Sunday 5th June 2005:

DVD: Napoleon Dynamite
Commentary: Jared Hess, Jeremy Coon, Jon Heder
First line: “You have selected Eric Idle’s Audio, good choice. You’ve selected Michael Palin’s track. Sorry. Hello, this is John Cleese speaking about Monty Python and the Holy Gxrail.”


I’ve never been entirely sure the purpose of a commentary track, but this one seems to come pretty close to being everything you could expect. The three pythons react to the visuals of the film, explain the stories behind them, offer interesting incites into the film-making process, make constant jokes and most importantly seem to be enjoying the job. There is nothing less entertaining than listening to somebody who doesn’t really want to be doing it talk for 2 hours whilst you watch a good film without the sound. Whilst on the subject of sound, although obviously quieter than usual, the film soundtrack is still playing and unlike some DVDs you can enjoy the occasional joke as the commentators do the same.

There are plenty of things to learn about the making of the film here. For example, although you may have known that John Cleese did his own stunt work as the black knight, but did you know he was replaced after the third limb (and first leg) was cut off by a genuine one-legged man named Richard Burton. And that it then returns to Cleese for the final shot of the knight with no legs during which he is simply buried in a hole? Me neither. The issue of whether any no-limbed actors were available at the time is sadly not addressed in this commentary, but it seems almost everything else is.

Quite simply there isn't much else to disclose. If you're a fan of monty python, a fan of cleese/idle/palin or indeed the film itself, then you should definately check this one out.

Quotes:

“There's muffin I'd rather do than go to homecoming with you.”

"Those tots were not crunchy, that was funny sound effect that they put on because they were not crunchy, they were soggy and cold."