No Commentary on Indy DVD! Booooooo!

I was looking forward to this, anyone else?

 

I was a s well but I suppose we cannot always get what we want.

 

Yeah, I'd wanted one also. Apparently, the reason that there's no commentary is that everything they would have talked about was included in the documentaries.

 

Speilberg does not do audio commentaries. He says that he rather talk about the film in a documentary then on an audio track.

 

Speilberg does not do audio commentaries... what is wrong with him? Everyone who wants to direct wants him to do a commentary.

Maybe the reason that he doesn't do them is beause he doesn't like to give away his secrets.

It's still a bummr that there is no audio commentary on the DVD set.

 

Good grief people, Spielberg is not the only director who thinks audio commentaries are unnecessary. David Lynch doesn't do them either, as far as I know.

I can see why. You know if you spend 100 million dollars making a film, if you can't get the idea across with all of that, an audio commentary probably won't do it. He doesn't make movies so people can listen to him talk all the way through them. He makes movies to be watched and enjoyed on their own. He can always comment on the documentaries. Spielberg doesn't have that many directing secrets...it's all there on the screen to be discovered.

Complaints about a lack of audio commentaries
are so typical of how spoiled people are. People enjoyed movies for many decades without needing a director holding their hand all the way through the movie with an audio commentary!

 

I hate audio commentaries. The only ones I've ever listened to are the ones on my Spinal Tap DVD, where the main characters (in character) talk throughout the movie and actually add to the hilarity.

The other ones I listen to are the Simpsons ones, to find out all the in-jokes I missed.

As for movies, I find the directors commentary ruins the experience and diminishes the "magic" of the viewing experience.

 

Good grief people, Spielberg is not the only director who thinks audio commentaries are unnecessary. David Lynch doesn't do them either, as far as I know.

I don't know about Lynch's other films, but for the Straight Story, he didn't even give it chapter selections! We should be grateful!

If Steve doesn't want to do commentaries, that's his decision and that's fine with me. Still, I wish George & some of the other folks would've recorded some. I don't know if I could listen to Ford talk for very long, though. When that guy's not acting, he talks like he's half-asleep! Commentary from him might be a bit of a bore!

 

People enjoyed movies for many decades without needing a director holding their hand all the way through the movie with an audio commentary!

People enjoyed movies for many decades without having to go on internet sites like this and analyze every minor detail of a film, so your kind of contradicting yourself. I don't see how this medium is that much different.

Its about being fanatical about film. Sure you may find it sad (because it kind of is) and I would only want to listen to it in movies I really love (eg;Indiana Jones + Star Wars).

In AOTC commentary, GL pointed out that the part where Jango bangs his head on the door of S1, is to show a defect that would later be copied by a stormtrooper in ANH. I thought this was fantastic and would have never even noticed it. I guess you did, as you don't need "the director holding your hand" as you put it!

Let us geeks have our Audio commentary! Power to the people!!!!!!!

 

Most DVD commentaries are annoying as heck. Most of the time it's the director talking, then long periods of silence, then more talking.

There's really only a handful of DVDs that have excellent commentaries on them.

I didn't even miss a commentary on the Indy DVDs - the behind the scenes stuff was excellent!

 

The commentaries I have listened to were largely not the director "holding your hand" and explaining the film. A lot of it was really cool, fun backstory not just about the film itself, but some of the things that happened during the making of it. I don't know about you, but I like hearing the people involved in the film that was made 10+ years ago say "Holy crap! Remember him? Remember when...?" Have you heard the commentary, for example, of the 1966 Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward? That's good stuff! And stuff, for example, where they laugh it the cheesy or silly moments that you've lovingly laughed at for years--if you're that kind of fan--you ANTICIPATE and HOPE FOR those kinds of things. Evidently I've just been fortunate to not hear these commentaries that documentaries would make redundant. Also, you could potentially be adding as much as 2 1/2 to 3 hours on the documentary just for those things I mentioned above! That seems kind of stupid to want to have to cram all that in a documentary when we've got people cutting out great scenes because they don't want the film to drudge along.

 

Right on brother!

 

It's really not THAT big of a deal.
As a general rule, I don't happen to care for director commentaries, but then I don't have to use that option on the DVD. Some of you seem to like them, and you've always got the option of listening to them. That should make everyone happy.

I will admit I did listen to Lucas on AOTC though. His explanation of Anakin's character arc was incredible and quite educational as to what Anakin's character is all about, especially the explanation for Anakin's desperate quest for power. But he could have just as easily given that information in a documentary.

 

The most weirdest and funniest commentary I've heard was the one for the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple. It's a parody of those stuffy "Criterion Collection" -style commentaries where a British film scholar drily talks over the movie. In this one the critic starts going way off subject and telling ridiculous anecdotes that have nothing to do with the movie itself. It's completely silly and not not meant to be taken seriously!

 

I agree that commentaries on older films are better. One of my faves is Superman, with Dick Donner and Tom Mankewitz. It was great and very informative. Donner pointed out something cool that had never really occured to me before: that Williams' main theme almost "says" the name "Superman" with the music. Their goofing around was quite a hoot as well.

But too much joking can also make a commentary bad. One I didn't really like was "The Spy Who Shagged Me." (Haven't watched them for the other Powers films, so I can't compare it to them.) Much as I do love Myers, he and Jay Roach joked so much (and so matter-of factly) that you sometimes couldn't tell when they were being serious and when they weren't. It also made be begin to wonder if they were even watching the film when they recorded it. They often rambled on about stuff that had nothing to do with what was happing on-screen. Speaking of rambling...

I guess that my point is that commentaries can be good or bad.

 

On one hand, I understand directors not wanting to 'spoil the magic', but let's face it: how many casual moviegoers are going to watch director's commentaries? Usually that's reserved for hardcore fans of that particular film or filmbuffs in general. As someone who wants to be a director myself, I find them extremely interesting. Heck, I even find editor commentaries like the one on The Usual Suspects SE DVD to be interesting. I do like hearing fun stories as well, but what I really love is a director's insight into his craft. I'd like to be someone aware of the directorial history of film if I'm going to be doing that myself.


-sj loves kevin spacey

 

On the other hand you could say that film buffs would tend to buy more DVDs than usual moviegoers so poetntially they drive up sales of DVDs thus justifying having more extras.. And it's not just a few guys out there.

Peersonally while I prefer commentaries and extras it's not a must. What I despise is now so many DVDs that are labeled Special Edition when much of the extras are just plain fluff or marketing. It takes more than an audio commentary, one docu and trailer and deleted scenes to make it SE. And first releases being SE? At least years ago you would get just the plain movie, and maybe a year or two after some movies would get rereleased with tons of extras. And worse now, this big movie stars demanding ridiculous payments to even do commentaries on DVDs which they should do for free, after all they should be more concerned about the quality to promote the work and drive up sales, sort of self marketing. Which is why most behind the scenes people are more interesting anyways.

Do I sound bitter ;-).

In any case while I think that it's a shame no Spielberg commentary I don't mind since he has never done any. I was more concerned that there weren't 3 extras disc, one per film. One documentary for the VFX?!?!? (considering the first 2 films won the VFX Oscar their respective years?). Anyway it was a great release but there are many other that have raised the bar pretty high.

 

My only critiscism of the Indy DVDs is the lack of commentary tracks.