Ronin DVD Director's Commentary - not much Audi content, spoilers for those who haven't seen it

[Henry A Harper III <hah@srv.net>]

The only person I know with a DVD player calls this afternoon (Friday) and 
asks what movie we should watch tonight. What, one of those trick 
questions? Ronin, last Saturday's tape viewing (with multiple car-chase 
rewinds) notwithstanding - besides, none of these people were at that 
party. And I have heard of some fun extras on the DVD. Unfortunately the 
internet chat thing isn't until the 14th, but oh well.

Watching on a 17" monitor and a pair of teeny computer speakers isn't as 
good as a 32" TV and stereo with subwoofer (but widescreen is better than 
pan-n-scan), but then we got to playing with the DVD extra features. Like 
English or French dialogue, combined with English or French subtitles. The 
alternate ending, which is the same except the girl Natascha/Dierdre looks 
at the corner cafe from up the street, goes back to her car, and is grabbed 
by a vanload of vengeful Irish terroists for disposal at their leisure. 
Fun. And of course the director's commentary; by this time it was getting 
late so I skipped to all the car chases to listen for Audi content. The 
pickings was slim.

The first, night S8 scene: stunt driver was a French F1 driver, Jean-Pierre 
somebody, who did these "perfect four-wheel drifts" that "the Audi wasn't 
built for" - now what does that mean? He had to use the e-brake because the 
car wouldn't come unstuck otherwise? All chases and shooting violence were 
filmed in "real time", no camera tricks or slo-mo. Lots of Super 35 and 
Steadicam.

Second, combined S8/450 SEL 6.9 chase: the 6.9 is the director's favorite 
M-B, so he just had to use it. "Larry" actually did his own driving (the 
S8) in this scene (all the way into town?). All the actors were sent to a 
high-performance driving school before the filming started, and they were 
in the cars (as was the director Frankenheimer) during the chase scenes, 
but not of course really driving except for Larry. Nothing mentioned about 
Audi rally victories during the off-road sequence, what's up with that? :) 
There was a guy driving the target of the rocket launched from the 6.9 
(blows up, flips over, keeps going straight) now that's a stunt driver.

Last, non-Audi, M5/Pug scene: there were 4 BMWs, 5 Pugs, some of them were 
cut up into trailers and towed by a 500E through the streets of Paris at 
"100mph", some were RHD with fake steering wheels on the LH side so it 
looks like the actors are driving - okay, riding along with a stunt driver 
is one thing, but to be there on the LH side with a steering wheel that 
doesn't work would be so odd... The same guy drives the police car in the 
tunnel that flips, the DAF truck that almost rolls, and another car that 
flips - if there is a vehicle off its wheels, this guy is driving it. The 
tunnel they flipped the police car in was filled with smoke for hours, they 
thought they would get kicked out of France. DeNiro was in the Pug that did 
the handbrake 360 and "he was just great". Another "most perfect four-wheel 
drift ever" in the Pug. They slowly worked up to the last wrong-way freeway 
scene with 300 stunt drivers, it was very important to leave gaps for the 
cars going the wrong way. Well, uh, yeah. The only scene that looked fake 
to me (despite the "no green screen" claim) was the through-the-cabin shot 
of the M5 as it fell off the unfinished bridge.

And the director loves ice skating, so that's why the movie ends at an ice 
show.

As Ferris Bueller would say (and didn't his dad drive a red 5k?), I highly 
recommend a DVD player if you have the means.

no tunnels around here, so I will have to stick with practicing the "rally 
turn" on the way up the hill to the local ski resort,
Henry Harper
http://www.srv.net/~hah
1991 200 quattro, 100k, something with a fair bit of "shove"
1988 GTI 16v, 188k, something with functional reverse lights now that the 
switch has been replaced