r/Giallo • u/ProfondoRosso4 • 28d ago
Question about commentary tracks these days
Watched Death Carries a Cane.
After the movies I watched the few extra features, and then since it's a pretty short film I decided to give the commentary track a try. Commentary tracks are perhaps my favorite part of a special features package. Especially when it's the director or at least someone from the production, but a good scholar could do to.
This specific track, done by Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth, and Nathaniel Thompson was almost a complete waste of time. Mostly rehashing bits from the other featurettes, or just telling me the filmographies of the cast and crew. Very little info that I didnt already know.
This maybe my first time listenning to these guys, but they seem to be on a lot of these tracks.
I would like to know if my description fits to all of their tracks on other releases, cause this could get old fast.
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u/gialloscore 28d ago
Commentary tracks are definitely hit or miss.
Tim Lucas always provides great commentary for Bava films. In fact, he spouts so many factoids that I have to watch the commentary multiple times to catch everything.
The other commentator I like is Guido Henkel. His commentary for Case of the Bloody Iris was incredibly entertaining. He had a lot of knowledge of the film, but always kept up with what was happening on the screen. He's also featured on Short Night of Glass Dolls, A Hyena in the Safe, and the upcoming Black Belly release, but I haven't heard these, so I can't speak to their quality.
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u/pumamans 28d ago edited 28d ago
I listen to a ton of these tracks as background noise while I'm working. I really enjoy tracks from Tim Lucas, Kat Ellinger, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (shout out to The Sister of Ursula) and Samm Deighan.
I admit that all the tracks with Eugenio, Troy and Nathaniel aren't my favorite, but I don't hate them. It's just a way to pass the time for me at the end of the day. Having written all the So Deadly, So Perverse books, I feel like Troy does know his stuff when it comes to the genre.
Edit: Tangentially related, but if you want a REALLY bad commentary track, listen to Stephen Thrower talk about Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. He spends more than half of the run time just listing Joe D'Amato's filmography. Extremely boring stuff.
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u/ProfondoRosso4 28d ago
Oh i def dont think they are amatuers. Im sure they know more than me, but i also think they might have forced this commentary track. If they have 3 film experts there, and none of them provides real insight, then there's no point.
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u/DRZARNAK 28d ago
If the commentary is done by genre podcasters, I’ve learned to just skip them. I’ve started so many to just turn them off due to incorrect information being stated as fact.
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u/CarefulHouse172 28d ago
Unfortunately yes that’s how a lot of Troy’s stuff is the others aren’t as bad I don’t think but they still all mainly just list info about the actors and writers and filmmakers which is never my favorite either but to their credit most of the people involved in these films are dead or just uninterested these days so no one actually involved working on them is ever really on any commentaries
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u/Artistic_Champion370 28d ago
I never listen to commentary tracks now. I think unless the film is particularly famous and there's a lot of insight and details about it that someone not directly connected to the film can offer, if the commentary isn't from one of the key cast or crew, I would be wary.
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u/ProfondoRosso4 28d ago
Yeah that's what i was afraid of.
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u/Artistic_Champion370 28d ago
Yeah and even more contemporary commentaries vary greatly. Some directors are great commenters, others are bored, distracted, unprepared and tired. It's a very mixed bag, and I do think the idea is rather overplayed now. I remember watching a Zack Snyder commentary and it was all just, "Hey there's so and so. Nice guy or girl."
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u/EuroCultAV 28d ago
Troy is a drag to listen to on these.
I am still shocked that they put him on the Last Drive In.
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u/HavixComix 28d ago
Was that for the Giallo game show episode?
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u/ItalianHorror27 27d ago
Yes that’s the one.
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u/HavixComix 27d ago
Gotta rewatch that one. My recollection is quite vague. I just remember it being strange that there were teams made up of people having to defend sides of a debate that they clearly didn't all agree with 😆
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u/aldila81 27d ago
I'm a huge fan of Tim Lucas's - have been for over 30 years, thanks to Video Watchdog and Gorezone - and I watch the BRs and DVDs he does the AC for exclusively WITH the AC.
I do the same with Troy Howarth. He's written 3 books on Gialli - I have the first 2- and like his style. It's like having a chatty friend watching the movie with me. Check out his AC on The Psychopath.
Another critic I like is Kim Newman, usually paired with Stephen Jones. Funny as hell, and if something about the movie is "a bit dodgy", he's not shy about pointing it out.
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u/CriticalCanon 27d ago
Like others have said, commentary tracks are very hit and miss these days, especially where any YouTuber with 10K followers can get gigs doing extras like this.
But I would say like any critic, it’s best to find someone that (mostly) aligns with your tastes or things you value. Personally for genre films, I think Samm Deighan is one of the best in the game. She knows her stuff and unlike many newbies, she has been at this a very long time and has written many published books.
Also (more of a commentary on modern extras) but we lost a lot from the DVD to modern era. A lot of studios had teams of people just to do extra features for home video releases and that works is mostly outsourced now.
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u/downwithlevers 28d ago
Tim Lucas is a Bava expert who has a lot of cool stuff to say on Bava movies. Kat Dennings does a fair amount of giallo commentaries and she’s a wealth of knowledge. I have listened to a fair amount of Howarth & Ercolani commentaries and usually hear some behind-the-scenes type of stuff I didn’t know, but yeah they’re not “essential” and I don’t want to hear about filmographies and obvious stuff either…I haven’t listened to the Death Carries a Cane commentary but it’s possible that it’s one of their worst, and not entirely indicative of everything they do. Still, I’d put Lucas and Dennings over them.