A Comment About Audio Commentaries…
We have made it to the B’s, which has included a couple of titles also available in the Library collection: all three “Back to the Future” films as well as one of my absolute favorites, “Best in Show.” We watch all the Christopher Guest movies fairly frequently, but none more than “Best in Show.” For those not familiar with the Christopher Guest collection, he is a mockumentarian whose films are nearly 100% improvised (titles include “This is Spinal Tap,” “Waiting for Guffman,” and “A Mighty Wind”). They also feature a core group of actors, including “Schitt’s Creek” alums, Eugene Levy and the incomparable Catherine O’Hara, who died suddenly earlier this year.
Because we had just watched “Best in Show” over the holidays, we decided to indulge in one of the greatest bonus features available on DVDs (and blu-rays): the audio commentary.
If you are unfamiliar with this, Wikipedia describes audio commentary as “an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video…They can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.”
Most often it is the director or writer providing the commentary, but others such as producers, actors, and film historians chime in as well. It’s fun to get inside the minds of the creators, whether that’s hearing them laugh about what was happening during the filming of a scene, learning interesting facts about the shoot, or just feeling closer to a piece of entertainment you love. Not all DVDs include this, but when they do, it’s well worth the rewatch.
And it’s something you can’t do on streaming.
I’ll be honest—watching the audio commentary is best done with a movie or television show you know pretty well because the director (or producer or writer) is not pausing the movie to discuss; they are talking right over it. I guess you could also watch a movie and then immediately rewatch with the commentary turned on while it’s still fresh in your mind.
If you aren’t familiar with Susan’s Year of the DVD, check out her earlier posts and follow along: Part 1 and Part 2
