Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete  The AB also has commentary's but I've read they aren't very good. |
I have to disagree strongly. The commentaries are brilliant - not to mention Don Edmonds and David Friedman are no longer with us, so they're worth having for that reason alone, they won't be recording a new commentary anytime soon. Their anecdotes are funny and insightful and Dyanne Thorne comes across very well too.
I love towards the end of the commentary on the first Ilsa and Edmonds recalls a fan coming up to him after a screening and asking if the reason for a certain shot towards the end of the film that was shot in shadow was an artistic statement. Friedman said 'No, we ran out of money and the lighting man had gone home.'
Seriously, these are some of the very, very few commentaries I've actually been interested in enough to listen to. It's also worth noting that these commentaries were the first time Friedman and Edmonds had talked in well oevr two decades after falling out. So they start a bit stilted, you can almost feel the awkwardness, but they soon get into it and it becomes riveting listening. Like learning that Dyanne Thorne still receives over 200 letters a month regarding the Ilsa character and that the film was shot guerilla style on the disused set of Hogan's heroes.
So, yeah, I think these commenatries are very good. Far better than with new films where they just talk about how great the film is. I also love how Thorne challenges Friedman on hiding behind a pseudonym, reels off all the trashy films he's made and then says 'And you took your name off
this one?'