Director Edward Zwick's commentary is quite hard to listen to, he's softly spoken and has a very odd speaking inflection where he continuously pauses, adds an 'um' and then continues. I actually found myself drifting off as I was listening to it.
While he does cover a lot of topics, most of the time the track trails off into Zwick describing what's on screen. I personally would have liked more info on the genesis of the project, but Zwick just drones on into slightly pretentious territory.
I dunno... I could be wrong. Others may love it. I just found the whole track a little to 'rehearsed' and pretentious.

Wow, what a thorough, in-depth examination of this film. Zwick gives a full array of info done in a serious, almost somber tone. He is there to cover everything though. The guy has done his homework and sounds almost like a professor giving a lecture on a very serious science.

There are few jokes and it's low on fun but the wealth of information makes up for that.

To be honest, I had absolutely no interest in seeing this movie but ran out of things to watch and had it available. While its a bit Hollywood and formulaic it was better than I thought it was going to be. Through the commentary I gained a lot more perspective on the story, the characters, the era and Japanese culture. That's what good commentary can do. Well done.

He does sound a bit in the first hour like he is auditioning as an NPR host, he sounds so quiet and reserved. Even when talking about things that obviously have a lot of meaning to him, and excited him. The commentary even seems to end about a minute before the credits with no idea that he was done. (IE, he left without saying goodbye)

But it is mostly informational about the kind of things we want to hear about in a commentary. And the movie is so wonderful just to look at, that you might not mind watching it again to listen to his commentary.

But my giving it a 7 out of 10 is still a little bit of a gift.