Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing::In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, “streaming anxiety” is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.
I love DVD extras like ‘The Making Of…’ documentaries and creator interviews/commentaries.
There’s a special edition of ‘Buckaroo Banzai’ with an on screen commentary that’s fantastic. I found out that the briefcase Buckaroo carries with him into Dimension 8 had a tuna fish salad sandwich and Eintein’s brain.
The commentary was in character too!
Since you’re a connoisseur of niche entertainment, here are a few suggestions for obscure creators.
Tanith Lee, author. Neil Gaiman stole most of his best stuff from her. In Night’s Master the hero is Satan, and in Death’s Master, the protagonist is Death.
Ross Thomas, author. Washington reporter turned novelist, his books almost always focus on dirty politics. ‘The Porkchoppers’ is about a Union election back in the Nixon Era and ‘Briarpatch’ makes the small city it’s set in a major character.
Russ Meyer, movie maker. ‘Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’ The title of the movie is the most subtle thing in it.
I’d also suggest the DVD of “Blood Simple”, but not for the reason you might think… Yeah, yeah Coen Brothers, tight crime drama, etc. etc.
The Coen Brothers apparently don’t care for DVD extras, so they wrote the commentary track as a parody of film snob commentary tracks, and hired an actor to read it.
It’s absolutely hilarious, and on a super serious film.
https://jasondeanbooks.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-greatest-dvd-commentaries-ever-in_21.html?m=1
There’s a line in ‘Tropic Thunder’ where RDJ’s character says he never breaks character until they record the DVD commentary. In the DVD commentary he’s still doing the Fred Williamson voice.