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DVD Forum => General DVD Discussion => Topic started by: Komikero on May 25, 2001 at 08:24 PM
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One of the considerations I have in buying DVDs is if it has lots of extras. Documentaries are nice but are inconsistent in quality. Some are just promotional featurettes, but some are truly fascinating and in depth. What is your favorite?
Mine is by far the documentary found in Twelve Monkeys. It is quite unlike any docu that I've seen because it is produced and filmed like a separate film unto itself. It is a separate film, as far as I'm concerned. How about you guys?
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from earth to the moon....
the 4th disk just contains tons of information on the apollo missions.....
one small step for man, a giant step for mankind 8)
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My list would include:
- The Making Of Featurette in the Magnolia DVD
- The Bullet Time featurette in the Matrix
- All the "Making Of" Featurettes in The Best of Hitchcock sets. - Each featurette contained in each movie talks about the source of the script, storyboards, the casting process, the directing process, the editing, etc. You'll have a new appreciation of Hitchcock and the art of film making after watching those documentaries.
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I'm with Komikero 200% about the "Hamster Factor" in 12 Monkeys. Terry Gilliam himself is just as interesting a topic as his own movie. The documentary surpasses most others simply because it wasn't meant to be the usual public relations crap you get from other movies ("Oh, blahblahblah is probably the best blahblahblah I've ever worked with"). It acts more like those gritty docus they show on HBO. "The Hamster Factor" is a microcosmic look on the process of making a film, from the highs to the lows, from the gems to the crap.
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WHOA! I didn't realize 12 Monkeys had featurettes in it. That was why I was reluctant to get a copy. Now it's in my priority wishlist :)
Come to think of it, it being one of my really favorite sci-fi films, I should've bought a DVD even if it wasn't packed. :-/
As for the best docu, I think I'd go for the hour-length Making Of The Abyss, at least for now.
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To me the best supplementary documentary is the documentary found on Superman The Movie Special Edition. It contains interviews, features and behind the scenes specials with appearances by Christopher Reeve, Marc McClure, Richard Donner and Margot Kidder as how they appear today. Probably the best thing a Superman Fan (like myself) can ask for. Cliche though it sounds, but watching this DVD, "makes you believe a man can fly".
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I haven't seen any of the documentaries mentioned so far, except for the Bullet Time feature in The Matrix -- which is interesting due to the newness and cool technical nature of the subject matter, but is not a carefully produced documentary by any means. Essentially they interviewed The Matrix effects supervisor John Gaeta (who is boring and prone to speaking in meaningless techno-jargon) and superimposed cutaways of how the bullet time sequences were created. Informative, not edifying.
To date, I'd say the best "making of" featurette I've seen is the one in the Jaws 25th Anniversary DVD. It is well-written and produced, and delves deeply into certain intriguing aspects of the production, such as the fact that for most of this extremely difficult shoot, the three mechanical sharks refused to work properly, or indeed at all. Talk about a baptism of fire for then-unproven director Spielberg. Zanuck and Brown, the producers, were ready to pull the plug on the whole project, but Spielberg convinced them otherwise. Another subject that i found interesting was the story behind Quint's monologue on his WWII experience, which Robert Shaw was so method-actor-involved with that he ended up rewriting it almost entirely. The monologue as performed in the theatrical version was pure Shaw. This documentary is at least as interesting as the movie itself.
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Oh yeah, I really liked the docu on Jaws too. It's very informative, brings back a lot of the cast with lots of behind the scenes info. Other docus of similiar quality (which I also like) are the ones found in:
Conan The Barbarian
Somewhere In Time: 20th Anniversary Edition
Did you guys know old "Arthur" is STILL alive and they got him for an interview? Amazing.
John Carpenter's The Thing
Psycho
The Omen: Special Edition
Superman
I'm thinking they could have maybe combined the three docus together and that would be one kick ass docu.
Ben-Hur
Lawrence of Arabia
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SOUND OF MUSICDisk 2 contains a lot of facts about the movie and Salzburg. You get to see what some of the stars look like at the present, the history of the movie, etc. Very interesting to watch and learn kasi you can tell others eh others can easily relate to it kasi almost everyone you know has watched Sound of Music.
JAMES BOND GOLDEN EYE It features all the gadget, babes/leading ladies, and villains of James Bond throughout history.
