If you thought today was just a normal Thursday, think again: it’s Dick Long Day.
The indie comedy The Death of Dick Long was one of the funniest movies of last year, and director Daniel Scheinert (one half of the directing duo Daniels, which jointly helmed the Daniel Radcliffe farting corpse movie Swiss Army Man) has taken to Twitter to share a free audio commentary, a homemade soundtrack, and reveal some fun trivia about the making of the film. Check it all out below.
What is The Death of Dick Long?
I caught a screening of this movie at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and I called it a “riotously entertaining” comedy about a bunch of Southern idiots who don’t know how to do anything right, let alone cover up the death of their friend. The director refers to it as a “nickelback noir,” and I’ve seen several comparisons to the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning Fargo. Not nearly enough people checked this out when it was released last year, and hopefully this will be enough to convince some of you to give it a shot.
The trailer is full of jokes, but this also one of the few recent movies I’ve seen which treats characters from the South as actual characters instead of just punchlines. Scheinert himself is from Alabama, and you can feel the authenticity and heart in his depiction of these people – even though they’re often doing deranged things.
The Death of Dick Long Commentary, Soundtrack, and Trivia
If you’d like to support the filmmakers and buy the movie on iTunes, you get the commentary as a bonus feature there:
Go behind the scenes in a brand new jam-packed commentary with the cast & crew — featuring anecdotes about DIY false mustaches, the magic of faux ear gauges, and the stories behind the needle drops.
Get it now when you buy #TheDeathofDickLong on iTunes! https://t.co/INC7Kp5vH9 pic.twitter.com/G9NYVIUTEg
— The Death of Dick Long (@DickLongMovie) May 14, 2020
But if you’re hard up for cash and just want to rent the movie for cheaper, they’ve also decided to release the commentary track for free. I’ve embedded it below:
We didn't get to record an official audio commentary for the Dick Long DVD or anything… So we decided to just make one. Here it is for free. #DickLongDayhttps://t.co/Ioa1HKPrrI
— Daniel Scheinert (of DANIELS) (@Daniels) May 14, 2020
Since the movie never got an official soundtrack, Scheinert made a Spotify playlist full of the “classic country and butt rock” that flows throughout the film:
The movie doesn't have an official soundtrack. So we made one. Here's the playlist for all you classic country + butt rock fans out there #DickLongDayhttps://t.co/JxAeJtpsaz
— Daniel Scheinert (of DANIELS) (@Daniels) May 14, 2020
As for fun pieces of trivia, I love the fact that the team evidently didn’t have enough money to pay for the rights to Disturbed’s “Down with the Sickness,” so they got their composer to record a cover instead:
Earl's ringtone isn't the original recording. That's a badass vocal cover by Andy Hull baby! @okayfineandy pic.twitter.com/cidszaOjPp
— Daniel Scheinert (of DANIELS) (@Daniels) May 14, 2020
Hey, I don’t blame them! Music is expensive! (At the same time, it feels like they’re barely getting away with something here…which I guess fits well with the overall feeling of watching the movie.) And here’s one more great piece of trivia, this one about how they locked down the rights to Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me”:
We wrote a nice letter but didn't share the script. One of the band members was apparently a big Swiss Army fan. ?
The letter i wrote literally ended with this: "Some people may have forgotten how great this song is, but this is how we'll REMIND THEM!"
— Daniel Scheinert (of DANIELS) (@Daniels) May 14, 2020
The post Listen: ‘The Death of Dick Long’ Director Releases Free Audio Commentary appeared first on /Film.