Dottie Gets Spanked

"Todd Haynes has amassed an exceptional record as a filmmaker, between Poison and Far From Heaven, and on this DVD he adds another notch to his achievements with his commentary track for his 1993 PBS-financed short Dottie Gets Spanked. His recollections and observations about the movie are fascinating, highly informative, and occasionally poignant (and even funny at times), as he slides effortlessly between his own childhood inspiration for the movie -- which he also wrote -- and the actual production; student filmmakers and even some professionals could learn something about getting unusual and difficult projects off the ground from his observations, as well as the nuts-and-bolts of making pictures on a low budget (who would have thought that they lost a major -- even key -- cast member on a little 27 minute short, or replaced her so effectively?). As to the disc itself, it offers a state-of-the-art transfer (full-screen, 1.33-to-1), which looks far richer and crisper than this reviewer remembers the original broadcast -- indeed, the black-and-white scenes look amazing -- and also sounds better than the telecast did. The short has been given a half-dozen well-selected (and well-named) chapters. Apart from Haynes' commentary, which is worth the price of the disc by itself, the main bonus feature is the excruciatingly funny He Was Once, a 1989 short directed and written by Mary Hestand, starring and co-produced by Haynes, that brutally satirizes the old claymation kids show Davey And Goliath in its look and style -- indeed, this might be the best short subject of this sort that this reviewer has seen since Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, and it's a lot more intense. It's transferred (full-screen, 1.33-to-1) better than some full-length features of the same era, and the whole DVD represents an exceptional effort by Zeitgeist Films. The disc opens automatically to an entertaining and easy-to-use menu. The DVD offers the commentary track by way of the ""audio"" button on the remote, incidentally, rather than directly through the on-screen menu."