+2

which reminds me that i wish criterion would do a podcast service for old commentary tracks. I need to track down this one as well as those James bond criterion tracks.

I don't know about the Taxi Driver track, but I don't think EON productions or MGM (or Sony or Fox or whoever controls the distribution of the Bond films these days) would be keen on having those Bond commentaries be made widely available again considering the legend that Albert Broccoli himself had them "banned" from appearing again. I picked up the all three Bond SE LDs about a month ago, and I can see why: far from the "feel-good" affair the MGM tracks are, the Criterion LD commentaries are full of comments that are startling frank, biting, and often even insulting to other members of the Bond crew. Nearly all the participants speak in a dry, sharp tone and more often than not come off as condescending and even a bit annoyed at the celebrity of the Bond films.

Naturally, they're fantastic.

Honestly, they're the best "warts and all" commentaries I've ever heard - exceptionally informative (even if you have the MGM SEs, there's still plenty of info on these discs I hadn't heard before) and entertaining (I'd rank Guy Hamilton's story about watching an obnoxious theater patron's reactions to Goldfinger one of my favorite commentary ancedotes). Half the time I wondered if given the relatively new nature of commentaries at the time, the participants knew how many people would hear what they were actually saying. There's a great "smokey backroom" feel to the comments that I don't get from more recent commentaries (presumably made by people who'd like to work again)

Other favorite bits of mine I don't recall hearing anywhere else:

- Sean Connery (accidentally) flashing the governor of Jamiaca's wife

- Harry Saltzman = "pain in the ass"

- Alot of grumbling about the general lack of money, especially for Dr. No

- Terence Young's story about music company investment presentations being made to him by individuals clearly under the influence of "dope"

Hence my interest in the Taxi Driver commentary. If it's anywhere near the unpolished gem the Bond commentaries are, I'd love to pick it up.

I think you'll be waiting awhile. Have they even released a movie earlier than the 90's?

Plus, how good do you really want Taxi Driver too look? I mean the whole point is it’s a gritty film & that’s the way it was intended too be viewed. The movie has a 70s filming style (cause it was filmed in the 70s) & the grain & muddy look is supposed to be the cinematic style of Taxi Driver. I really wouldn’t want the film too look any better than it already looks in this great ‘limited’ 2-disc collector’s edition DVD.

Waiting for the HD DVD of Blair Witch Project!

Just watched this a few day's ago. It looked fine to me. I didn't know Peter Boyle was in this movie. Didn't this guy ever have a full head of hair? Everything I've ever seen him in he's been bald on top.

Blazing Saddles, Dog Day Afternoon, Bullitt, A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Dozen, Cowboys, Deliverance, etc.

For whatever reason, I assumed he meant Sony.

oh, well in that case.. there are things like Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai coming. Supposedly. Sometime. Maybe. Ok, probably never.

Oh, goodie, Peter O’Toole in Hi-Def!!!!

On his commentary track, Schrader mentions that before writing the script, he had been reading a book that was somewhat similar to Taxi Driver, but he doesen't identify it. Does anyone know what he was referring to?

Schrader has said in the past that An Assassin's Diary, which is the diary of Arthur Bremer (the man who shot and paralyzed AL governor George Wallace), was a huge influence on the script. That could be the book he was referring to.

EDIT: And for what it's worth, if people are still having trouble finding these, there were a ton of copies at my Fry's a few days ago.

My CH.com order arrived yesterday for all those who took advange to their pre-order price. I've watched most of the featurettes, but haven't gotten to the commentary yet.

I did mean Sony. Oops. I really hope they start putting out Columbia's catalog. They have so many great releases.

Also, Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground.

i've seen this movie many times, and just watched the 2 disc edition tonight and noticed the framing was alot different than the previous release. To double check I checked the dvdtalk review and there are screen comparisons, you can clearly see a difference. Even though the author says the difference is minor, I disagree. It's a big difference. Alot of the image is cropped on the top and bottom with the new release, but there is more image on the sides of the screen with the new release than on the older one.

Does anyone actualyl know the location in New York of "Sports steps" ?? I'd love to get a picture of me stood on them

Seeing it at a higher resolution isn't going to suddenly change the gritty filming style. My superbit Dvd never looked "muddy" at all. Some scenes had great color and sharpness. The BD would look more like the actual print they used.
You're only seeing what, a 1/4 of the resolution of the actual print with DVD..? I'll wait for the BD.

Close encounters, out next month...

Amazon just dropped their price to 12.49 on this. Got mine.

This is on mojo this month in HD on cable, (used to be INHD)
Looked excellent. Better than I thought it would. Most likely the new HD master they derived the DVD from. Worth waiting for.

has anyone actually watched their second disc yet? i just popped mine in for the first time and all the menu text is in japanese. anyone else have this problem? if you don't could take screenshots of the menus in english so i can figure out how to navigate this damn thing? i really want to watch the making of featurette.

that's weird. where did you buy ur copy?

columbia house the week it was released.