Pirates and poetry

[quislibet]

I heard somewhere (was it from one of you?) that the director-and-Depp commentary on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVD was lame ("This stuntman was so great." "Yeah, he was really great."), but that the commentary by Jack Davenport and Keira Knightley is amusing and quite worth a listen. This is correct.

I have yet to use the "scan in a picture of yourself and make it look like a pirate skeleton" feature.

Interestingly, as J. noted, Verbinski and Depp praise practically every single person who comes on screen or works off it as being the finest and most perfect specimen of his or her craft -- but have very little to say about Orlando Bloom whatsoever...

In unrelated news, you should read Neil Gaiman on the Presidential Poetry Cover-up.

Comments

[sushigrade.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, as J. noted, Verbinski and Depp praise practically every single person who comes on screen or works off it as being the finest and most perfect specimen of his or her craft -- but have very little to say about Orlando Bloom whatsoever...

This is probably because they're afraid that if they criticize his performance, he'll whip out the ol' Pachydermicidal Elf Mojo on them.

So, was the movie itself good? I haven't seen it yet.

[phaidros.livejournal.com]

Yes, I didn't get very far into the Depp commentary before I just gave up.

The best commentary, though, is the one by the writers. I always prefer the commentaries that are sort of Filmmaking 101, and you really get an interesting view of the screenwriting process when you listen to the writers' track on Pirates.

(the best Filmmaking 101 commentaries, in my experience, are on the Pixar films, especially the Toy Story movies -- they really walk through their approach to narrative and why some things work and why others don't and how the movie changed as it was being made, really fascinating stuff)

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

The best commentary, though, is the one by the writers

I'll save that for a good procrastinatory evening, then. Thanks!

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

was the movie itself good?

I think so -- enough that I wanted to own the DVD!