ROTK: Extended Edition

[Turamber]

Picked up my copy at lunchtime, will watch this evening. Has anybody seen it yet? Thoughts/comments on the extended and new scenes?

 

[Mobius]

Think I'm gonna wait till christmas, then I won't have to spend my own money on it. The trailer looked cracking, Its going to rock.

 

[Gowen DownTpub]

I saw an interview with Peter Jackson at the begining of the year, in it he said that he had cut 2 hours of story and footage from rotk. He then went on to say that he would be making sure it was all back in for the extended DVD release.......

I'm sure I saw an advert saying that the extended edition only has an extra 48 mins,
is this true?
have we been jipped again???

 

[Tom]

ooo thanks for reminding me, had it on preorder at Amazon but its actually cheaper for me to nip into HMV and buy it.

 

[Skyler]

I watched it and enjoyed it. I have not seen the normal version of any of the LOTR films... I went out of my way to avoid and wait until the EE's appeared. There are a couple of bits where it's a bit shakey... I was willing to forgive for them overusing the army of the dead... however when they showed up near Minas Tirith they just cleared everything away in about 2seconds in a wide shot... that was quite disapointing... felt like you missed several minutes of footage.

 

[Sar]

Asked my Mrs to get me this for Chrimbo.

Gonna try and get the TT:EE myself for Chrimbo as well, as I've just found my FotR:EE 2nd Disc after having lost it for 6 months...

Time for a day long LotR-fest methinks on one of my days off over Chrimbo!

 

[Tom]

Anyone else who has bought it, can they tell me what they think of the music underlay in FotR, Lothlorien, where the elf fella says "Where is Gandalf the Grey for I much desire to speak with him"?

Just something I noticed on mine, want to see if anybody else notices it.

 

[dysfunction]

I'll look out for it when my copy arrives on monday...

 

[Wij]

The new bit with Saruman is a bit crap really. Won't tell you what it is but it ain't like the book that's for sure

 

[Disorderly And Drunk]

The new bit with Saruman is a bit crap really. Won't tell you what it is but it ain't like the book that's for sure

Does this mean "The Scouring of the Shire" is in it now?

 

[Turamber]

Does this mean "The Scouring of the Shire" is in it now?

Nope. To be fair Peter Jackson said at a very early stage of planning the films that they were not going to include the Scouring, they felt it would confuse the plot too much. And he's right - films and books are two completely different mediums, with a film you need to keep the plot tight or you lose the viewer.

I liked the additional scenes very much, they gave the film a more threshed our feeling. One of my bugbears with the cinematic version was how they built up the confrontation between Gandalf and the Witch King ("I will break the wizard", "He is a foe I have not yet been tested against") but then it was cut from the film altogether.

 

[SawTooTH]

I really enjoyed the extended edition. Many of the scenes fleshed out points in the cinematic version that didnt quite make sense, particularly regarding the Palantir. It plays a much bigger role in the book than in the original cinematic release and this is made clearer in the new extended version.

I thought the Saruman bit was actually quite good, given that the scouring of the shire wasnt going to happen. Its only a pity that the end couldnt have been changed from the dreary ships sailing into the sunset scene.

Its a bit of a marathon to sit through but good none the less.

 

[Tom]

I don't see why they ever cut Saruman in the first place. Its hardly a 15 minute epic.

 

[Mobius]

I thought he had an argument with the crew and refused to be in the 3rd film or something. I think thats why the Ents say he is in his tower but you don't actually see him. (Sort of trying to remember, not seen it since it came at cinema nearly a year ago )

 

[Turamber]

The cinema executives wanted there to be a clear delineation as to who the bad guy was in each film. In Two Towers Saruman is the immediate threat, but in ROTK they wanted Sauron to be the threat.

 

[Yaka]

Does this mean "The Scouring of the Shire" is in it now?

only read a bit of the book when i was in high school. wtf is scouring of the shire?

 

[Mobius]

At the very end of ROTK the Frodo, Sam, Meriadoc and Peregrin go home, but Saruman and Wormtongue have taken over the Shire. The 4 hobbits manage to defeat them, but alot of Hobbits die during the fight and then that becomes a sort of memorable date for them like world war anniversary for us. Or something, read it long time ago!

