LOTR Return of the King Extended DVD

[drice6900]

Woo hoo!!! It gets released December 14th, with 50 minutes of new goodies Here is a link:

 

Yahoo ROTK Newstory

 

So what I want to know is, why hasn't anyone put together a seriously nice comic series based of LOTR? Elric is out this month, Conan has been a great seller - why not LOTR? (and the David Wenzel Hobbit graphic novel doesn't count). Even with a hefty license fee, I bet it sells/makes money like crazy...

 

[chromium]

Woo hoo!!! It gets released December 14th, with 50 minutes of new goodies Here is a link:

 

Yahoo ROTK Newstory

 

So what I want to know is, why hasn't anyone put together a seriously nice comic series based of LOTR? Elric is out this month, Conan has been a great seller - why not LOTR? (and the David Wenzel Hobbit graphic novel doesn't count). Even with a hefty license fee, I bet it sells/makes money like crazy...

 

 

Ok, I'm excited...but I really need to know if the (approximately) 65 minutes of material that was cut from the film for its theatrical release will be put back...

 

including

 

[*]Gandalf confronting Saruman at Isengard

[*]Aragorn using the Palantir to reveal himself to Sauron

[*]the Witch King confronting Gandalf during the battle of Pelennor Fields

[*]the infamous 'Mouth of Sauron' scene at the Black Gates

 

oh and the drinking game at Edoras between Gimli and Legolas

[1st-and-keys]

[WEBHEAD]

Amazing numbers

 

Fellowship of the Rings $871.368

Two Towers $926,287

Return of the King $1,118,887

 

Never has a film franchise had 3 consecutive Plus's

 

I can't wait for Deg 14 I'll be watching all 3 extended and eating lots of

 

 

 

WEBHEAD

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

It's 50 minutes added back in, but everything you listed is indeed in there and more besides.

 

Arnold

[shrunkenhead]

What about the sequence in the book where Frodo and Sam defeat Saruman and Wormtongue on the return to Hobbitton? Anybody know if that was filmed? I was really looking forward to seeing that part in the movie, and was pretty let down when it was cut out.

[Ares]

What about the sequence in the book where Frodo and Sam defeat Saruman and Wormtongue on the return to Hobbitton? Anybody know if that was filmed? I was really looking forward to seeing that part in the movie, and was pretty let down when it was cut out.

 

Jackson never filmed it

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

Contrary to some very poorly fact-checked articles out there now stating that the scouring of the Shire has been added back in - Jackson stated from Day 1 that the epilogue in the Shire was *never* going to be a part of the film - that sequence was neither scripted nor filmed. An alternate final fate for Saruman that takes place at Isengard was filmed and will open the re-edited version of ROTK. Keep an eye out for a none-too-subtle homage to Christopher Lee's former role of Dracula when that sequence occurs.

 

Arnold

[Ares]

Frankly I dont think the scouring was needed. Would have dragged movie on even longer

[shrunkenhead]

Maybe so, but if you're watching it at home, as is the purpose of the extended edition, what difference does it make? You can always pause the flick to go to the john or whatever.

 

I dunno, I would've liked to have seen it just because it's one of my favorite parts of the books. But I can see how it would be sort of anti-climactic in the cinema.

[Ares]

Maybe so, but if you're watching it at home, as is the purpose of the extended edition, what difference does it make? You can always pause the flick to go to the john or whatever.

 

I dunno, I would've liked to have seen it just because it's one of my favorite parts of the books. But I can see how it would be sort of anti-climactic in the cinema.

There was no way to make film 100 percent accurate!

This is one scene I could live without!

[CKB]

 

Frankly I dont think the scouring was needed. Would have dragged movie on even longer

 

Man... Wow. I don't know even where to start with this.

 

The whole trilogy was written to set up for the scouring of the shire. In a literary sense, all the world creation, epic battles, adventuring was all building to a cathartic ending that revealed how grim experience can shape who we are and change us into something we never thought we could be.

 

This was the scouring of the shire. It is the most important segment in all of JRR's works, and his greatest achievment. Coming full circle, back to a place where they were minor players at best, they are now 'giants among men'. They must make hard choices, take responsiblity, and lead. There's no help for them, completely on their own, and reluctantly, they take charge and prove that they are changed, and for the better. They face their most feared foe, disgraced and weak as he is, and defeat him. Alone.

 

Until one understands the power of this chapter, it is hard to understand the series. It is more important than Sam carrying Frodo up the mountain, than Aragorn retaking the crown, than Gandalf defeating the Balrog.

 

But yeah, you're right let's just leave it out. We'll film 30 minutes of hugging and saying goodbye and pukish drivel instead. I find it hard to imagine that the experts on the books they had working on the film did not insist on puting in the scouring. Instead, Peter must have overruled them, and I was sorely disappointed with this choice.

 

I did love the movies, but the end of ROTK is painful when you hink of all the really meaningful stuff he could have done justice to. I'm glad to hear that some of the earlier missing stuff was filmed and made it back into the extended version.

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

"I find it hard to imagine that the experts on the books they had working on the film did not insist on puting in the scouring. Instead, Peter must have overruled them"

 

Regardless of whether you agree with the decision or not, there were no separately employed "experts" on the original text. Just about everyone on the production, including Jackson, Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, even actor Christopher Lee, are all self-professed fans of the books and kept copies with them at all times during production and used the books in shaping the scripts as well. They were their own experts, which means that if you don't like choices they made, the blame lies with them and not other people.

