One of the many reasons I didn’t post much last week (along with training for my new job, which had my schedule bouncing all over the place — when you’re used to getting up between 9:30 and 10:00 am every day, 6:30am is really early) was that I picked up the newly-released Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Special Extended DVD Edition).
First off, and most simply, if you’re a fan of the series, there’s no question about it. This is a must-buy DVD (as is, incidentally, the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring). Feel free to stop reading this and just go buy it.
I haven’t even gotten into any of the special features (and there are a ton to get through) yet. All I’ve done so far is watch the new cut of the film itself, and the new cut is incredible. Around 40 minutes has been added to the movie, bringing the total run time up to a whopping 223 minutes — almost four full hours. Lest this sound like overkill, rest assured that the pacing of the movie doesn’t suffer in any way, and it only helps expand and enhance the full story. The insertions are scattered throughout the film, from quick cuts here and there that expand already-existing scenes, to entire sequences that had to be cut from the theatrical version. Every major character (and most of the minor characters) have additional bits added which do wonders for fleshing all of them out. What may be the two biggest additions (for me, at least) were a flashback sequence between Boromir, Faramir and their father Denethor which helps to flesh out their backstory (and explain why Faramir doesn’t come across as “perfect” in the films as he does in the books); and in a nod to the excising of Tom Bombadil from LotR:TFotR, the inclusion of Old Man Willow!
As was the case with LotR:TFotR, the extended edition of LotR:TTT is a far superior film (not that the theatrical release was bad at all — this version is just better). Much as I understand why they couldn’t release movies of this length to the theaters, it’s really a pity. I’m just glad that there will be limited releases of the extended versions of LotR:TFotR and LotR:TTT at the Seattle Cinerama just before LotR:TRotK is released (and that I’ve already got my tickets)!
For those of you that already have the set:
- Pop in Disc 1 (part one of the movie).
- Go to the last page of the Scene Selections.
- Go down to the last scene on Disc 1 (“Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”).
- Press down once more, to highlight a hidden Ring.
- Press play.
I’ve lost a big chunk of my weekend to this set – 3.5 hours of movies, 6+ hours of extras and I haven’t yet listened to either of the four(!) commentaries. For some reason, every time I see the level of passion Jackson and his crew brought to these movies I get really happy. I guess it just warms my heart to know that people still make movies because they are actually in love with what they do.