dvd commentaries

[secracium]

i just finished watching all six movies with the dvd commentaries and i was wondering what other people thought of them. i was talking with a friend of mine and we were both highly underwhelmed with what was presented. he made the comment that it seemed like it was used as a resume for all the technical work done on the film as just about everything that is discussed is how a special effect was accomplished, i.e. where the recording was done to get the ominous sound of vader's boot heels falling on the ramp in the beginning of jedi. there was practically no insight or discussion about the characters or insight into the story itself. as contrast, i thought the 2009 star trek commentary was interesting. i seem to recall liking the LOTR commentary, but i watched that probably four years ago, whereas i saw star trek just the other day. not to say that everything discussed was solely regarding the technical aspects of the films, but it seemed to center mostly on that aspect. i'm just curious as to what other people thought. one cool thing about the star trek commentary was hearing anecdotes from the filming; it would've been really cool to hear personal stories that stuck out for the star wars movies. actually, carrie fisher had a few, but she was the only one.

[RogueTrooper[TK]]

I love DVD commentary. A lot of my friends hate coming over and watching a new DVD because usually one of the first things that I do is, to watch the movie with the commentary on, especially if I have already seen the movie in the theatre. This drives my friends nuts.

 

I do think that the commentary for the SW 6 film saga was heavily done with the technical aspects of the movie. Pretty much each person that was in the SW commentary was involved in mainly the technical aspects, from each facet eg. production, sound department, special effects department, director, writer, actor and in the prequels they had stunts and model making. If you look at all of those, there are not many that would not be involved in the technical side of the movie other than the actors point of view and the writers point of view. I think George looks more toward the technical side of the films, instead of the spirit of the movie. Just look at the prequels, no character development and no great story, just a lot of CG and special effects.

 

For the commentaries throughout all 6 movies, it seemed to me at least, it was a Q & A session and then they took the best parts of it and edited it to fit over sections of the movie. In other words rehearsed/scripted, rather than someone actually sitting there watching the movie and commenting on it. I will say one of my favorite commentaries was Kirshners. I thought he did give something of an insight into the story line and character development and not so much about the technical aspects. He also had some funny anecdotes.

 

One of my favorite movie commentaries is the LOTR extended Trilogy. If you look at them, you will see where they did have everyone from all different departments, but they were on separate tracks and it wasn't cut and spliced like the SW DVD's. I think in a way LOTR extended DVD commentaries spoiled future commentaries for everyone else. You could tell they were not scripted and were sitting there and were watching the film as they spoke. This commentary was not just about the technical side of the movies but stories of what they went through and what happened while filming. Such as, Viggo Mortensen breaking his big toe while kicking one of the Uruks helmets, and when he screams in the film, he is actually screaming from the pain from his toe and when the film was edited that cut was left in. Or, John Rhys-Davies having a skin allergy to his make-up, which made him self-conscious about going out with any of the other people on the set afterwards for dinner or drinks. But it made him keep to himself in his hotel room. Or Ian McKellen turning around in Bilbos home, and accidentally hitting his head on a door way. McKellen kept in character, and they used the scene in the movie...

 

What I think George had in mind was to only give you what you need and not what you want when they made the commentaries, because he knew that the SW saga was going to come out on blu-ray with all new commentary, trivia, pop ups, etc. If you think about it, if they had already used up something great for the standard disc, then you wouldn't be overwhelmed with the next evolution of disc media. The blu-rays will probably not have everything that SW fans are looking for, because that is how it is done when it comes to SW. George knows how to market things. Always keep you wanting for more....

[Laspector[TK]]

I really like the technical side of the commentaries. I love listening to Ben Burtt telling how the sounds were made (what a great job). However, yeah, it is obvious they are not all sitting there watching the movies. I would have loved to hear one with just Mark, Carrie and Harrison sitting around just shooting the bull. The only problem I have ever had with this type of commentary is sometimes they will start telling a story and then pass over another scene that you really did want to hear about.

 

IMHO the absolute hands down best commentaries are Kurt Russell and John Carpenter. Listen to theirs on "The Thing" or "Escape From New York". Those are PRICELESS!!!! Also the "in character" commentary on "This is Spinal Tap" That one is as funny as the movie itself..

Edited October 8, 2010 by Laspector

[Murray1134[501st]]

I really like DVD commentaries, and it really increases the buy vs. rent for me if a disc has one.

