Steven Spielberg's DVDs have excellent "Special Features." They are well planned and executed with a great deal of information about his filmmaking process. Each piece is produced as if it were a full-length feature which makes them entertaining as well as informative. The "Minority Report" features, in particular, are outstanding! The "Making of" sections of both "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World" are simply the best shorts that I have ever seen in the "making of" format. Likewise, the Indiana Jones trilogy has insightful supporting material.

I would also like to commend the Alien series. There is so much information in this collection of 9 discs that it is a little overwhelming. It will take me some time to get through them all. I will say that it is alarming that Sigourney Weaver and the films' directors don't appear to be very involved with the collection.

I have just purchased the new Star Wars trilogy. I have to admit that it seems a little skimpy on the "special features." It doesn't seem like Lucas spent too much time on this with Episode III looming.

I just heard that the Matrix is releasing a 10 disk special collection (The Ultimate Matrix)and I have no idea what they are going to do to fill that kind of space. With the Alien collection, they had two versions of all four films plus an individual disk for each film plus a disk dedicated to the series as a whole.

I think that there are some good topics for discussion here but I have not figured out how I want to approach the notion of special editions, director's cuts, and special features.

PS: I loved the karaoke feature on the Shrek DVD :)


Henry S Breitrose <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
After some initial experiences with shallow or just plain silly
commentaries on DVD "Special Editions," I wonder whether anyone has
positive recommendations regarding DVD releases that have additional
materials which in some way illuminate the film, the process of film
making, or the art of cinema. Recommendations, please?

Thanks,

Henry Breitrose
Department of Communication
Stanford

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