Since Criterion never managed to acquire the rights to publish DVD versions of many films it had released on laserdisc, there are many commentary tracks and supplementary sections which haven’t been available for 25 years. Stanford will be digitizing these materials from the laserdiscs. Sample from High Noon below. Also, please remember that these early supplementary sections were made when TV resolution was much lower than today. The text was printed and then photographed before transferring to video. What you’ll see below is just the stills without any motion picture elements that were included, e.g. the trailer.
The intent of the“added features” — commentary tracks and supplementary sections — was to enable the“average intellectually curious” viewer to learn a little bit more about a film. I think it’s important to note that in the main, consumers were much more excited about the quality of Criterion’s film-to-video transfers than they were about the commentary tracks and supplementary sections.
High Noon Supplementary Section, By Howard Suber
High Noon Supplementary Section, By Howard Suber