DVD commentary recommendations?

I want to know of of DVDs with great commentaries by the directors, actors, producers, film critics, and/or anyone knowledgeable about films and worth listening to for educational purposes. I'm talking about real purposeful commentaries that give an insight about the film and the behind the scenes production of it, not some BS on some goofy thing that occurred on the set between takes during production and other such nonsense.

Anyone know of any good commentaries worth listening to?

I'm going to start a list and hopefully update it as people post their suggestions, so that in the event this thread grows to many pages, no one will have to search past the first post for suggestions on commentaries... To start off, I've seen:

1. Dark City, commentary by Roger Ebert
2. Citizen Kane, commentary by Roger Ebert

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kurt Wagner,

I thought Tarnation and Fight Club had great commentaries.

Any by Robert Rodriguez is usually good. I'll name a few" El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids 2 (One of his most informative documentaries about his methods), Sin City, From Dusk til Dawn, Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

Other ones I can think of

1. Primer, two commentaries with Shane Carruth
2. Seven Samurai, commentary by Michael Jeck
3. Casablanca, commentary by Roger Ebert
4. THX 1138, commentary by George Lucas and Walter Murch
5. Maria Full of Grace, commentary by Joshua Marston
6. Terminator 2, commentary by James Cameron and William Wisher
7. Godfather Trilogy, commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
8. Evil Dead Trilogy, commentary by Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, and others


That's all I can think of right now. I will have more soon as I can look at my DVD collection when I get back from Spring Break.

Laudy has a good list there. Just to clarify though, be sure to listen to the Terminator 2 Extreme Edition commentary. The ultimate edition is much different with comments from lots of different people.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch and More both have fantastic commentaries-- of those are your cup of tea.

Blood Simple.

A couple other ones I thought of after looking over my collection.

1. Serenity - commentary by Joss Whedon
2. True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut) - commentary by Quentin Tarantino
3. Apocalypse Now (The Coplete Dossier) - commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
4. Donnie Darko (Both editions) - commentary by Richard Kelly
5. The Matrix Trilogy (The box set) - commentary by three film critics (they show what mistakes filmmakers can make in sequels)
6. Rashomon - commentary by a Film historian
7. Ikiru - commentary by another Film Historian

Other ones I've heard that have interesting tidbits on them but haven't listened to are some of Kevin Smith's movies, as well as the filmmaker commentary on the extended editions of Lord of the Rings.

Am I gonna be the only main source on this? Cause I know I haven't listened to that many commentaries.

The commentary for Starship Troopers is absolutely hilarious, because the director is so crazy and eccentric. Just listen to it. You'll thank me.

thanks everyone for the input...

I also found this website, commentarydvd.com .

Any of Spielberg's films.

El Mariachi has a deadly commentary. Learnt so much about the movie from it... Pretty deadly.

quote:

Company, you didn't need to post this because you and I both know that Spielberg doesn't do commentary and you're just wasting our time. This thread is specifically an informative thread, it doesn't need your "witty" sarcasm.

Or you could just, I don't know, get a sense of humour?

In retrospect I wrote this going on like hardly any sleep and I think I might have overreacted because I went on the forum right before I went to bed I saw this and became enraged. In a normal state of mind I retract my statement fully.

P.S. I have now deleted that message.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: laudy32,

quote:

Blood Simple.

Nervous Larry,
Haha, good call. The first time I watched Blood Simple, I immediately fell in love with it and was so eager to watch the commentary. A couple minutes in I realized that it was an obvious joke and it seriously put me into a mini-fit of rage that they didn't put a serious one on there. 5 minutes later I was laughing my ass off about it.

Long live the Coens.