I have just finished watching the making-of documentary on the Black Hawk Down deluxe edition and absolutely loved it. It was extremely interesting and very comprehensive and very well put-together. What I was curious about is whether there are any other documentaries as comprehensive as this. The only other one that comes to mind is "The Beginning" from Star Wars Ep I. Can anybody reccomend any others?

There has never been a documentary as comprehensive and in-depth as the nearly 7 hour documentary on LOTR:FOTR EE. It stands a crowning achievement in film documentaries in my mind.

Other excellent film documentaries are the ones on:
Cleopatra (arguably better then the movie itself)
The Abyss
Citizen Kane
Brazil Criterion Collection
The Stunt Man
12 Monkeys (The Hamster Factor)

I would also nominate The Heart Of Darkness about the making of Apocalypse Now and Lost In La Mancha about Terry Gilliams failed attempt to bring Don Quixote to the big screen.

Titus
Magnolia

& the entire "Project Greenlight" set for Stolen Summer.

The Thing CE

my favorites:

LOTR EE
BLade 2

Generally, the best "Making Of" features are the "HBO First Looks."

The making of Casablanca and The Wizard of Oz (well, if you can say that the making-of docs) also comes to my mind, besides some already mentioned above.

Magnolia has a decent one.

I haven't seen the Blade 2 one yet, too busy, but I know people who simply rave about it, and have gone out of their way to recommend it.

For me though, it's very hard to top "Hearts of Darkness". Incredibly engrossing, and well worth going out of your way to track down. And seeing it made me increase my love and appreciation for Apocalyspe even more.

I'd agree with LOTR and Citizen Kane (which also has a great Ebert commentary too)

There is a seperate documentery if included on the new to DVD September 2, 2003 "Where Eagles Dare".


When the DVD has a featurette for "Dirty Dancing", it's something to entertain you not educate you. Look for a directors comment, *not* comment over the entire length of the film.

In addition, I'd add:

Toy Story: Ultimate Toy Box

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

T2:UE

And of course, Star Wars, Episode 2.

All About Eve has a short but very effective documentary.

For DVD titles, I'd also give a vote to The Thing

For non-DVD titles, I'd have to go with Hearts of Darkness.

LOTR:EE
The Abyss

Another vote for LOTR EE

Also:
The Wild Bunch has a great documentary that won an Academy Award the year it came out.

American Graffiti has a good 1.5 hour documentary on what was a very interesting production.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou has an intereting documentary on CGI color-timing (so does LOTR EE). This technoique is used on many, many movies now and has really changed the look of things.

A couple that haven't been mentioned:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Jaws (despite it being edited from the laserdisc version)

"Burden of Dreams" (1982), Les Blank's documentary on the making of Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo".

Available on VHS but as far as I'm aware, not available on DVD.

Platoon SE
The Abyss
Black HawK Down DE
Straw Dogs (Criterion)

Civil War by Ken Burns
Blue Planet
Toy Story Uno & Dos: UTB
LOTR: FOTR EE

The original Jaws doc
The Battle For Brazil
The 1941 doc (better than the movie)
The Psycho (1960) doc

The Psycho (1960) doc [/B][/QUOTE]

Excellent choice

The Making of a Hard Day's Night

Also, the ones for Lawrence of Arabia, Willy Wonka, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the Classic Monster Collection docs are excellent.

I would love to see Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse finally released on DVD. By far one of the best making-of documentaries ever done.

Also, the doc on Sunset Boulevard is really top notch.