It is now very clear what we need to do. We need to start a campaign. We need to convince Peter Jackson to have a theatrical release of the extended edition of The Return of the King. Just in a few theaters, just for those of us who are hopeless, and charging an arm and a leg. But we wants our precious--we wants the extended edition, and we wants it now. *Gollum*.
The fully-charged up and brilliant Electrolite writes:
Electrolite: Lazy blogging: Polytropos says everything I would have said about the extended version of The Two Towers, and does it more crisply than I would have, as well. Recommended: both the extended TTT and Polytropos in general.
Polytropos: I finally got to see the extended edition of The Two Towers a couple nights ago. Who knew 43 minutes of new footage could make such a difference? Well, anyone who saw the deluxe DVD of Fellowship, for starters. But for the sequel the burden of those extra minutes was all the greater, because Two Towers had more to make up for. It was an excellent movie with some glaring weaknesses, but not only does the extended cut address many of these, it introduces other unlooked-for delights. Watching it doesn’t feel like seeing the same movie with some added bits. It’s like watching the real movie for the first time.
Many of the additions are small: a scene extended by a line or two, or even just a reaction shot. Then you have short but lovely moments like our new first scene with Frodo and Sam, bringing in the powers of the elven rope. There’s a new scene between Frodo and Gollum cementing the fact that Frodo must hope that Gollum can be redeemed because he himself is going down that same path. When you see it, you can hardly believe that such a crucial moment wasn’t in the movie before. The same goes for another scene later on, full of great lines from the book, where Gandalf explains to Aragorn the fear that Sauron has for Isildur’s heir.
I’m happiest about all the new Merry and Pippin material. Once they get into Fangorn, the short shrift they get in the theatrical release is a travesty; now they finally get the screen time they deserve. And it comes in delightful ways: we get to see them drinking the ent-draughts, followed up by a lovely transplantation of Old Man Willow from the Old Forest to Fangorn. Treebeard even gets some of Tom Bombadil’s lines. Later on he recites poetry, and pines for the Entwives. All of that would have been more than enough to quell my criticisms, but then, toward the movie’s end, we even get to see the hobbits discover the pipeweed trove in the ruins of Isengard. Now my hopes are renewed that somewhere in the beginning of Return of the King we’ll get to see one of my favorite moments from the trilogy: Merry and Pippin smoking their pipes atop the rubble as Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas ride up.
The other big addition comes in the form of new Faramir material, especially an extended flashback to the retaking of Osgiliath. Faramir’s changed role in the film was something that many hated but that I never minded, and even liked. The new stuff confirms my reasons for liking it and gives those who thought he came off as too dark some glimpses at his motivations and his more redeeming qualities. Denethor looks good, too, though he’s much more of a bad egg than he is in the books. This is in keeping with a trend in all of the characters in the film: the screenwriters take Tolkien’s key theme of corruption and push it, across the board. All-too-human weakness comes to fore in figures like Aragorn, Faramir, Treebeard, and Elrond — characters who are all relatively unblemished in the book — and those who were already weak are made more so. They’re changes that are, in a sense, more Tolkienian than Tolkien himself.
Frodo and Sam’s climactic scene in Osgiliath also gets fleshed out, especially its aftermath. Between that and some of the beats added to their scenes earlier on, Frodo’s arc of conflict in this film makes much more sense. I always appreciated the strucutural reasons for diverting from Tolkien and having the scene in Osgiliath, but now it’s is not only necessary, but it actually works, too.
The subtlest and most important improvements wrought by the added footage come in the form of pacing. It’s not that the original movie is badly paced, though it feels choppy at moments. I was constantly amazed at how many things could be fixed simply by improving the rhythm that flows from scene to scene. Best example: In the theatrical release, Sam has two monologues very close together toward the end. One is a voiceover while we see the victories at Helm’s Deep and Isengard, the other comes as he, Frodo and Gollum make their way from Osgiliath and he wonders whether their story will ever be told. Neither is bad in its own right, but both push the envelope of the melodramatic, and having the two of them so close together is too much. But in the extended cut, there is considerable space between them, and once they’re uncrowded, each monologue works much, much better.
I’m skipping past any number of other key additions, like the introduction of the trees to their rightful place at the battle of Helm’s Deep. The upshot, when all is said and done, is that I am both delighted and angry. Delighted for obvious reasons, but angry because it is one hundred percent clear that this is the movie that Peter Jackson made: the complete aesthetic product as it was intended. When you see how much more smoothly the movie flows, and how many key explanations and character details are in it, there can be no doubt. The theatrical release was a compromised version, a lesser affair, and it’s a travesty that Jackson was made to do damage to his creation before they’d put it in theatres.
Sadly, there is every indication that Return of the King will follow a similar pattern. Part of me wants to skip the premiere and just wait and get the whole package in November 2004 — though I know I’ll never manage it.