MATRIX It contains a lot of behind-the-scenes/making which explains how Matrix won over Episode 1 at the Oscars.
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THE CITIZEN KANE DOCUMENTARY SUPPLEMENT
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Supplemental Documentaries I liked:
+ The Battle Over Citizen Kane
+ The documentary recorded by David O. Russell for Three Kings. George Clooney doesn't seem to be amused while David is filming him with his camcorder while the two are basically still in pre-production talks for Clooney to star in the movie. Mark Wahlberg seems to be zonked out while he was being filmed, and during the premiere, the usher told off David Russell, telling him that his handheld camera is not allowed in the theater, not knowing that the guy he was talking to was the director of the movie being premiered in the theater!
+ I agree with the posts above that the retrospective documentaries included in the Superman: The Movie DVD are quite nice... (wish they just separated this set into two discs instead of making it a flipper, and packaged it a la Citizen Kane, instead of placing it in that ugly snapper case!)
+ I really liked "The Beginning" documentary included in the Phantom Menace DVD... The movie is a bit on the slow side, actually, but the documentary makes you really feel like a "fly on the wall" while Lucas and his team assembles the movie...
Some documentaries that were not included in the DVD release but should have been:
+ Exhausted, a documentary about the life of porn star John Holmes was supposed to be included in the second release of the Boogie Nights DVD (or at least an edited version of it)... unfortunately, this didn't push through because of rights issues or something... watching this could've been a hoot... i've heard that pt anderson borrowed a lot from this documentary with regards to the look of some of the sets in the movie, and the performance of mark wahlberg as dirk diggler...
+ In Defense of Dogma was supposed to be included in the Dogma Special Ed DVD, but was pulled, I think because the docu badmouthed a lot of the studios who chickened out of distributing the movie... Could've been worth watching, if only to see all those people who were protesting the movie without having seen it first (just like the Last Temptation of Christ fiasco)...
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To me the best supplementary documentary is the documentary found on Superman The Movie Special Edition. It contains interviews, features and behind the scenes specials with appearances by Christopher Reeve, Marc McClure, Richard Donner and Margot Kidder as how they appear today. Probably the best thing a Superman Fan (like myself) can ask for. Cliche though it sounds, but watching this DVD, "makes you believe a man can fly".
Starman,
Being a small boy during that time, I remember that poster where it says "You will believe a man can fly" and "by golly geez Miss Lane".. I still do.
Watching the docu of the movie alone really makes you feel like a kid again.
Now for a few bucks, I'll tell everyone why no one can tell who superman is by just wearing the glasses. heheheh
wcvmorasa
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Francis Ford Coppola showing off his "notebook" that he used to direct The Godfather trilogy. Short but enlightening. The other featurettes included in "The Making of" help to raise one's appreciation of the films...which is no mean feat.
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Planet of the Apes
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Hmmm... I'd say the following supplemental material/documentaries listed below are some of the best I've seen since I started collecting DVDs:
The T2 supplemental material - shows every facet of the film from the conception of the idea, the storyboards, to production, filming... even until the advertising and the promotional materials for the film
Blade 2, The Blood Pact - documents the whole Blade 2 production process and 5 short featurettes may be accessed within the documentary itself through seamless branching. The other parts of the 2nd disc were good too.. filled with lots of extras, for "only" a 2-disc set.
SW:TPM - The whole supplemental disc was worth the price IMHO. Bought the DVD not for the film but for the supplemental material, the film was just part of the extras (to be honest, I thought the film kinda sucked). If the Episode II DVDs supplements are better than or at least as good as Episode I's supplements, consider that as part of my DVD buying list (yep, I think Ep 2 sucks big time too).
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pearl harbor- vista series
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That of The Usual Suspects. I appreciated Kevin Spacey's performance more. The supplement explained why it won an Oscar.
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A Hard Day's Night - ...tons of behind the scene stuff.
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pearl harbor (vista series)
terminator 2 (ue)
sound of music (fsc)
cleopatra (fsc)
saving private ryan
the extra terrestrial
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Many supplemental "documentaries" if I may call them that, are just fluff advertisements to promote the film. I dont bother watching if it is just less than 10 minutes, and has nothing better to offer than a description of the film stretched into a 10 minute show.
So far, i enjoyed the following:
China Odyssey: The Making of Empire of the Sun
Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me
Curse of the Blair Witch
and the documentaries in the Criterion DVDs. ;D