even aware they were less common today.
Then again, that's a reflection of how many movies I've been purchasing over the last couple of years, which in turn is a reflection of what I think about the quality of movies that have been released over that time period.
I can't be bothered with today's movies - I certainly can't imagine I'd bother either with their commentary tracks, even if they existed...
Spinal Tap 20th anniversary edition.
The two main actors, in character, talking shit about everyone in the film, 20 years on. It's as good as the original was.
Also: 'Fight Club', the story of the line 'I haven't been fucked like that since grade school'. Was first 'I want to have your abortion'. The suits heard the 'grade school' line, asked to go back, but no.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The very first american pie movie has a good one, it's actually quite informative and funny
When fansubs are of higher quality than the professional subtitles that come with movies and TV shows, then the industry has a problem. I hate watching movies and TV shows without subtitles. People don't enunciate their words these days and, even if they do, they are overridden by blaring music. Subtitles are the solution but half of the ones that come on DVD/Blu-ray are written by someone with a 5th grade education. And, even if they are written well, some idiot usually decides that they should cover up the face of the person on screen doing the talking.
Some games, like Pillars of Eternity, also have a commentary track.
Oh, OH!
Here's the part where I make it go BOOM!
- Big Trouble in Little China by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell
Big Trouble in Little China was an excellent DVD commentary! If you haven't seen this, grab a copy of the DVD and watch it. It's John Carpenter and Kurt Russell watching the movie with a pitcher of beer (I think they actually mentioned the beer at one point). Of the hour-and-a-half run time, they maybe spent thirty minutes talking about the movie. They talked a lot about each other, and the stuff they've done.
But when they did talk about the movie, it was definitely "behind the scenes" stuff, like the boots Kurt wore in the movie, the stunt guys they worked with, the scene at the end where one of the storms (I think Rain) walks through the hallway with the ceiling behind him collapsing in flames. (Spoiler: A great way to make it look like a guy with a flammable straw hat strapped to his head is walking through a hallway that's engulfed in flames .. is to actually film a guy with a flammable straw hat strapped to his head walking through a hallway that's actually on fire. No CGI, no blue screen, no rear projection .. they actually filmed that.)
Commentaries can definitely be a mixed bag. As you mention, some of Breaking Bad is great, but some episodes they're just jerking each other off for an hour about how great they all are and don't actually talk about the motivation behind what's on the screen and what not. Still, it was a shame for all us film nerds that commentaries almost disappeared, because when they're good, there can be some really fascinating insight in them.
Anything with Arnie is going to be fucking amazing though.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Wholly shit, I know I am out of it, but fury road for best picture? We watched that load of garbage a few months ago. Zero character development. Zero empathizing with anyone in the film period. The entire movie was just one big long driving fighting scene. The main character barely says 3 words that arent grunts for the entire film...
How the hell could anyone have that remotely come close to best fucking picture?!?!?
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
I thought the commentary on Easy Rider was very good.
Then again, I may be biased because I really liked that movie.
Oddly enough, there's another Bruce Campbell commentary that I'd say is even better: Alien Apocalypse. The movie is just as horribly cheesy as it sounds, but the commentary track is a completely different level. Take an at best B-movie plot, about giant termites taking over the work, with a practically nonexistent budget, and fly a few cast members to Bulgaria to make it on the cheap.
So, 90% of the cast and crew didn't speak English, and the director of this insane flick is dragging in allusions to The Godfather, Planet of the Apes, and, of all things, Spartacus. Then there's the story about the local "special effects" guy who they gave a few thousand bucks to film an explosion, not realizing he was a retired demolitions man from the Bulgarian military and could get stuff cheap. "It was at this point we realized we didn't have the option of a second take, since Vlad's little bang blew most of Set Two into the backlot of Set One..."
Hilariously bad movie. Amazingly amusing "behind the scenes" commentary track.
One of the first ones that come to mind is Peter Jackson's "King Kong" (3-disc DVD, don't know about BR). The extras are about as interesting as the movie. Lots of technical details, climbing up above the Empire State Building's observation area (FMP area) - as long as you don't have acrophobia-via-video, it's fairly interesting. These kinds of extras are why I buy BRD & DVDs.
The two main actors, in character, talking shit about everyone in the film, 20 years on. It's as good as the original was.
I think it was "Sum of All Fears" which had a track with Tom Clancy, in what can only be called a "contractual obligation commentary". He spent the entire track slagging the producers, pointing out in painful detail where they deviated from his book (basically everywhere), explained that they had no effing clue what they were talking about ("Neo-nazis calling Hitler an idiot? Neo-Nazis worship Hitler").
When the first thing the commentator says is "I'm the author of the book with the same name as this movie, with the producers apparently only leafed through", you know it's going to be an amusing commentary
What a bunch of stable geniuses.
Three words: Cannibal! The Musical
Greatest commentary of all time. In fact, it's so great that time-travelers from the future built a time machine specifically to come back and inform us that it's still the best commentary track ever, even in their time.
South Park is great. Team America is great. The Book of Mormon is great. But nothing Matt and Trey ever do will ever top the commentary track on Cannibal. It should be taught in schools. It should be preached in churches. It should be elected President. Shrines should be built to it.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The most disappointing commentary track I can presently recall was Steven Soderbergh on Traffic.
He must have uttered the phrase "available light' 17,000 times, in an apparent effort to cement his status as the Guru King of the low-production-cost / high-visual-quality movie producer orgasm quadrant.
Hey, Mr Greenlight, was it as good for you as it was bad for me? If so, you probably won't walk straight for another week.
On the other side, an unexpected treat was director Fernando Trueba on Belle Epoque. This is an underrated film in my opinion, perhaps known best for featuring an 18-year-old Penelope Cruz as one of four sisters, each more impossibly beautiful than the last.
Trueba spent the entire commentary discussing where his heart lives.
Bad commentaries:
* 90% butter — you simply can't go wrong in the Hollywood fraternity of eternal harmony and love
* miraculous sets and available light
* oh look at my hair!
Middle of the road:
* that was a long shoot, you can't believe how cold and tired we all were at the end of the day
Decent commentaries:
* which scenes were deliberately shot in chronological order so that actor didn't lose track of a complex story arc (note that in a film like Memento chronological order is a term paper assignment for a typical audience member)
Good commentaries:
* the attitudes I hoped to express
In the poor ones the director rambles on and on about the different shots and what made it memorable to them
I remember trying to watch the second Lord of the Rings movie with director commentary. It was pretty boring and uninformative. Stuff like: "Oh yeah, this day. It was foggy, I remember we wondered if it would be foggy. Then it was foggy." Also: "That orc there on the left... his name was Steve. He wore another orc suit in another shot. I remember Steve. In that orc suit."
Meanwhile the Space Balls commentary has Mel Brooks almost dying at the super long ship at the start, talking about how he wanted to make that scene last 90 minutes and the only thing stopping him was the rest of the studio staff. Or his laughing reaction to some joke: "That joke makes me want to die, I hate myself for that joke. Oh no."
Most commentaries any more just focus on whether they had to move the camera that day. Sorry, buddy, but we really don't give a shit. The real value of commentaries is that they show what shallow cretins are the people who made the movie.
They should spend more money in making new films, not commenting the already made ones.
I can't stand 2 minutes of commentators on movies. BOOOOOORING!
Oh, OH!
Here's the part where I make it go BOOM!
Actually no, it was surprisingly in-depth. He makes better commentary tracks than movies.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.