Forget about the ridiculous and unnecessary changes...

The one thing about the 2004 DVDs that's starting to bug me are the commentaries. I sometimes enjoy listening to the commentaries of movies I enjoy (and I usually do other things while the commentary is running, which is what I'm doing now actually. As I'm typing, Irvin Kershner is going on about ESB.) The commentaries are interesting for the most part, but it'd be much better if I don't know... all the commentators were actually together when their ramblings were recorded. It's blatantly obvious that these people aren't watching the movies together. On multiple occasions they address other commentators by their full name ("George Lucas this, George Lucas that.")

It's really disappointing. However, I'm surprised I even put one of the 2004 DVDs in my player.  (I think some of Carrie's dialogue makes up for the fact that George pretty much destroyed 50% of his films.)

Yeah, I usually re-watch commentary, but I don't think I've gone back to those since 2004.  It always annoyed me too that the commentators weren't together.  And are we really supposed to believe none of them overlapped?  So, no, their words probably aren't even in synch with the video, which means that it's just a bunch of random words put over the movie.  But I do recall Kershner being very entertaining to listen to, at least.

The guy rambling on and on and on about the various sounds was the thing that made me turn it off.

And George Lucas' monotonous voice that is like an elderly frog who just woke up from a nap. It was especially intolerable on the ROTS DVD commentary.

Star Wars has usually failed when it comes to additional features on DVDs. It's weird, because it seems like the type of film franchise that would excell at bonus footage, commentaries, makings of, etc.

I think The Simpsons' season DVDs set a great standard for commentaries.  And when it comes to television (off topic, I know), I like South Park's approach of "mini-commentaries."

There has never been a true commentary made.  It takes fan projects like Garret Gilchrists fandmade commentary on the classic edition, or jambe's making of with commnetary to really appreciate the good audio interviews.

We got bits and pieces on that star wars cd rom, and on the definitive laserdisc.  Some of the audio commentaries are used more than once or appear to be sourced from seperately taped interviews at different times.

Anything Lucas has said since the 1990's i don't give much credibility to.

The last time Lucas appeared to be truthful on the making of the films was during the making ofs and from star wars to jedi.

There was no lie at the time about the six saga story of darth vader, that vader was always luke's father and leia the sister, as far as i know i have not seen the making ofs in some years so i could be wrong.

The fact that they could not get Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill for the commentary would be dissapointing if you did not know they repeat the same stories verbatim and so does carrie fisher.

These days they don't have much interesting to say about the films.

I would have liked a director's commentary over the original films if they were restored.

I would actually prefer a commentary on star wars 77 by Gary Kurtz than Lucas because he would actually talk about how the film was actually made.

Kershner on Empire to be able to talk loosely on the making of empire without Lucas looking over his shoulder.

And a commentary by Kasden on empire and jedi.  I would also like a richard marquand commentary but sadly he is dead.  Which did'nt stop lucas from altering a film he did not direct.

A star wars mega set would be great if the extras were put together like the lord of the rings extended editions.  Seperate commentaries for all the different people who made the films.

Lucas on the other hand likes to talk about the detail they put into jango's suit in the attack of the clones commentary,lol. 

When he used to say the sets and the effects were less important than the plot.

George Lucas shouldn't be on the commentary for Empire or Jedi. especially Empire. He clearly does not like ESB and hated making it. Kershner doesn't even remember directing the film. His commentary on the ESB dvd is like he is watching it for the first time. I read that during the making of Empire and Jedi George Lucas was never seen and when he actually showed up he would look like "why the hell do I have to be here". Then when asked if he thought a shot was good he would say "well it's good enough" The sad thing is he started out a great film maker, then after Raiders of the lost Ark he thought people wanted a summer thrill ride. People didn't care about story and all they wanted was explosions and action. I get in the mood for movies like Independence Day once in a while but I just wish directors would think about why they got into film making. It is the same with music. Look at Metallica (the most talked about band of all time) They started out wanting to melt faces, change music, and have a damn good time. Then in about 1990 they released the black album (to some it was a bad album, to me their last good album) They saw that the music they were making was dead and thought lets follow the trend so they released LOAD and after that each album got worse. The same thing with film making. Film makers look at every film in the box office to use as an example for their films.

skyjedi2005 said:

A star wars mega set would be great if the extras were put together like the lord of the rings extended editions.  Seperate commentaries for all the different people who made the films.

Lucas on the other hand likes to talk about the detail they put into jango's suit in the attack of the clones commentary,lol. 

When he used to say the sets and the effects were less important than the plot.

