Purposefully Talking Over The Film

It’s a dwindling area in the current days of digital downloads and streaming media but, as an extremely nerdy film fan and one-time wannabe filmmaker, I was also keen on the extra features that came along with a film in the DVD era*. Who wouldn't want to hear filmmakers talk in great depth about how they made the film? That’s a rhetorical question, of course, I realise that’s just largely me and some other nerds but stick with me.

Here are some of the best DVD commentaries from that bygone age of buying (or renting) shiny discs to put in the player under the telly.

Fight Club
The problem with a large number of commentaries is that a lot of directors are either reluctant to talk about or not very articulate when it comes to discussing their work. David Fincher clearly enjoys talking about the process of film-making with genuine enthusiasm and also has a good rapport with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, one of the highlights being when Brad Pitt pushes Fincher to reveal how many times he made a stuntman fall downstairs (twelve) and then which take he used (the first).

Muppets From Space
Another fun one in which the director is joined by Rizzo and Gonzo and all three are silhouetted at the bottom of the screen as if watching the film in a cinema (al al Mystery Science Theater 3000) with a couple of brief cameos from Kermit. The Muppets always had a slightly meta, breaking-the-fourth-wall sensibility so a commentary with Gonzo and Rizzo feels pretty fitting.

Shaun Of The Dead
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are both massive film and TV nerds and old friends/collaborators with an easy rapport so they make for a good fun duo when discussing their film work. Being a massive film geek too, it’s nice to hear the sheer of geeky background details that the two of them have included. They’re also pretty funny too.

This Is Spinal Tap
It’s a great film anyway but what makes the commentary is that the three members of Spinal Tap improvise the whole thing as if they really are the characters and the film was a genuine documentary. It’s good fun and has a nice running gag of them pointing out most of the people in the film as being dead now (and not just the drummers).

Any Kevin Smith film (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy)
Basically, these boil down to what feel like a group of mates sitting around and taking the piss out of each other and generally having a laugh. Always good fun.  Strange to think nowadays that without Kevin Smith, you wouldn't have the blockbuster careers fo Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (I’ll leave that up to you as to whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing).

So if you like hearing people talking about the films they made and want it to be lively and entertaining, track down old-fashioned physical media, put it into the playing machine using your hands and wait what seems like an age for it to load up...

* That’s like an old-timey era now, right? The DVD era. Not quite as old-timey as VHS or just drawing on the corners of a book and flicking the drawings really fast to create the illusion of movement but pretty close.