Monday, March 05, 2007

I'm Not Gonna Hurt Him

Rio Bravo is finally getting a special edition DVD, and I like who's doing the commentary:


Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel (Renowned director Carpenter and film critic Schickel explore how this legendary Western was an extension of Hawks’ own personality and why it’s considered such an influential classic today).


Okay, Schickel's kind of a boring commentator, but John Carpenter does great commentaries on some of his own films, and he is a huge Hawks fan who has re-made Hawks films (The Thing) or paid tribute to them (Assault on Precinct 13 pays tribute to Rio Bravo). I'm glad it's not Peter Bogdanovich.

3 comments:

Good Dog said...

I'm glad it's not Peter Bogdanovich.

...Or Hollywood's official assclown, Quentin Tarantino.

Jenny Lerew said...

Thank Christ it's not Bogdanovich! His "commentary" for "Bringing Up Baby" was the most asinine nonsense I've heard in ages--even for him: "Oh, I love this part....here it comes...look at Cary's face here! Hahahaha! Cary told me/Hawks confided in me/Hepburn told me--blah-blah-blah" etc. ad nauseum. He's the single worst name-dropper that ever lived in L.A. or worked in the film business. I'd have liked to hear Polly Platt's "Baby" notes, myself.

Thanks for bringing the "Rio Bravo" new edition to our attention--it's a great one. I'm not a huge fan of Schickel either, but I'm sure Carpenter will make it a must.

Best commentaries inho: Rudy Behlmer's, and the Michael Powell series that Scorsese worked on. Oh, and certainly all of the original Criterion Bond second audios--priceless.

Anonymous said...

the way the Carpenter fans of my acquaintance tell it, he's never done an interesting commentrak without Kurt Russell or another equally affectionately regarded collaborator at his side.

-derringdo