Kube

Was going to ask if John Sturges had any commentaries on DVD? But then also realized I probably missed out on great commentaries that were on laser that aren't going to be transfered over.


So my questions are:

Are there any Sturges commentaries on DVD?

I know he did commentary for Criterion for laser disks.

AND

What old time/classic directors did commentaries for laser disk that wont be transfered to DVD? and Any directors that have a legit chance of being transfered? Ie. nothing by Criterion.

Dvdsky

A search for Sturges on ratethatcommentary.com shows that he did a commentary for at least The Great Escape DVD: Great Escape DVD commentary info

No laserdisc commentaries showed up on the search, but that doesn't mean there aren't some out there that aren't in their database yet...

EDIT: It looks like the Bad Day at Black Rock Criterion LD had a Sturges commentary, according to the laserdisc database. Their notes say that's the only one he's ever done, so it must have been before he recorded that Great Escape track, but it's probably likely that those are the only 2 out there. I'll submit that LD track to ratethatcommentary...

Dvdsky

Hmm, it looks like there was a different Sturges commentary on The Great Escape Criterion LD than the one that's on the DVD. This is getting confusing...

Kube

I think the commentary from the Sturges DVD is assembled from interviews.

Dvdsky

If there's pretty much no chance of getting Criterion LD commentaries on DVD, then we lose at least these:

Scorsese on Raging Bull and Taxi Driver
Fincher on The Game
Peter Jackson on The Frighteners
Terry Gilliam on Munchausen and Fisher King
Coppola on Dracula

That's all I can think of off the top of my head...

Gypo66

Don't forget the Mike Leigh commentary on the amazing Criterion LD of Naked.

There are also some nice commentaries from actor Don Taylor and screenwriter Marvin Wald on the Roan LD of Naked City that didn't make it over to DVD. Ditto for the Jules Dassin interview commentary on Roan's LD of Brute Force.

cracksky

The laser of GlenGarry GlenRoss has a commentary track by Jack Lemmon that is ont on the dvd. Not a director but still a loss.

Josh Z

The Frighteners was not a Criterion laserdisc. It was a Universal Signature Collection disc. Universal owns the rights to all of the material on that disc, and the only thing holding them back from releasing it on DVD is that they don't have any interest in doing so.

Neeb

>>The Frighteners was not a Criterion laserdisc. It was a Universal Signature Collection disc. Universal owns the rights to all of the material on that disc, and the only thing holding them back from releasing it on DVD is that they don't have any interest in doing so.

Dvdsky

Oops, that's right. I should have remembered that from all the threads I've read asking why they won't release those LD extras on DVD.
If the Lord of the Rings trilogy wasn't enough of a Peter Jackson marketing opportunity for Universal, I don't think King Kong would do it either. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

Drexl

It's supposed to be good. On the Boogie Nights DVD commentary, Paul Thomas Anderson said that's his favorite.