 

I liked all 6 commentaries, but yeah sometimes I just don't really care what else Ben Burtt has to blather on about. The best of the 6 has to be either ESB or ROTS. ESB is great because you have Irvin Kershner in there adding a lot more interest and stories, and ROTS has a lot more of George Lucas going into depth about the meanings behind things.

[secracium]

i'm glad kershner's was mentioned as i really did like hearing what he had to say. i remember him explicitly stating why he filmed something so it would develop the character or give the story more meaning. i was starting to wonder why marquand wasn't involved in the jedi commentary, but a quick look on imdb proved that it would be quite impossible. i do like the the commentaries where those involved just sit around and talk about the movie as they watch it. it's pretty obvious that jj abrams and comany were doing that on the star trek documentary. on a side note, that movie is just awesome. i love what they did to trek with it and i especially love how engineering was portrayed. i know people complained about it being shot in the budweiser brewery, but i never bought this massive ships entire engineering department fitting into a small, neat little room the size of a condo.

[RogueTrooper[TK]]

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like the technical side of the commentary from the SW DVD's. My only problem is that you are hearing the same thing from Lucas, Muren, Burtt, and Fisher. God love Carrie, maybe after all her alcohol and drug escapades, that is all she could remember. Then again, they might have had to reign her in because I remember at the Main Event at C5 she was making comments after they showed the deleted scene from Jedi, that there was another deleted scene from from the film. Carrie with her sharp tongued wit, made an off hand joke about them taking out the porno scene between her and Jabba. You could tell George was extremely taken a back and was worried because there were five year olds in the audience.

 

I just felt the stuff in the commentary was redundant and had been said time and time again in a lot of other videos, articles and interviews. But, I guess if you haven't seen or read about this prior to the DVD's coming out, then it would be news to you.

 

 

I truly would love to see them lay commentary tracks out for the blu-rays like this:

 

 

Separate track with the principle actors.

 

Separate track with the secondary cast.

 

Separate track with the ILM staff.

 

Separate track with makeup, wardrobe, and set design/production.

 

Separate track with the editors.

 

Separate track with the stunt department.

 

Separate track with the writer, director, and producer.

 

 

I think with this format you would get the war stories and the technical side and it would be a great balance.

 

I also think they need to do it quickly, because some have already passed away and the rest aren't spring chickens either.

[secracium]

i'd love to hear more from the principle cast and their experiences during filming, but i get the feeling that harrison ford and mark hammil don't want a lot to do with it. i kind of remember reading something that hammil is through with star wars and if guinness were alive, he hated the trilogy, anyway. i'm sure they could get minor characters and supporting cast to agree easily enough; anthony daniels, kenny baker, jeremy bulloch, billy dee williams etc . . , but honestly, we all want to hear from the mouths of solo and skywalker. also, based on how energetic the cast of the prequels seem to be in their latter interviews regarding the subject, they'd do it for money and then they'd be heavily critiqued by lucas during editing to be sure that nothing too negative was to be said about his baby. i can only think of mcgregor's appearance on top gear when the host said something like "oh, the new ones were really good" and ewan smiled awkwardly and looked away sheepishly. you don't have to be a master at reading body language to interpret that look. it was on par with someone you're not attracted to telling you how much they like you.

[RogueTrooper[TK]]

I think Hamill is up for talking and doing anything about Star Wars, right now. When I met him at C5, he seemed very energetic about the whole experience. But, he is also trying to promote his Black Pearl movie project and using the SW forum to boost it.

 

As for Ford, SW does seem to be a litle bit beneath him. I have a video of him doing an interview from the set of Indy 3, where he states that he did not like the Solo character at all and he found the Indy character to be a more interesting and gratifying role to play. But, since Indy 4 bombed, he may need to get back in the good graces of loyal fans. So, you never know.

 

As for the prequels, I think it would really be fun to hear Jake Lloyds unabridged commentary over the EP1 film. Since he doesn't seem to really care for the SW thing anymore. How could you blame him, he's gotten death threats and ridicule for the past 11 years. He seems to be a very bitter guy now. He knows that his acting was not up to par and people that have good taste, really didn't care for the way his character was portrayed. But, he still doesn't mind going to these events and making money off the people, that for some reason, want his autograph. Beleive me, I would not be in his autograph line...wait a minute...there would probably not be a line at all.

 

Jake Lloyd: Ten Years After Star Wars Ep One

 

 

Very awkward interview with Jake lloyd

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I think the only way that you would get an unbiased commentary from most of the actors is for Lucas not to be involved in it.

 

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