What are some movies with notable director's commentary?

Notable can mean many things. Maybe it was high quality, insightful, and provided context for a more artistic scene. Maybe they teased a cut scene that would have radically shifted the tone of the movie. Maybe it was funny. Maybe the director absolutely hated what they produced and is only providing narration because of a contractual obligation and a lot of alcohol.

I am looking to hear about anything that stuck with you in some way.

A lot of people consume content online where director’s commentary frequently isn’t present but I imagine there are still a lot of people who are into this niche.

GraniteM,

The Lord of the Rings has like four goddamn commentaries per movie, from the director, the actors, the scenic designers, and the composer Howard Shore, and who knows maybe I’m forgetting a couple. I love hearing the cast because you can alternately hear about what gigantic dorks they are for the material or how incredibly thoughtful they were. I recall hearing Sean Astin get way into political philosophy and how Two Towers was emphatically not a pro-war movie.

The Matrix has philosopher commentaries where Cornel West and Ken Wilber talk about the heavy duty concepts being explored. The fun part is that they seamlessly go back and forth between philosophy and action movie appreciation, where they’ll say stuff like "So you’ve got to remember that in Plato’s allegory of the cave the observer is always— oh shit she just kicked that guy in the throat!"

RavenFellBlade,
@RavenFellBlade@startrek.website avatar

This is bugging the hell out of me because I can’t remember what movie this was, but the commentary was basically the director ignoring the movie to comment on other movies that were more interesting.

Kolanaki, (edited )
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Freddy Got Fingered.

“This movie is rated R, right? I can say things like ‘cock’ and ‘liquid?’” <- Tom Green’s commentary on the scene where he’s watching a horse at a stud farm being “milked.”

Fight Club also had really fun commentary from the writer of the book and the director of the movie (more so than Pitt and Norton’s) but I know from other people having different copies that this commentary isn’t on every release of the movie and I’m not really sure how one would tell the difference to find a specific release copy.

I wanna know where you can get commentary on newer stuff that only released on a streaming service. I haven’t heard commentary since movie rental stores went away because afaik they only put those on physical media.

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

I am not too sure. I know some illegitimately obtained BluRay copies have them.

You’d almost think they would release it on YouTube or some other service as audio only and allow the viewer to sync it themselves. Could make for decent promotional material.

WamGams,

I have hears a commentary with Oahlinuik and the screenwriter, Jim Rule I think, but I believe David Fincher had his own commentary track.

RotaryKeyboard, (edited )
@RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Some of these are commentaries that I just remember enjoying while I watched them, but they might have been listened to so long ago that I can’t remember what it was that I enjoyed. They’re in alphabetical order because that’s how my movies are organized.

