Do you Listen to Audio Commentaries

I almost always listen to a commentary if it's a film I like. I probably listen to more DVD commentaries than most people. Last one I listened to was for Kidulthood The Director's Cut, which was alright mostly because of Noel Clarke. The other guy didn't seem as engaging. The visual commentary (and by visual I don't mean that ******** drawing replica of the commentators displayed on the screen while the film is playing, a la Ghostbusters DVD) for Adulthood was great. The cast and crew together on the side of the screen. It's fun seeing one casts members reaction to her own sex scene It's a great commentary and the only visual commentary I have ever seen on a DVD.

Yeah Yoda, Usual Suspects commentary was really great! Singer's a funnier guy than I thought he was. That's a commentary I can listen to over and over again. BUT...you lot ain't seen nothing if you haven't listened to the Bound commentary. It starts off quite slow with the Walchowski Bros and some other woman not saying anything particularly interesting..but then Joe Pantoliano comes in and is..quiet..and then Jennifer Tilly comes in.. She owns the commentary booth. Spot the tension and jibes between her and Joey Pants...****ing halirious man. Best commentary I have ever listened to, seriously.

8 years between thread posts? That's gotta be a record!

I love commentaries. My favourite recent one was the Zodiac one with cast and James Elroy, closely followed by the director's own. Fincher gives great commentary generally, as does Danny Boyle, Ridley Scott, Jim Mangold and Shane Meadows, off the top of my head. Nolan's Insomnia commentary is excellent in that he rearranges the film into the shooting order.

Informative though they are, I've never been a big fan of the Scorsese tracks I've heard because it's pretty clear that he's just answering an interviewer's questions and not sitting in a booth organically responding to what he sees on screen.

Then again, Wee Marty is at the stage where he doesn't need to do them.

The likes of Woody Allen, of course, don't bother on principle.

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Well I was going to start a whole new thread, but I figured some people would complain about me not using the search function so decided to be a good guy and go use MoFo tools

Shane Meadows commentaries are class, you are right. You listened Dead Man's Shoes one? That was really good and him and Considine are a class act.

I tried to listen to Scorsese's track for Gangs Of New York..couldn't finish it, man. Didn't realise he was being interviewed though. Kind of takes away from the commentary really.

Yeah I really dug Nolan's commentary for Insomnia too! I'm so glad you mentioned it as I listened to it a few months ago and it was surprisingly informative and he seemed far more candid in that commentary than he did in the Memento and Following one. I learnt a lot about certain camera techniques just listening to that one. He usually dislikes doing commentaries, hence why he hasn't done one since. I doubt we'll ever see another Nolan commentary from now on.

Could care less about Woody Allen doing a commentaries to be honest. I don't like his films or his persona. *******.

Have you found the Easter Egg commentary in Dead Man's Shoes? From memory you need to highlight the telephone in the menu or something.

It's basically an abortive attempt by Shane and Paddy and is hilariously awful.

EDIT - Another King of Commentary: Our lord and master, Werner Herzog.

I think I did hear something about this failed commentary. Thanks for the tip man, I will check it out at some point. I've never heard a Herzog commentary before but I imagine he'll have a lot to say.

Yeah, I love the commentaries, especially when I learn something about the film. For one thing, I'd always wondered how in shooting the classic Western Shane, they got such wonderful "acting" from animals--from the deer showing up in the river and garden at the family ranch, to the rearing, snorting horse carrying Stonewall's body, to his dog tentatively touching his casket with one paw as Stonewall is buried, to the wild and frightened reaction of the horses and cattle trying to break free during the fistfight between Van Heflin and Alan Ladd. How did they get all those animals to react appropriately on que? Well, learned from the commentary that the deer showing up was pure luck. But they got the great graveside "performance" by the dog because he wouldn't pay attention and kept wandering off until his owner-trainer got down into the grave into which the casket was then lowered, and the dog reacted with concern. To frighten the horses into pulling loose from a hitching post and the cattle to break down their pen in the big fight scene, they simply had a man dressed in a bear costume standing out of camera range but within eyesight of the horses and cattle! I love details like that!