-Edited for retarded spelling

 

[Disorderly And Drunk]

At the very end of ROTK the Frodo, Sam, Meriadoc and Peregrin go home, but Saruman and Wormtongue have taken over the Shire. The 4 hobbits manage to defeat them, but alot of Hobbits die during the fight and then that becomes a sort of memorable date for them like world war anniversary for us. Or something, read it long time ago!

-Edited for retarded spelling

Yeah thats about right, but this also makes frodo and the gang quite famous among the other hobbits, due to them being quite heroic during the "war". So it would have kind of completely changed the ending of the film.

Spoiler

(ie: The way that the hobbits return to normality without any of the other hobbits knowing of their great deeds)

I thought he had an argument with the crew and refused to be in the 3rd film or something. I think thats why the Ents say he is in his tower but you don't actually see him. (Sort of trying to remember, not seen it since it came at cinema nearly a year ago )

I heard that Christopher Lee wasn't too pleased that he wasn't in the film at all. From what i remember (may not be accurate) he didn't show up to the Oscars for the 3rd film because of this.

The cinema executives wanted there to be a clear delineation as to who the bad guy was in each film. In Two Towers Saruman is the immediate threat, but in ROTK they wanted Sauron to be the threat.

Jeez, talk about dumbing it down I wouldn't have thought it was too hard to understand that two people could be bad, but oh well...

EDIT: For possible spoiler

 

[Ch3tan]

Remember it's Jacksons vision of the film, its not a screen version of what Tolkien wrote. And the scouring of the Shire would not have worked, it would have been a needless bit and confused the ending.

 

[Doh_boy]

Dunno if it's in the non-extended bit or not but

Spoiler

Are merry and pippin taller at the end? I would have thought it would be an easy thing to do. Then again having shadowfax as a black horse would have been easy as well

 

[Disorderly And Drunk]

Dunno if it's in the non-extended bit or not but

Spoiler

Are merry and pippin taller at the end? I would have thought it would be an easy thing to do. Then again having shadowfax as a black horse would have been easy as well

Well it's one of many thing they had to leave out due to the time constraints. In the second film they would have had to go out of their way to show them drink the ents water, and then explain its magical properties ect. Which might have been needlessly "complicated" for the cinema going audience

 

[Cask]

I thought he had an argument with the crew and refused to be in the 3rd film or something. I think thats why the Ents say he is in his tower but you don't actually see him. (Sort of trying to remember, not seen it since it came at cinema nearly a year ago )

Just got the DVD this morning and haven't watched the film yet but on the 4th disk (Appendix 6 or summat) there's a documentary called "Editorial: Completing the Trilogy" and that explains what happens quite well. Seems that they didn't think the lengthy scenes fitted in with the rest of the film and just cut it all out, and Christopher Lee was pissed off about it. So you're not far off the truth just a little distorted

 

[Cask]

Finally got round to watching it. What an awesome film, I loved all of the extra scenes except for the one where frodo and sam got drafted into that orc marching group, seemed a bit pointless and stupid.

I really frigging hate the ending though. It sends me right back to being 13 years old again, sitting in bed feeling petrified about reaching the last page of this book. Doubt that I'll ever read the book again because it's too much of an emotional rollercoaster, but will definitely watch the movies through again.

 

[Bloop]

I haven't got it yet, as soon as I have enough money I can tell you where I'm going though.

What I wanted to ask about was the costume galleries, do they have them and of what costumes? I know in TTT EE they had alot of Eowyn's gowns, and I'm wondering if this time around they've put in some of Arwen or Galadriel's. I'm a costuming nut, you may have guessed.

 

[Cask]

Just checked the DVD. They've got a costume design feature as well as galleries of costumes worn by Arwen and Eowen. From the male cast they've got galleries for for Eomer, ***** and a lot of the baddies.

 

[Cask]

Err why is ***** bleeped out.

 

[Cask]

The elder Baggins then. Is that alright?? Geez.

 

[TdC]

Cask = triple post spamling





to veer off at a tangent again: I heard that CL was very much a purist about the Tolkien thing, into getting the pronunciation of the elvish and orcish right and what not. This may tie in neatly with his being miffed when PJ decided to make sure that american audiences would also enjoy the film and not get confused by fighting in the idyllic (sp?) Shire and all.

 

[Bloop]

Just checked the DVD. They've got a costume design feature as well as galleries of costumes worn by Arwen and Eowen. From the male cast they've got galleries for for Eomer, ***** and a lot of the baddies.

Ah. Cheers for that, sounds good.