Robert: I'm guessing that it's probably a cigarette or cigar that Ridley is chomping on while he does his commentaries. During the Alien commentary, you can also hear the clinking of glasses from time to time, and I'll lay good money that it's not Gatorade that's helping him relax while he reminisces.

Ditto on many of the ones mentioned above. One that was missed was "The Sweet Hereafter". Atom Egoyan is an excellent filmmaker and covers all aspects of making this movie, from camera angles and acting choices to the happy mistakes that make a movie great.

Worst commentary: Frankenheimer on "The Manchurian Candidate". Lots of silence, very little insight.

Missing commentaries: The only way to get a Scorcese commentary (unless there is one on the Taxi Driver SE) is to get a laser disc player and then track down a five year old, out-of-print Criterion edition. Criterion, I want Scorcese on DVD, with the commentary!

Not necessarily a movie for everyone (although excellent), but I just listened to most of Bill Condon's comments on Gods & Monsters for a forthcoming review, and it was a nice departure from the "I'm just going to tell you what you are seeing on the screen" types. But we know now that Bill is one of our directorial heroes.

Bob

Hey Blake,

I just watched "Elizabeth"'s commentary based on your advice and I'm so glad I did. By far the best director's commentary I've heard for sure!!! I wanted more and more as I was watching the film with him going through each of the scenes....the why's and how's of the camera....everything!!! soooo good!!!


C.

I thought that the commentary track on "Silence of the Lambs" was excellent. It gave a good sense of each of the actors' competence in the importance of small details in a film. Anthony Hopkins' concern with how the audience should first see his character ("standing, with a smile on his face, and not threatening at all") his commentary on Jodie Foster ("she is an incredible actress. Watch here as five emotions cross her face at once"), as well as discussions regarding the filming, re-edit of the screenplay, all were fascinating. The commentaries gave you a sense that each of the players were concerned with making this movie something bigger than life, and that each had the technical competence to assure that it was. It also gives a lot of insight into why the movie turned out so good.

A little different from the usual director's commentary is the commentary included on the Talking Heads concert film "Stop Making Sense," including comments from director Jonathon Demme + all 4 members of Talking Heads. Lots of insights into the making of the film and the development of the concert elements as well. First class.

All taylor hackford commentaries, particularily Dolores Claiborne and the 2 commentaries on against all odds!
Bill condon's commentary was endearing on Gods & Monsters.
Your Friends and neighbors Neil Labute's commentary is very informative and technical.
Both commentaries on Dark City were excellent.
Wes craven's commentary on New Nightmare was above average.
P.T. anderson's commentary on Hard Eight are totally wild and even informative.
Mike figgis gives very good commentary on both One Night Stand and Loss Of Sexual innocence.
yes I do prefer director's who talk about the technical side of filmmaking. I find it more enlightning and it helps me with my own filmmaking aspirations.

I listened to the commentary on Elizabeth a few weeks ago, and was absoultely astounded by Shekar Kapur. The commentary is worth the price of the disc by itself. Talk about a film school! I also thoroughly enjoyed both tracks on the Platoon DVD. I hope the same version is the one rumored to be being re-released next year. I can listen to war stories till the end of time...

I'd like to take this space to beg for a new dvd version of Get Shorty that includes the commentary that is on the Laserdisc. Such a great film deserves much better treatment than that 1st generation release.

"Andrei Rublev" has a great commentary by Harvard professor Vlada Petric (Tarkovsky passed away from brain cancer, 1986-I think).

Pink Floyd The Wall and Mallrats have the most entertaining commentaries I've heard.

The full-length commentary on Godzilla is entertaining and has quite a bit of insight on the making of the movie as well as the special effects used. There is no dead air and the lively banter is easy to listen to as you watch the movie.

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my slowly growing dvd collection

If you ask me, the GODZILLA commentary should consist of nothing more than Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich saying, "We're sorry! We're so, so sorry!" over and over again but, then again, I realize no one asked me...

Over the past year, I've found out that I like Wolfgang Peterson's commentaries so much that I buy the DVDs on which he has a director's commentary such as "Air Force One" and "Perfect Storm". I like his because he consistently has a sense of humour, is enthusiastic about providing the commentary, gives anecdotal items that are genuinely behind the scenes items, and very importantly, he gives the commentary "live" as he watches the movie. All too often, commentaries are given like interviews and then spliced together by an editor who tries to match the comments to the scene.

Anyways, I always like to see the above characteristics in commentaries, and some directors seem to be fairly consistently good with their commentaries.

One I didn't see mentioned that I enjoyed was "Cube". Similar to the El Mariachi commentary it focuses a lot on how to make a movie on no/little money.

Wow thanks for the trip down memory lane!

I can't wait for the Brazil commentary that Brion mentioned! When does that come out?

The Criterion "Brazil" has been available for quite a while.

One of my favorite in-depth commentaries is over "Pleasantville." The director is very well-spoken and intelligent.

Bruce Campbell's commentary on Evil Dead is hysterical.
John Carpentar's commentary on Assault on Precinct 13 was pretty good.