Other night, I watched the commentary on My Favorite Year and learned Peter O'Toole did most of his own stunts in that film, including one scene in which his character, the drunken Alan Swan, falls forward and smacks his forehead against a bathroom wall and remains leaning there. The director--who was directing his first film--said in the commetary that O'Toole told him, "I can do this stunt. I know how to take a fall and I can do it." Claimed he had learned to do such things early in his career on the British stage. So, the director said, O'Toole did it through take after take after take, with no apparent harmful effect. He also said the scene where Swan steals a mounted policeman's horse in Central Park "that was O'Toole in practically all those shots," including the one where he swings Benjy up behind him in the saddle as he gallops by.

One of the most interesting things from that commentary was the director's story of how he got O'Toole for that role. Said O'Toole was in the process of reading the script but wanted to read the last few pages before he decided. Later O'Toole asked the director if he or the scriptwriter knew when he (O'Toole) was born. The director denied any knowledge. But it seems the final scene in the original story had Benjy visiting Swan's grave on the anniversary of his death to fulfill his promise to pour a bottle of brandy on the headstone (the scene was later cut for a more upbeat ending). But what impressed O'Toole was Swan's date of birth on the tombstone matched exactly his own real date of birth and that the number of years between Swan's date of birth and date of death on the faux tombstone matched O'Toole's exact age at that moment. So O'Toole concluded he was meant to play that role, one of the best he's ever done.

That director was Richard Benjamin.

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Yep. Couldn't remember offhand.

This is something I need to start doing. I can't think of a better way to rewatch a film.

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If I liked the movie I sometimes listen to the audio commentary.

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I agree with the Bruce Campbell & Kevin Smith ones ! [as shameful as it sounds, I've never seen Fight Club -_-] but I find myself to enjoy the commentary in the SAW films aswell. they often talk about what they were thinking when they made the traps- which I find to be pretty intense.

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I've only listened to two audio commentaries in my life

The first one was, Hancock, back in like 2010 I think. I never loved the movie but I did see it four times, so I have it a listen. I hardly remember anything outside of the first five minutes.

The other one was a selected scene one on Diabolique, probably like 40 minutes long. That one was pretty enlightening, and pointed out some neat stuff. That was just a few months back.

The only one I have high on my "listen list" is for Antichrist, which includes Von Trier himself. I've seen the movie twice this year, and I plan on watching it again. I still have many questions, and some might be answered by the commentary. As far as other DVDs I own with commentaries, I've never really been motivated to watch them

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This is one advantage DVDs have over Netflix.

Favourite commentaries:
George Lucas's Star Wars saga commentaries. The only thing I don't like about them is that there are 3-4 people and you can tell they recorded their commentaries separately.

Tropic Thunder - Robert Downey Jr. does almost the entire commentary in-character!

Least-favourite commentaries:
Die Hard. The commentary is flat and there are long stretches of silence.

Generally I'll listen to the commentary at least once and I enjoy them. I like it when they have a variety of topics to talk about (photography, casting, location, directing, cast, pre-production, script development, story, reception, etc.), rather than just focusing on one aspect of the film. Usually commentaries with more than 1 person are better.

I enjoy the commentaries, very much, but I won't listen to them, at all, until I've had the movie for a while. Part of the reason is that the commentator(s) watching it with you, so they're being very specific about the film, which I sometimes find hard to dismiss, later. It affects my enjoyment, sometimes, if I listen to it, too early. I don't care for long pauses between comments, at all. Occasionally, there will be a director, or producer, who'll annoy the living hell out of me, though. Someone might be fond of saying, "... like ... you know" every other sentence, or some junk. But to my relief, most commentaries are well-spoken and audible. What I hate the very most in a commentary are those fake ones, where maybe it was Sci-Fi and an alien hisses, as part of his character. The alien hiss ends up being the entire and ONLY commentary! Yes, maybe it's cute the first full minute, minute-and-a-half, maybe ... but after that, they need to get over themselves with this "jokey" commentary crap. It makes me feel like I've been "cheated," actually ...

Yeah, I do. I think the last one I listened to was Zardoz, after several years. I prefer the ones where it's one or two people rather than a lot of sound clips edited in (Alien has one a bit like that).

The John Carpenter and Kurt Russell ones are very entertaining.

I love commentaries... Dog Soldiers is a funny one, the cast just sit and take the micky out of each other and giggle through it.

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I created a thread to track & rate the last commentary track you've heard
http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=32282

It's like film school in a box, so yes.

I might listen to the commentary track if it's a classic film and the commentary is interesting. The best I've heard is Citizen Kane with Peter Bogdanovich doing the commentary.

Actually, if you guys can ever get to listen to Ridley Scott doing a commentary then do so. He's brilliantly insightful.