Best "Making of" "Behind the scenes" or documentary about a film

For years I always felt Kevin Burns' Star Wars documentary for episodes IV - VI; Empire of Dreams was the gold standard for a film documentary and the main reason I held on to my old DVD box set. Its missing from the Blu-ray, which is a shame.

But I'm sure there are other, possibly better docs that people hold dear. What 'cha got?

 

Hearts of Darkness - The making of Apocalypse Now! is excellent.

The Wild Bunch: An album in Montage - Great images from behind the scenes

Jodorowsky's Dune - Ok so this was never actually made, but as an insight into the pre-production and financing phase of a film it's fascinating.

 

Heart Of Darkness
Burden Of Dreams - Making Of Fitzcarraldo
Final Cut: The Making And Unmaking Of Heaven's Gate
Henri Georges Clouzot's Inferno
Salo : Fade To Black

 

Oh, aye, Burden of Dreams definitely!

 

Probably The Battle Over Citizen Kane, which I enjoyed much more than the film it was about.

Empire of Dreams was a great doc. Loved how in the beginning they set the stage by showing the 70s culture at that time leading up to Star Wars. Had it been more of an independent warts-and-all documentary and less of a slickly produced PR piece, it would have been a lot more interesting.

 

The behind the scenes documentaries on Troma's DVD's are sometimes more entertaining than their films because they show the trials and tribulations of low-budget independent filmmaking.

 

I highly enjoyed Lost In La Mancha (2002), which is a behind the scenes looks at the attempts to make the Terry Gilliam/Johnny Depp movie The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (those two are featured prominently).

For those that don't know, the real movie still hasn't been completed, though it is still in development.

 

I like "Behind the Planet of the Apes" (1998 documentary made for AMC)...

 

Dangerous Days was quite good. Same with Empire of Dreams, seeing quality BHS Documentaries like that makes one wish they'd do that for all films. Sometimes you get a BHS and it's like a promo for the movie. I've already bought the film you don't need to sell it to me again.
David Fincher generally has good Behind the Scenes as well. Zodiac and The Curious case of Benjamin Button are very detailed.

 

Most definitely the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Extended Edition special features. So in-depth and I find myself watching them over and over. Although I did find myself a little disappointed with missing segments from the Hobbit films as I really wanted to see a 'From Book to Script' feature like on LotR. Can definitely say the same for Tintin and most definitely the King Kong Extended Cut Bonus Features - as long as you own the DVD version. The Bluray version for some reason didn't include them all.

And yes, Empire of Dreams was fabulous!

 

The docs for the two Clerks movies, available on the deluxe DVD sets, are pretty good. And about as long as the films they accompany.

 

The first doc I ever saw about a lost film - Wolper's The Epic That Never Was, is a personal fave and one I'd love to see again. It documents the making of I, Claudius, with Charles Laughton and Merle Oberon.

 

I enjoyed the one that came with my "Halloween" DVD. Can't remember what it's called but it's pretty good. I believe there is also one for "Halloween 2".

 

In the film about Kubrick (I think it's was Kubrick's Boxes), they said his daughter shot 72 HOURS of behind the scenes footage during Full Metal Jacket and it will probably never see the light of day. The little snippets they showed were fascinating.

 

Probably 'A Cut Above The Rest.' Unless you're talking about the Rob Zombie rubbish version.

 

There are a few really good ones for Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I loved learning how they did the special effects when I watched these documentaries in 1991/1992.

 

King Kong 1933 documentary on the 2 disc DVD/BD.

 

The "Empire of Dreams" was probably about as good as an authorized thing was ever going to be. Ironically, I could envision Disney being even less forthcoming in any future Star Wars docs than they were in "Empire of Dreams" (ask Disney when they're going to release the "Sweatbox" documentary, for instance). But it was still very "authorized" of a vibe to me. Better than fluffy "making of" featurettes no doubt.

"Best Worst Movie" is a fascinating look into "Troll 2"; both the film and documentary are strange but in a great way. But that had the benefit of not being an authorized/major studio production.

Most in-house docs included on studio-produced home video presentations tend to be lacking. There are exceptions. When they're willing to be blunt and honest, it can be fascinating. I think I might actually find the epic multi-hour documentary on "Blade Runner" more interesting than the film itself.

When Shout Factory/Scream Factory can put money into new documentary features, theirs are usually quite good and have less of an "official" whitewashed vibe. When it's decades later and the doc is being made by an outside licensee, it can usually be more honest.

It's not about a specific film, but the documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated" gets into the rating system and has anecdotes about a number of films.

While a very overly-polished and somewhat sanitized film, the doc "Turtle Power" has a huge hunk that essentially serves as a really good "making of" for the first Ninja Turtles movie in 1990.

 

I really enjoyed seeing how they created several of the scenes in the FORREST GUMP movie. I recall seeing the scene at the reflecting pool in DC and the Dr. Pepper scene with JFK. Seeing the scene where Gary Sinise had no legs was very interesting.

 

Speaking of Shout Factory, I watched 'More Brains - A Return to the living Dead' last night, a fairly comprehensive look at the making of the 1985 film. It even featured talking head interviews/reflections from a special effects guy who had been fired from the project due to shoddy work. With the cast and crew members politely talking smack about how bad some of the effects (not used) the guy was presenting to the director. It wasn't the focus of the feature, far from it, but it was interesting to see.

 

Along amazing those mentioned above I really like the extra on the criterion Night of the Hunter where they discuss the making of it but then show nearly the whole film in alternate shots and angles from film Laughtons widow gave UCLA I think it was. Fascinating way to watch the film

 

Same with me and Blade Runner. I guessed the twist in the first 15 minutes and then almost fell asleep. But the making of documentary was fascinating.

Great documentary but I'm pretty sure it was BBC, not Wolper. And it's more "uncompleted" than lost.

 

Dangerous days is the definitive blade runner behind the scenes doc.

 

I saw a documentary on the proposed Superman movie starring Nicholas Cage and directed by Tim Burton. It was good and the movie looked very interesting.

Chad

 

Was this released on DVD?