 

Watch the bonus disk that came with the Fifth Element Ultimate Edition. It is one of the most in-depth making ofs disks ever. They have several parts to it. The making of's max out at almost 2 hours maybe more. They are pretty great. They talk about from creation of the story down to the night it came out. They talked about making the madoshawans and the creation of different shots like Leeloo falling off of the building. They even have small interviews with the actors not many. But they have alot of information nonetheless.

I went through the commentaries back in 04-and have not watched one of those discs since. Tempted to do so now. Kershner was the only commentator of note, and although I have respect for Burtt-he seemed to be the only one talking much. The commentaries on Jambe Davdar's Building Empire/Returning to Jedi are fantastic and informative-are those from the 93 Definitive LD set? I wish I could listen to Ken Ralston talk about the flying potato in the ESB asteroid chase instead of GL: "oh, and here is another little thing I did so there you go.". No effort was made to make these interesting or informative in the slightest. Most fans already know exactly what they are saying anyway. I got much more mileage out of the bonus disc with Empire of Dreams. (only reason to have original box set!)

And I agree with GL not liking loss of control on ESB. Kershner was his former teacher (weird!) and did things his way. Marquand seemed to be attempting to do so, and in behind the scenes footage GL is right there over the shoulder "advising".

But remember Empire Strikes Back is the only mainstream movie Kershner has made that was any good.  People attack Lucas for making bad movies but don't put it in the proper context when you realize Kersh also directed the turds that are Robocop II and Never Say Never Again.

Also people praise Gary Kurtz but other than being involved with The dark Crystal and Return to OZ after leaving Lucasfilm what has he done?

He did produce that horrible science fiction slipstream which only was cool because it had Mark Hamill as a bounty hunter named Will Tasker.

All directors have their share of bad movies.

Steven Spielberg is often praised but he has made some awful films as well, so has Coppola and Scorcese.

And nothing Lucas friends have done could touch the greatness of star wars imho.  Not even the collaboration by lucas and spielberg raiders of the lost ark.

Not even the Godfather has had the impact on generations of people that the original star wars trilogy has.

And why doesn't Kasdan have some awesome filmography?  He seems to be very good at what he does, but outside of Empire, Jedi and Raiders...?  There are a lot of stinkers on there, and the list seems really short.

What gives?

SilverWook said:

Not every director enjoys as much control as Lucas does, and movie scripts are often rewritten by many others whose names never appear on the final product.

Some of the better dialog between Indy and Marion in Crystal Skull has been attributed to Kasdan.

That last bit would not surprise me in the slightest. Some of their retorts were the freshest dialogue in that mess.

Kershner even talks about what he tried to do on Never Say Never Again and all the troubles he ran into because of the control issue.

Does anybody know where to find the 93 commentaries? Just relistened to the 04 ones and beat my head against the wall...I never knew SW could get sooo boring!

I forgot the 04 discs even had a commentary. I have yet to listen to them, but now it sounds like I have not missed much.

Can't imagine a commentary recorded twenty some odd years after the making of a film could amount to much. How great would it have been to have had them recorded shortly after the film was made? Remember those old interviews where Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford seemed excited when talking about Star Wars? Commentary in those days would have been epic. That was, after all, when the movies actually mattered.

I don't know.  At the same time, it's nice to have that hindsight, for the people involved to be able to talk about, not only the movie itself, but its impact, its reception, etc.  Apparently a lot of modern movies do commentary before the movie is even released, so there's no telling whether or not it will even be successful.  Not entirely necessary, I guess, but it's nice to have that kind of context as well, as in, "Well, this particular scene is a favorite of most..." or "The fans really decried this scene because..."

zombie84 said:

I think retrospective commentaries are more honest.

Except when Someone tries to rewrite history, replaces the original films and says the special editions were the way the films were always intended.

When The same person now claims that he always had Vader as Luke's Father. 

That the story was always about the downfall and redemption of anakin skywalker and a six movie saga.

The same guy who told the media there would be a sequel trilogy and now says they made it up even though they have his direct words in print.

I would rather Lucas be honest and tell us he made it all up a he went rather than playing this omniscient god like creator who had it all in mind from the beginning,lol.  Give me a break.

Honesty is never allowed unless you want to join those banned from the Ranch.  People who have worked with him and may work with him in the future have to dance around the issue and act businesslike, or if they are his employees they cannot badmouth their boss and remain on the payroll.

Hollywood types who are gods in their own minds and have legendary egos and tons of fanboy worship,and exert power over everyone around them.  You are not going to get an honest take on the making of one of their films.