The thing about Spikes commentaries is that he is wonderful to listen to, but he is not really that great at it. It’s a lot of just pointing out what is good about the film, like a line here and there, and several times he just watches the movie in silence. Although he is very interesting this track could be cut down to 30 minutes of worth while material. 5/10

I am surprised by how little Spike says on here, considering at the very end he talks about how he finds it important to demystify the craft of film making, so that others can learn from and do more. Yet this commentary mostly feels like he is watching the film for the first time and pointing out things like note the tracking shot. Watch how this is all in one take. Here comes one of my dolly shots. I love the angle and the way the light reflects off of him there. He points out some interesting things in the dance club. And his blow by blow breakdown of the high and horny Anna Paquin hitting on Hoffmans teacher character, is funny.

This is not that interesting. He wrote both the novel and the script, and usually he just points out what is different in the book. But he does it in a very irritating way, correcting small line changes, saying that originally that place was not meant to be at that location but on another (wow, really?) And he points out that in the book some of the characters are different looking and that Naturelles last name is different. He says at one point that that he was on set, and he said it like he was there all the time, and I can only imagine how annoying that would have been. Write your book, write your screenplay, fine, but after that stay away! 2/10

This commentary is strangely better and more informative than the one by Spike Lee. (How often is the writers commentary better?) He talks a lot about what the book has that the movie didnt, like backstories of characters which is the most interesting. He also mentions how his book is relatively short, making it easy to make into a movie, whereas most adaptations have to lose a few hundred pages. There are some quiet spots, but Spikes has twice as many.

Benioff talks about the differences between his novel and his script. You get a lof of information about the dialog, the characters, the locations in N.Y., his process of writing, the low budget and his inspiration for the novel. A good point is the question what is better in movies and what in novels. He dosen’t talk about the shoot. His point of view is the view of a writer.

There are only short gaps. The track is solid. 8 out of 10.