Just finished watching the Extended cut of Fellowship of the Ring. Damn...what a great movie. There are big changes (introduction to the Shire and Hobbits by Bilbo), Council of Elrond scenes (Boromir and Aragorn talking, Gandalf talking in the language of Mordor, Elrond bidding the Fellowship farewell), Lothlorien (Celeborn isn't a 'moron' in this version- he actually says something worth listening to , Gandalf talking about mithril in Moria). Heaps more as well. And then there are little changes- Aragorn singing about Beren and Luthien, Sam recognizing the 'Bilbo's Trolls', Gollum following the Fellowship down the river, Legolas mentioning 'Morgoths Balrog', and the odd 'touched up' scene. The music is changed in some scenes, for the better. New music can be heard, as well as the familiar tracks from the original release. Lothlorien is AMAZING. So much has been added to it: Gimli swearing to the Elves (Funny!), Haldir speaking more, and of course the gift giving scene. WOW. They just made a great movie even better. Some of the people who are not familiar with Tolkien may not understand some of the things said, though.
I am buying it as so as I get out of School, I can't wait to see the extra footage and all the bonus stuff on it. How much does it cost?
Thanks for the information! I had a feeling the restored scenes would add depth to the film. Generally such deletions are because of time and pacing, and take away from the characters and their history, etc etc. The director's cut of "Almost Famous" restored a half hour that I thought made the film much better. The regular version skimped on character and, ironically, didn't connect with audiences anyway. The added scenes for "Apocalypse Now" also enhanced an already great film. So I hold high hopes for a director's cut of "Fellowship." So now I guess I'm-a gonna have to buy a DVD player, finally.
I couldn't agree more. The scenes are edited into the movie in sequence, and generally make it better. For those that didn't like the length of the theater release, you may not be pleased, but I think this extended version is a better movie.
You know, I still haven't seen this movie!!!?? I really want to, but my wife is completely disinterested...so when we go to rent movies, we usually try to find something we both like. Next time she goes to visit her family, I'll rent it for sure!
I'm watching the extended version right now (took a Real World break ), and I really can't fathom why the deleted scenes didn't make it into the theatrical release. The movie seems much more coherent with all the added backstory. It just flows better, too, IMO.
They said the first movie couldnt be longer than 3 hours, so he gave them a 178 minute edited version.
That's because New Line Cinema required Peter Jackson to make the theatrical release under 3 hours, or else they felt that audiences would balk at the length. Huh, they did anyway. You've gotta love the fact though, that given a 3-hour limit, Peter Jackson made it 2 hrs, 58 min . I can just see him with the editors: PJ: "Limit me, will they? Hah! I'll show them!" Editor: "It's now 2 hrs, 58 mins. We're done." PJ: "Are you sure that you can't make it 2 hrs, 59 mins, 59 sec?" Editor: "Yes, I'm sure! We're done!" PJ: "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, okaaaaaaayyyy. Good enough, I guess." A true fan.
The Two Towers will be 2 hours, 59 minutes, 9 seconds. That includes the credits as well. *spoiler* Ian McKellan also said that the first scene of TTT will go like this: shots of mountains....camera zooms 'into' the mountains where we see Gandalf vs. Balrog....but instead of following the Fellowship out of Moria, we follow Gandalf down into the depths of Moria where he kicks some serious Balrog ass! This is going to be one helluva movie!
Just saw this tonight. It looks to me like the majority of what they took out of the movie was comic relief. So while I would have loved for ALL of it to have made the movie, I can see why they took (Took -- ha ha, get it?) it out of the movie. The scene with Legolas, Merry and Pippin and the lembas was absolutely priceless. Also, I HIGHLY recommend everyone watch the short film that explains the methods they used to create the different scale effects with the hobbits and the men. It is absolutely astounding some of the things they were able to do right under our noses and we never even guessed it was happening.
Mine is being shipped as we speak, I should have it sometime this week. I cant freaking wait for TTT!!!!!