  1. El Camino. (All Vince Gilligan commentaries are fun for me.)
  2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. (The commentary was fun, but I remember they called Kristen Bell on the phone to include her, and she was driving on the freeway at the time, and wasn’t really interested in talking. That was rather disappointing. But the others who were talking were just clearly having a great time.)
  3. Hot Fuzz
  4. Inception. (My copy didn’t have audio commentary, but I remember the special featurettes on this were fabulous!)
  5. Interstellar. (Again, no audio commentary on my copy, but the special features were noteworthy.)
  6. John Wick 1, 2, 3, and 4. Great commentaries, great special features.
  7. The Last Samurai
  8. Lord of the Rings Extended Edition. (Holy moly, the commentaries on this set are incredible, and there are so many of them! It is worth listening to every second of all of them. These are probably the best commentaries of any film I have ever listened to.)
  9. The Matrix 1, 2, and 3
  10. Mean Girls (2004)
  11. Mission Impossible Movies (I don’t think any of them actually had audio commentaries, but this one sticks out in my memory for having just endless amazing special featurettes that were worth watching. Especially Dead Reckoning!)
  12. Showgirls (Yes, Showgirls. David Schmader’s commentary is … incomparable. There are some amazing lines in this. “Basically Nomi has two emotions: staring, and kicking.” There are some real gems in that commentary. While you’re at it, go watch Red Letter Media’s review of this film. It’s hilarious.)
  13. Spaceballs (Every single Mel Brooks commentary is solid gold. There are so many movies I wrote down because I vaguely remember listening to the commentary, but then I deleted them from the list because I didn’t think they really had much memorable stuff. (Ocean’s 11, Rounders…) But Spaceballs is not like that. Spaceballs has an amazing commentary that is a blast!)
  14. Star Trek II. (Nicholas Meyer did a great commentary that had insights on both Star Treks II and VI. There’s a second commentary with Manny Coto and Nicholas Meyer that I haven’t listened to yet, but the love that gushes out of him in the first few minutes makes me want to keep listening! It sounds like it’s shaping up to be a discussion between the director and a real fan, giving the director a chance to respond to fan reactions.)
  15. Star Trek III (Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor have a track on this film for some reason, but I always enjoy Moore’s perspective on Star Trek. The original Leonard Nimoy commentary is the one I listened to, and it is quite good. This is Nimoy’s first feature film that he directed, I think, which is why I listened to the track in the first place, although it has been years and I can’t quite remember the content.)
  16. Star Trek IV (I listened to the Nimoy commentary, but there’s also an Alex Kurtzman commentary on it. There’s a lot of recent dislike for Kurtzman, but frankly he’s a great fan of the franchise and always gives good commentary and special features.)
  17. Star Trek VI
  18. Star Trek Generations (I listened to the Ron Moore and Branon Braga commentary and loved it.)
  19. Star Trek First Contact
  20. Star Trek Insurrection (Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis basically have a great time in this commentary, so I did, too. This commentary is where I first noticed how much adoration Jonathan Frakes has for the franchise and the fans. I’m already a huge fan of his directing, so it was nice to see what he had to say about the craft, too.)
  21. Starship Troopers (Listen to all the commentaries on this movie, especially given the current political climate.)
  22. Superbad (This is another fun commentary.)
  23. Superman II The Donner Cut.
  24. This is the End (I seriously love Seth Rogan commentaries.)
  25. Top Gun (I think this is one of those ensemble commentaries where you get several groups talking on a single commentary track, so some people who are interesting depart after 10-15 minutes, which is unfortunate. But I remember it being good.)
  26. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
  27. What Dreams May Come (I listened to this years and years ago, but I seem to remember it helped me understand some of the movie’s symbols better.)

Added: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. (I took this one off, but I’m adding it back again. I think I liked some of the commentaries but not others. Still, it keeps re-entering my brain as a good one, so maybe go listen to the director commentary with the original writer of the comic.)

Bonus! Recommended TV Series commentaries:

  1. Better Call Saul. (As I said above, Vince Gilligan does great, GREAT commentaries. Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad have a huge amount of commentary on their discs, and every second of it is a treasure.)
  2. Breaking Bad
  3. South Park. (Matt and Trey don’t like doing commentaries, so they only talk for a couple of minutes per episode. But they are a lot of fun to listen to regardless.)
  4. Star Trek Lower Decks. (I could listen to Jonathan Frakes and/or Mike McMahon all day. These commentaries are hilarious and fun. Stick around to hear Jonathan Frakes ALMOST get himself fired by spoiling that the Titan is…
  5. Star Trek Picard Season 3. (All TNG fans should listen to the commentary on every episode of Season 3.)
andrewd18,

I can also add a recommendation for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Honestly, it saved the movie for me… so much more interesting than the main audio track. They bring in the VFX lead who explains how they made all the special effects before CGI was a thing.

leave_it_blank,

I have an old DVD of Evil Dead II, and one of the people is Bruce Campbell, and he goes all out in it, the best commentary I ever heard. So great jokes, very informative!

GraniteM,

Another great Campbell commentary is on Bubba Ho Tep. He’s constantly calling out everyone else on the production and talking about what a great job they all did. He sounds like a legitimately great guy to work with, and it helps inform why he’s been so consistently employed even if he never became the superstar he should have.

SmurfNuts,

It's not the director but Roger Ebert has a fantastic commentary track on the director's cut of Dark City. Hands down the best commentary track I've ever heard for a film and I've definitely listened to plenty. He points out so many details that I never noticed even after countless rewatches as it is my favorite film. It blew my mind.

I didn't even realize he did a commentary track for it until one day I noticed it mentioned him on the DVD case. I fired it up and was in for a magical surprise. Highly recommended.

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

the commentary on The Pianist is full of great stuff, like you'd expect with a direct historical account like that

Tolstoshev,

This is Spinal Tap. The cast does the commentary in character, as if they’d just discovered many years later that Rob Reiner was making fun of them rather than it being the serious documentary they thought it was. They spend the whole movie talking shit about him and it’s hilarious.

