What is your favorite behind the scenes documentary on dvd?
 

Mine, so far, is from The Thing collector's edition. A very informative and lengthy look at the film. Plus, it has some great insight from the crew. I always enjoy Carpenter talking about his movies.

I own the Jaws 30th Anniversary and The Frightener's Director's Cut, but haven't watched their respective docs.

Which one do you consider the best?

I also like 'The Making of Psycho'. Universal used to make some great docs on their old Collector's Edition dvds.

The Classic Monster docs as well. Hearing David Skal talking monsters is music to my ears.

LOTR Appendices, without a doubt.

"A Very British Psycho" from Criterion's Peeping Tom disc. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

I haven't watched it yet, but the new SE of Cronenberg's "The Fly" looks to have a nearly 3 hour docu on the second disc. That's a chunk of my time I'd reallllly have to be motivated to waste. But, I like knowing I can watch it whenever.

There's a bunch I love:

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs ("Still the Fairest of Them All")
From Dusk 'til Dawn ("Full Tilt Boogie")
Clerks ("Snowball Effect")
The Abyss ("Under Pressure")
Dawn of the Dead ("The Dead Will Walk")
12 Monkeys ("The Hamster Factor")
Platoon ("Tour of the inferno")
The Devil's Rejects ("30 Days in Hell")
Taxi Driver (Making of)

I'll throw a few in there

Star Wars ep. 1 - one of the few docs to make me tear up
The Stunt Man - I think it was only available on the limited edition package but this is always one of my fav, an original take on the making of.
Bridge on the River Kwai - great interviews with a wide range of people

* The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys
* The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM on the Singin' in the Rain SE
* A Constant Forge on the Cassavetes set (does that count?)
* So Funny It Hurts- Buster Keaton @ MGM on the TCM set
* The Making of Gone with the Wind
* Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer on Sullivan's Travels
* Discovering Treasure: The Story of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'
* Orson Welles: The One-Man Band ( The Lost Films of Orson Welles ) on F for Fake!
* Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest
* Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'
* The Real Glory: Reconstructing 'The Big Red One'
* A Tour of the Inferno: Revisiting 'Platoon'
* The Thing: Terror Takes Shape

I love that the Fox Studio Classics include the A&E Biographies, those are ace. I'm also partial to anything that features Robert Evans talking.

There are so many great ones that have appeared in the past five years, it's really hard to choose... but I'll always return to my first love (The Abyss - Under Pressure).

The LOTR EE, interesting and funny.

There's a great behind the scenes documentary on this release:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

-JP

"Empire of Dreams" ...duh!

It's still probably the one from 12 Monkeys.

Another one that sticks in my mind though is the one on The Cave about the underwater exploring/photography. Frankly I thought it was better than the movie itself ;)

The Planet Of The Apes one
Alien Quadrilogy (all of them)
LOTR

Some of my favorites:

The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist
The Making of Jaws
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes (from the Wonderland DVD)
The Joe Spinell Story (from the Anchor Bay Maniac DVD)
Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest
Terror Takes Shape: The Making of The Thing
Under Pressure: The Making of The Abyss
Amityville: Horror or Hoax?
The Godfather: Behind-the-Scenes
Empire of Dreams (from the Star Wars box set)
Curse of the Dragon (from the Enter the Dragon DVD)
Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Inside the Labyrinth (from the MGM The Silence of the Lambs SE DVD)
The Making of Taxi Driver
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic

And hopefully these will find their way to DVD soon:

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Making Dazed (Dazed and Confused doc)

American Graffiti has a good one as well.

The Making of TRON - 88 minutes in-depth

LOTR Appendices
The Beginning (Making of Star Wars: Episode I) - Still the best documentary on the making of a Star Wars movie, yes even better than Empire of Dreams
24 Exposed (Making of final 2 episodes of 24 season 2)
Alien Quadrilogy (in particular the one on Aliens)
The Essence of Combat: The Making of Black Hawk Down
The Making of Jaws

'DARK CITY' and 'SOLDIER' but I guess they are commentaries and not documentries so I will have to go with 'LOTR', 'ALIEN' and 'Matrix' but I have not seen many. I tend to just watch the movie.

The Battle Over Citizen Kane on, obviously the Citizen Kane 2 disc Warner release.

The best one NOT on DVD would have to be "Heart of Darkness". Damn it, where is that anyway?

Under Pressure: The Making of The Abyss is still my favorite.

Tied: Hamster Factor (12 Monkeys) and Snowball Effect (Clerks X)

Another vote for The Thing: Terror Takes Shape :up:

There are a bunch of really great ones out there, but really nothing compares to the <i>LOTR</i> Appendices for me. I couldn't believe how fascinating I found them and how I could just sit and watch them for hour after hour after hour without once getting bored.

das

12 Monkeys - I liked how they got into the marketing arm of production. Designing the poster & print materials, what worked/what didn't. It was fascinating.