Gritty/Catty “Making of” Docs of filmmaking
 

I appreciate the extras on many DVDs, but, as many of you know, so many of the documentary “Making ofs” included are often puffy, fluffy manufactured crap that puts a bland diplomatic spin on events that lead up to the making of the film. “We were all one big happy family, blah, blah, blah.” It was so refreshing when I saw Richard E. Grant call all that a load of rubbish in the making of Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, which is, unfortunately only available on the flip side of the first edition of the Short : Dreams DVD with Nicole Kidman on the cover (a later edition removed this documentary from its content). This doc. wasn’t even on the Portrait of a Lady DVD, and also happens to be now out of print. It was great! It had Shelly Winters acting like an old, crazy diva, actors gossiping and even truly getting into their craft, revealing the divide between them and all the other production staff. There were people throwing fits all over the place, as well.

The only other making of documentary that seemed this real, that I have seen, was the one on the Limited Edition 2-DVD set of Supergirl (also OOP), which revealed the director’s arrogance and lead star Helen Slater’s poutiness (she roles her eyes at his direction more than once). I wished there were more of these kinds of docs on DVDs. I also recall the 12 Monkeys documentary being very real, probably thanks to the fact that the guys who put it together were film students and were not involved in the production beyond standing outside it all and offering the impartial eye, which also happen to lead to the great doc. Lost in La Mancha.

So, my question is, what DVDs have these real kinds of docs? I have many DVDs, and these are the only ones I can think of that stand out like this.

THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975) has a nice retrospective making-of on the DVD. Many of those involved with the film are dead, so the surviving filmmakers and actors have no qualms in being very honest.

No one ever seems to mention them, but the docs on both "Platoon" and "Salvador" paint an unflinchingly brutal portrait of Oliver Stone. They remain my favorites. Also, the featurette on Anchor Bay's "To the Devil...A Daughter" is a hilarious look at a production everyone knew was doomed from the start.

I enjoy the Doc for Platoon as well

another one I'd mention the the Under Pressure doc on The Abyss. It's basically 90 minutes of the cast and crew bitching about the production.

I have the E! True Hollywood Story on Jaws on DVD. Does that count? ;)

Overnight

This is the ultimate "catty" documentary. The whole movie is a scathing expose by two of the director's former friends about what a horrendous jackass he was on the set of "Boondock Saints".

Check out the behind-the-scenes stuff on the Danish "Dogville" second disc (particularly a scene of a furious Paul Bettany turning on von Trier).

Hearts of Darkness (Apocolypse Now doc), period. Why this is not available on DVD is a total mystery.

He speaks the truth. See it ASAP.

-JP

Awesome suggestions, guys. Mike, yes, you reminded me of the Stepford Wives featurette. Great one! What an arrogant director saying he hated how people screwed with his scripts, and then he delights in screwing around with the Stepford Wives’ script, and the actor had to come up to defend the writer on occasion.

I'd love to check out the other docs mentioned, will note them. BTW, Skyler, I've been dying to see Hearts of Darkness, but no word on the DVD release, yet. I heard Coppola wanted to change a few things to it. What a baby (granted it was a hellish production form what I read)!