Anvil: the Story of Anvil. Such a touching movie by itself, the commentary by the director, a childhood friend of the band, adds more depth and pathos to the story. My wife and I watched the movie and then rewatched it immediately with the commentary even though it was past midnight and we would normally be in bed. The story is just that gripping.

Second the mention of Tropic Thunder made in another comment. RDJ improvising the whole commentary in character is amazing and will increase your estimation of him as an actor, if that’s even possible.

aeronmelon,

Star Trek First Contact - Commentary from Director Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker)

And, Invader Zim - Commentary by creator Jhonen Vasquez.

Both of these let you hear their passion for the work and learn a lot of interesting little things about the productions.

RotaryKeyboard,
@RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Star Trek First Contact - Commentary from Director Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker)

I included several Star Trek commentaries in my list just because of Jonathan Frakes. Star Trek Picard Season 3 and (of all things) Star Trek Insurrection have just superior commentaries thanks in large part to Frakes and his love for the franchise and his respect for the craft of directing and the fans. I often think that the next time someone asks me, “If you could have dinner with anyone alive, who would ti be?” I would pick him. Such a great, intelligent person!

tunetardis,

The one that stands out in my mind was The Sum of All Fears. It was the weakest of the Jack Ryan franchise with Ben Affleck in that role, and the commentary track featured the director being savagely berated by Tom Clancy throughout.

slazer2au,

I have bad news. Read the synopsis for Without Remorse.

I do think Sum of All Fears it is better than Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit but holy hell is Without Remorse another level of bad.

tunetardis,

Oh dear, I haven’t even seen Without Remorse yet, but it sounds like you ironically do have remorse over seeing it. ;) Hmm…seems to be made for Prime. That doesn’t bode well.

bitwaba,

I love the Jack Ryan stuff, but what I was really surprised by was that I actually found the Harrison Ford movies to be the worst as far as viewing experience goes when it comes to “Jack Ryan saves the world” kind of stuff. Like, Hunt for the Red October, we have someone that sees the pieces for what they are in a captain defecting with a nuclear sub. In Sum of all Fears he sees the pieces for what they are as someone trying to trigger a nuclear war in a nuclear terrorist attack. In Clear and Present danger he’s … stops a kidnapping, kills a kidnapper in the process, and the kidnapper’s brother wants revenge.

Nuclear war -> kidnapping. The scale is completely different. In actually liked that Sum of All Fears really raised the stakes back to where they should be for Ryan (plus the absolute best part of Leiv Schreiber taking out all the ‘bad guys’ at the end is fantastic).

I will say that Shadown Recruit was a disappointment. The thing that makes the others deal great is the misdirect and mystery. “It’s the Russians” -> “Its not the Russians! It’s someone making it look like the Russians!”. Shadow Recruit was just “yep… It’s the Russians.”

slazer2au,

Ryan isn’t an action hero. He is an accidental intelligence agent.

What is funny in The Sum of all Fears book is they had no idea there was a bomb. Jack spend most of the book at odds with the presidents chief of staff as she tries to screw him over (get him fired and possibly divorced) after she misunderstood her first encounter with Ryan during Clear and Present Danger.

I won’t fault them for changing the bad people from Muslims in the book to Nazis in the film.

Kethal, (edited )

Here’s a bad one. After watching X-Men The Last Stand I thought it was so terrible that I wanted to know what the director (Brett Ratner) had to say about this crapsterpiece.

Among a lot of bad scenes, one that stood out to me was at the start of an assault, Ian MacKallen as Magneto tells Pyro something like “Wait. In chess the pawns go first”. Then they send in a bunch of useless mutants who get slaughtered. It pans back to Magneto and he says “That’s why in chess the pawns go first”. I thought, does the director think the audience is full of idiots? Did he really just have this famous actor repeat the same line within 3 minutes?

When it gets there in the director’s commentary, Ratner says something like “Yeah, we really had this academy award winning actor say the same thing twice.” He knew it was bad, and he still did it! Why? In general, I felt like his commentary was an insight into the mindset needed to make shitty movies.

DABDA,

I learned a lot about the production and design choices around Terminator 2 from the commentary – the totally legitimate digital copy I have has 2 tracks (one labeled just director and the other director & writer) and I think I remember most stuff from the one with the writer.