Suanna and I have only started delving into the documentaries and the commentary tracks, and all the other extras, but so far it looks to match the quality of the Fellowship DVD. After watching the segment about the art department, all we could do was stare at the screen with our jaws wide open, in awe of all the work and loving detail that went into the film. Still a bargain at three times the price.
IT'S TWUE! IT'S TWUE! As the Ten-Year-Old said, "You know, with these extra scenes added in, it is a very good movie."
And we all know the same thing will happen to The Return of the King.
So we need to start a campaign. We need to convince Peter Jackson to have a theatrical release of the extended edition of The Return of the King. Just in a few theaters, just for those of us who are hopeless, and charging an arm and a leg. But we wants our precious--we wants the extended edition, and we wants it now. *Gollum*.
Posted by DeLong at November 25, 2003 03:08 PM | TrackBack
One reason for the delay is simply that post-production is LONG, and the "extended-super-obsessive-version" is still a long way from completion.
You confuses us with facts. We don't like thisss. We wants our preciousss! We wants it now!!
Posted by: Brad DeLong on November 25, 2003 03:33 PMCheck out http://www.lordoftherings.net/trilogy/ -- there are already showings scheduled for the two existing extended editions. No doubt you will get your wish, Brad, when the extended Fellowship clears postproduction.
Maybe next we'll get to see them all together in one long day like Wagner's version ...
Posted by: Jonathan Korman on November 25, 2003 03:35 PMIn my dreams Jackson includes, deep on disk 5, his take of the old Harvard Lampoon project, Bored of the Rings:
"Even the walls have ears," warned Goodgulf, pointing at a large lobe protruding from the mantlepiece.
...
[In the mines]
"What's that noise?" dribble-dribble-shoot-swish, Dribble-Dribble-Shoot-Swish DRIBBLE-DRIBBLE-SHOOT-SWHISH! "Arrgh, it is the dread Ballhog!"
In my dreams...
Posted by: ecomonist on November 25, 2003 03:40 PM"Ayeeee!" said Legolam. "A Thesaurus!" It had long, dangling participles and a pronounced gazetteer...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on November 25, 2003 04:14 PM
"While there is no down that aratorn did something very brave during the battle he had a tendency to cough and change the subject when asked" Not so good and I forget his name (I do remember Goodgulf's) but I read it long ago.
Now as to the complete Lord of the Rings cycle in theatres, I think it is clear that lots and lots of people are hopeless and so they shouldn't make us pay and arm AND a leg.
Posted by: Robert on November 25, 2003 04:46 PMArrowroot, son of Arrowshirt!
And Gimlet, son of Groin!
Posted by: Chuck Nolan on November 25, 2003 04:54 PMArrowroot, son of Arrowshirt!
And Gimlet, son of Groin!
Posted by: Chuck Nolan on November 25, 2003 04:54 PMArrowroot, son of Arrowshirt!
And Gimlet, son of Groin!
Posted by: Chuck Nolan on November 25, 2003 04:54 PMI thought The Two Towers was hopelessly truncated; now I know. Hmm. Santa needs to get me a DVD player, stat.
Posted by: Linkmeister on November 25, 2003 05:43 PMUnless the extended version is really the 'completely re-edited with entirely different footage' version, it still won't have Theoden in it, just some befuddled death-fearing modern with a few -- a very few -- of Theoden's lines to say.
Posted by: Graydon on November 25, 2003 06:40 PMWe wants the Peter Jackson treatment of the Silmarillion (if that is at all possible - probably not on film). Screw The Hobbit.
Posted by: ETC on November 25, 2003 06:46 PMwhat, really? that's the one I Just Couldn't Take, even when I was a geeky preteen fanboy. you really want it filmed?
I'd rather see a big-budget version of Meet The Feebles, or hell, just one with a better film print and clearer soundtrack.
I have an irrational love for Meet The Feebles.
The problem with a movie version of the Silmarillion is the sheer number of characters. It would be like filming Edith Hamilton's "Mythology."
Of course, I would love it, but between Fingon, Fingolfin, Feanor, and Finroth, and so on... it would become unmanagable by the time the elves got through the Glorious Battle. By the time we were up to the sack of Gondolin, half the audience would just be confused, the other half would be lost.
Posted by: Dan on November 25, 2003 08:56 PMYou could do the Silmarilion as five movies --
The Rebellion of the Noldor
Beren and Luthien
The Fall of Gondolin
Narn í hin Hurin (the tale of the children of Hurin)
The Voyage of Earendil
You'd leave stuff out -- no sack of Doriath, frex -- and there would still be lots of characters, and it would be epic in scope, but you could get the core stories in like that.