 

Personally, I don't miss the Scouring. But I will not claim to be a massive fan of the books. I've become more enamored with the saga through the films instead, which I would imagine disqualifies me from having an opinion on the omission even though I'm well-versed in the text.

 

Arnold

[Ares]

I loved the books as well and I agree that the hugging and feeligg good was drivel.

But the whole point of the books to me was to over throw Sauron and restore the King and undo a wrong that was created when man did not destroy the ring originally.

 

I thought the scouring was unessecary. It's like Tolkein didnt know when to end it!

[CKB]

Regardless of whether you agree with the decision or not, there were no separately employed "experts" on the original text.

 

That actually makes more sense. Peter Jackson and these people did a wonderful job, and he had so many hard choices to make that they were bound to blow some. I find this one hard to deal with since it doesn't seem like a hard choice to me, especially when weighing it against the mushy and long ending..

 

But, you look at a point of view like Ares just posted, where he is interested mainly in the epic story of the world and not preoccupied with the characters in it. This is certainly a valid way to examine this epic, and probably appeals to a broader audience.

 

When I look at the works as literature, though, the omission is unthinkable. It's like Hamlet with a happy ending.

 

Seriously, if you read and examine the books 30 times and think about the craft and skill with which they were created, what seems like a curious additional (and possibly unecessary) "epilogue" of a chapter magically becomes the masterful culmination of a brilliant storyteller's life's work. All IMHO.

[jbud73]

Hmmm lets see if I can bridge the gap a little. No the scouring is not in there and I agree that one of Tolkien's points is that the story begins and ends with the Hobbits and the changes that take place to them is the underscoring theme of the film.

 

Jackson does create this feeling near the end, he does go on to finish the movie in the Shire, where he could have ended it in Gondor. The tavern scene - where all four sombrely toast each other while everyone around them seems unchanged, you can feel the emotive here that they are not the same and they recognize this the experience has changed them. Of course Frodo's narrative near the very end to this effect that he cannot pick up the pieces and that some things have taken hold which do not let go (paraphrasing of course). With these scenes near the end of the film Jackson I believe does make the point that ordeal changes average people for better and worse.

 

Would the hobbits battling Sauruman made this more apparant?? I do not think so - Jackson was very deliberate in his treatment of the Hobbits and there journey towards heroism already in all the preceeding battles, yes the scouring shows them alone to a greater extent, but I think the point had been made and a great deal of spirit of Tolkien's point remains in the movie if you want to see it. Ya I would have like to have seen Merry kill the Witch King - but he does stab / weaken him and Eowyn doign it was consistent with the movie - he had deleted the Bombadil sequence already.

 

If you measure the daunting nature of the task and look at its cinematic portrayal, I am still blown away. It is not the book verbatum on film, but its interpretation is creative and unparalleled. IMO

[SpideySense-migration]

I am waiting for the trilogy set all with extended versions.

[CKB]

but I think the point had been made and a great deal of spirit of Tolkien's point remains in the movie if you want to see it.

 

What you are saying makes a lot of sense, and I certainly do see it in the 'watered down' way you describe.

 

The omission became glaring because of what the screen time was used for instead. Weighing the last 20 minutes of what is there, versus a cursory 15 minute "scouring" and a 5-minish mushy good-by glassy-eyed camera-angled close-up set...I tend to look like this thinking about it.

 

Ya I would have like to have seen Merry kill the Witch King - but he does stab / weaken him and Eowyn doign it was consistent with the movie

 

You lost me here - my recollection was that this was done almost exactly as written. Doesn't it go exactly this way in the book, complete with the "I am no Man" line? (My wife's favorite part, BTW )

 

On Jackson's choices in omission in the first movie, the Barrow Downs and the Bombadil adventure, I think these were logical omissions. Disappointing, but logical. I'd much rather had spent the time in Moria. Well, literally speaking!

[jbud73]

but I think the point had been made and a great deal of spirit of Tolkien's point remains in the movie if you want to see it.

 

What you are saying makes a lot of sense, and I certainly do see it in the 'watered down' way you describe.

 

The omission became glaring because of what the screen time was used for instead. Weighing the last 20 minutes of what is there, versus a cursory 15 minute "scouring" and a 5-minish mushy good-by glassy-eyed camera-angled close-up set...I tend to look like this thinking about it.

 

Ya I would have like to have seen Merry kill the Witch King - but he does stab / weaken him and Eowyn doign it was consistent with the movie

 

You lost me here - my recollection was that this was done almost exactly as written. Doesn't it go exactly this way in the book, complete with the "I am no Man" line? (My wife's favorite part, BTW )

 

On Jackson's choices in omission in the first movie, the Barrow Downs and the Bombadil adventure, I think these were logical omissions. Disappointing, but logical. I'd much rather had spent the time in Moria. Well, literally speaking!

 

Ya may be right about the Eowyn issue, I have read the books many times but I purposely did not reread them to coincide with the movie releases, I mean I knew basically what was going to happen, but I kinda wanted to be surprised a bit again and have to Movie refresh my memory. I did go back and read the Appendicies with what happens post Aragorn crowning etc. I think in the summation it mentions that Merry kills the Witch King and thats were Im getting it from..... now I have to go back and check

[Fan4Fan]

There was no way to make film 100 percent accurate!

 

Got that right... just started watching Two Towers on VHS last night and was mildly disappointed (having finished the book a month or two back) at the pacing and the plot omissions. Feels sort of like a highlight reel and misses the texture of the book.

 

Still, I am immediately riveted once I hit Play....

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan