Revealing Alternate and Deleted Scenes
If you're interested in the struggles of a neophyte filmmaker, you'll want to watch the alternate and deleted scenes, all of which can optionally be viewed while listening to commentary by Montiel. For example, there's an alternate opening showing the fictional adult Dito doing a reading in a bookstore that would have worked fairly well, but the tone is lighter than that of the opening actually used. Also, there are four alternate endings.
There are 11 deleted scenes, some of which show Montiel's inventiveness. In "Giuseppe on the Mets," he has a character he's previously killed off speak from beyond the grave about his favorite baseball team becoming world champions. Incidentally, although the movie's Giuseppe dies, Montiel admits in his commentary that the real Giuseppe is alive and well and living in Milan.
Miscellaneous Additional Bonus Materials
"Rooftop Scene" shows a Sundance exercise. It's an early version of the scene near the end of the movie where Rosario Dawson's character berates Robert Downey Jr.'s character for not treating his parents properly. The exercise is performed by Dito Montiel and an actress not in the film, and although they do too much yelling, it's obvious the scene has great potential.
The "Full Monty Interview" lasts only a minute and a half, and it shows Dito Montiel's real-life father talking about the real-life Antonio. An excerpt from this footage ends the final film.
"Young Laurie Audition" shows an aspiring actress named Diana Carcamo testing for the part that was taken by Melonie Diaz.
DVD Details
Below I've listed the details for the DVD containing A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.
Release Date: February 20, 2007
Widescreen, Color
Feature Film Run Time: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Pervasive Language, Some Violence, Sexuality and Drug Use
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
English 2.0 Stereo
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Writer-Director and Editor
The Making of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (20 min.)
Alternate Opening & 4 Alternate Endings (13 1/2 min.)
Deleted Scenes (11 scenes, total run time = 19 min.)
Exercise: Rooftop Scene (6 min.)
Full Monty Interview (1 1/2 min.)
Young Laurie Audition (1 min. 50 sec.)
Saints Trailers (3)
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