Posted by: Graydon on November 26, 2003 04:12 AMBrad, you don't realize the true depths of evil at work here. If you liked the theatrical release, but *knew*, deep in your heart of hearts, that you are seeing but the shadow of the *true* movie, then they can really, really hoover your wallet for the DVD version.
Posted by: Barry on November 26, 2003 04:29 AMMy wallet is feeling surprisingly unHoovered. Target had the extended The Two Towers for $25 last week.
Posted by: J. Michael Neal on November 26, 2003 06:24 AMThanks for reminding me of "Bored of the Rings".
My middle son was having difficulty with reading, or at least getting enthused about reading. Part brought on by one inadequate teacher in the 3rd grade and maybe development problems too. I happend on Bored and a though struck me that he, due to a somewhat off beat sense of humor, might find it entertaining. Did this book ever do the job! It tickled his funny bone and he was off and running as a reader. There are funny tipping points in life that send one down one or the other paths in life, in fact multiple tipping points. This was one for my son. However, I am not sure of what I did as he now is a "Burning Man" enthusast.
One of the interesting things about this series for me has been watching the interplay between the artistic and business halves of the production team.
Obviously all of the interviewees in the extendended edition features are on their best behavior and (with the humorous exceptions of Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan) are very careful not to say anything unkind about each other. But there are hints from Barry Osborne and Rick Porras in the biz/hollywood camp, and Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens in the artistic camp, that there's a substantial backstory about the back-and-forth with the New Line bigwigs.
The main pressure on Peter came in the form of editing constraints to fit the film into the 180-minute length that the mall/megaplex theater companies demand to fit their extortionate profiteering schedule -- hence the choppy, abbreviated theatrical releases. There's a simple arithmetic at work: with three hours you only get three shows a night per screen, and you need to open on n-thousand screens in order to make $100M opening weekend. Even though FOTR has taken some $860 million[1] in worldwide box office reciepts, New Line and, hence, Peter Jackson are still subject to the rules.
I'd argue that it's actually good, or least "less bad", that it came out this way: they let him have free rein on the actual design, production and filming, where artistic compromise would have been deadly to the overall quality of the films, and imposed on him in post-production. I also get the sense (though I admit this is speculation) that the biz guys granted Jackson the extended edition DVDs as an olive branch to make up for the savagery they imposed on the theatrical releases.
[1] http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2001/LRDRN.html
Posted by: ahpook on November 26, 2003 10:46 AMWhat happened to the all-day showing of all three films that was supposed to happen on Dec. 16th? It doesn't show up anymore at the website. Did it sell out?
I should have known that would happen, if so. Darnit. I was planning on doing that.
Posted by: Keith M Ellis on November 26, 2003 11:52 AMand darkness settled over them like a dank locker-room towel...
I am sooo glad that Bored of the Rings has stuck to others as it has stuck to me. A truly fine novel, if you are in high school.
Stomper. "ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray, if you know what i mean"
Bored of the Rings, eh?
Tim Tim Benzedrine!
Hash Hoo Valvoline!
First second neutral park,
high thee hence you leafy Narc!
Sory, I left out a line:
Tim Tim Benzedrine!
Hash Hoo Valvoline!
Green green green for Jean!
First second neutral park,
high thee hence you leafy Narc!
I am amazed (and appalled) at how many random bits of BOTR have stuck in so many people's memory. The rendition of the Tim Benzedrine song is truely impressive.
Amazon has BOTR for sale cheap, and a 4 page excerpt available for your perusal...
Posted by: Economist on November 26, 2003 05:22 PMAmy surplus.
Posted by: Anna on November 26, 2003 07:10 PMWhy, thank you Economist. After I posted the Tim Benzedrine song, I paused and tried to think about what other books I had read that year which stuck in my memory that way.
Nope. Not a one.
I remember the song, the Bull Merino Riders, the Fighting V-Ates, The Graceful Elven Gesture Of Farewell, the Plover's Egg the size of an emerald and a couple of other tidbits. But I couldn't quote from any other book I read around that time if I was threatened with slow hanging.
Scary, ain't it?
Posted by: Steven Rogers on November 27, 2003 04:07 PMWhat's interesting is that for each of us the parts that stuck were different, but equally tenacious.
BTW in case the uninitiated are still in the vicinity, here's the context for my previous post:
-----
[preparations for the big party in the Sty]
The crates were unloaded and opened at *ildo's door...Each crate was labeled with an olive-drab elf-rune signifying that these toys had been made in the elf-shops of a fairy whose name was something very much like "Amy Surplus".
...
"This'll be one fireworks display they won't forget," cackled the aging boggie to Goodgulf...
[who alas talks him out of it:] "You cannot use extermination as a method for settling your petty grudges with the townspeople."
----
If you haven't read the book, and you're an adult, sorry but you're too late. This is literature for the young.