DVD Commentary

While I don't do it very often, I really enjoy watching movies with the director (or anyone else involved in the making of the film) commenting over the video. Twice in my life I've been so captivated by a movie that, upon completion, I've immediatley started it over with director commentary (Donnie Darko & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). The Special Edition DVD of This Is Spinal Tap (released in 2000) might have the best commentary of all time, as David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls watch the movie and make smart-ass comments throughout.

I have seven seasons of The Simpsons on DVD, and I've watched about 20 episodes or so with commentary (eventually I'll get through all of them). Matt Groening has done a great job on the DVDs. There are always 3-6 people commenting on the episode (Groening, the show's writer, director, producer, an animator or two, and one or more of the cast members). My only complaint is that the show goes by so quickly, and they often get off on a tangent. Sometimes I wish they'd pause the video, and just keep talking. You end up learning a lot about the process of creating an episode, from pitching a show idea, to writing a script, laying out a storyboard, recording the dialogue (including possible guest stars), developing an animatic (a very rough, black & white animation of the entire episode with voice-overs), to the finished product. Some of the really obscure references are explained, you hear about how much Dan Castellaneta gets into character (the "I am so smart! S-M-R-T!" was an unintended ad-lib), and Conan O'Brien even joins in on commentary for episodes he wrote.

I decided to go on a classic foreign language DVD binge recently, and started with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Kurosawa's no longer living, so he obviously doesn't contribute to the commentary track. Instead, a film scholar talks over the video, pointing out an incredible amount of interesting things about the way the movie was filmed, how shots were set up, insight into the actors, script- you name it, he talks about it. For a classic, influential film like this, it makes the movie-watching experience so much more enjoyable. Since Rashomon is in Japanese, with English subtitles, you can actually listen to the commentary, and follow the dialogue at the same time! ood stuff.