  • James Cameron talks about paying for “digital winky removal” for the T-1000 intro scene and how he should see about getting a partial refund since they didn’t completely remove the nudity from Robert Patrick in the finished scene
  • There’s talk about the difference/debate in how to handle removing objects in post; do you make them bright and obvious in production to make it easier to see/mask them out after, or try to blend them so if you miss portions in editing they are harder to see?
  • Lots of little details like how they didn’t want any scenes of John Connor using firearms. It was ok if he handled them and helped with reloading etc. but they didn’t want to influence kids to think it was cool to shoot at people (it also works thematically with John not wanting to kill)

I haven’t checked it out but I’ve heard good things about the Cannibal! The Musical commentary track, IIRC they get progressively drunker throughout.

RotaryKeyboard,
@RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I learned a lot about the production and design choices around Terminator 2 from the commentary – the totally legitimate digital copy I have has 2 tracks (one labeled just director and the other director & writer) and I think I remember most stuff from the one with the writer.

My physical copy doesn’t have any commentary tracks on it! Now I want to hear them!

DABDA,

AFAIK it’s the Blu-ray “Skynet edition” release.

Seems like there might be a lot different versions of releases, saw a Collider review which mentions a Japanese version being “somewhat better” and mentions “There’s production commentary from the laserdisc, with 26 participants, and the Cameron and screenwriter William Wisher commentary from one of the earlier DVD releases.”

On IMDB I saw this mentioned:

On the ‘Ultimate Edition’ DVD as well as the ‘Skynet Edition’ Blu-ray, there are three versions of the film, albeit only two at the menu, the Theatrical and Special Edition versions. However, highlighting the ‘Special Edition’ option and keying in ‘82997’ (August 29, 1997), will open a Extended Special Edition Option, with the T-1000 searching John’s room and an Alternate ending added on and replaced. Some DVD players may need to push ENTER between each digit.

In the totally legitimate digital copy it has both of those elements so it’s probably the ‘Extended Special Edition’ [Super Mega Turbo 2000]. I definitely prefer the theatrical ending.

EDIT: Found this on YouTube

bhmnscmm,
@bhmnscmm@lemmy.world avatar

You can get the Tropic Thunder DVD commentary on YouTube. It pretty funny, and Robert Downey Jr really doesn’t break character until it’s over.

youtu.be/ZBbNtPyt910?si=KPFmfyv7HXZtwTor

setsneedtofeed,
@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

I remember quite enjoying the commentary on Equilibrium. The writer-director talked about the shortcuts to cut costs in various scenes, he admitted when certain shots weren’t quite perfect, he talked about the concepts in the movie where they were silly and where he really thought they worked.

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

IMDb page here for those that want it. I am surprised I haven’t seen it.

I feel like the cost cutting aspect would be quite interesting. Did they express any regret towards that or the imperfections they pointed out?

setsneedtofeed,
@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

It was mostly upbeat, talking about making the most out of budget resources.

The movie itself is pretty good. The “gun-fu” concept is entirely silly, the move the movie makes it cool enough to get into.

Kelly, (edited )

A lot of people consume content online where director’s commentary frequently isn’t present but I imagine there are still a lot of people who are into this niche.

This and deleted scenes are IMO the biggest loss with the shift to streaming.

I had the original run of Futurama on DVD and the commentaries were always interesting but there is no way I’m going to start hording physical media again.

The crazy thing is that its really just another audio track, from a technical perspective it would be at trivial to add to video stream but there must be additional licensing and they don’t seem to feel its worth the effort/cost.

steeznson,

Some torrents even include the commentary as an alt audio track

RotaryKeyboard,
@RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

So I collect physical media, and I carefully preserve the audio commentaries and the special features. What I’ve found is that a lot of the special features that are worth keeping are available on youtube. You just have to know about them to find them. For example, the recent Mission Impossible movie had the famous motorcycle jump featurette on youtube, and some of the great John Wick featurettes are on youtube as well. But after buying and cataloging over 1200 movies, I have to say – a lot of the special features just aren’t worthwhile to me to keep. I think this is more of a reflection of the major studios not wanting to spend money on the special features than anything else. You seem to only get good special features on really big movies or movies made before 2010.

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