I agree that most director commentaries are dull, literal, and unenlightening. Of course, there are exceptions. In addition to the ones David Tetzlaff names, I've learned a lot from Robert Altman's commentary on THE PLAYER. The best commentary I know is on the DVD of DON'T LOOK BACK, with D.A. Pennebaker and Bob Neuwirth, who was Bob Dylan's personal manager during the 1965 London tour which the film covers. I learned a trove of background on Dylan and the tour, which one would never know from the film alone. Perhaps documentaries, and especially cinema verite (where what you see is usually all you get) are more poised to benefit from commentary by those who were there than fiction films. DONT LOOK BACK also is a film that looks different through the mists of time, and the commentary is very interesting in that regard too. Actually, besides Spielberg, a director who appears to take great care with his special editions is Robert Wise. The commentary and documentary accompanying the 2003 release of WEST SIDE STORY is one of the most informative I know. Also, the notorious flop STAR! benefitted, in its laser disc edition, from one of the most complete special edition packages I know. The best documentaries and commentaries are generally those from whose first release some time has passed, provided they are fortunate enough to have a lot of the participants surviving. When the STAR! package was put together in 1995, virtually all of the major makers of the film were still alive and well (Producer Saul Chaplin and costar Richard Crenna have since died) and they saw the laser disc as a reclamation project for a generally vilified and much underrated film IMO. What results is a virtual archive on the film. In fact, I hope to pay a visit to Wise's papers on the film at USC next month and I won't be surprised if I don't learn a whole lot more than what is included in the laser disc. Unaccountably, none of the laser disc material was included when STAR! was released by Fox on a bare bones DVD earlier this year. Why, who knows? The other thing to keep in mind is that fifty years from now, cineastes might be thrilled just to have an audio-visual record of what, say, Quentin Tarantino had on his mind about KILL BILL in 2004. What seems like junky filler and puff pieces now might be extremely useful for future generations of film scholars. Dennis Bingham Associate Professor and Director of Film Studies Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN 46202 ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org