As a making-of documentary, I loved how much time was spent showing the actors and director actually on set rehearsing scenes, even practicing certain lines and actions in various ways to see which one looks the best. I hate when behind the scenes documentaries are nothing but interviews with the cast and crew with random shots of filming edited over them. I like to be able to see and hear what went on during the making of the movie, and Julie Ng succeeds in showing that aspect while at the same time avoiding dull moments.
Ng does, however, commit the cardinal sin of editing interviews. She cuts away while someone is talking. Dialogue, interestingly enough, is very easy to edit, interviews are not, especially when you have a large number of them and want to edit them together. Jumping from one interview to another with nothing in between gives kind of a jarring sensation, and it makes the film seem muddled and disorganized. Look, for example, at Looking Back at The Hills Have Eyes, another good making-of documentary that does the same thing.
Even worse, at more than one time, Crispin Glover, for example, is cut off in mid-sentence. He'll say something like 'what happened that day was
' and then Ng cuts to someone else. There is a way to edit together footage of multiple people talking about the same thing, and cutting people off in mid-sentence is not it. She does, however, manage to get some interesting footage for film fans, including one scene where R. Lee Ermey talks briefly about when he was working with Stanley Kubrick on Full Metal Jacket. She just edited some of it badly.
There is a curious procession of tone throughout the film, from the fascination with the idea and excitement about the possibilities at the beginning to the eager participation during production, which gradually becomes frustration about certain difficulties and, ultimately, disappointment that the film did not receive the good public response that everyone involved believed it deserved. I also liked that it talked about how they were able to generate the most public interest in the movie because it starred the 'Eccentric Crispin Glover,' probably because he was about 90% of the reason that I wanted to see the film, and because he was something like their fifth or sixth choice for the role.
I would also certainly encourage you to watch the music video Ben, which Crispin Glover directed to promote the film, and which I believe he sings himself. The music in the film is one of its best features, and Crispin Glover's music video, which at first seems a little goofy, it actually very well made and is even a good song. His audio commentary is pretty interesting, although he is talking so fast that it is sometimes hard to follow him, and it's odd that he could turn in such a good performance for the movie but it's so obvious here that he's reading his commentary from a prepared script. No matter.
Despite it's technical post-production flaws, The Year of the Rat is a great making-of documentary and an excellent addition to the Willard DVD which is probably more impressive than the movie itself, which I have to say was pretty impressive.