Posted on 10/07/2002 11:39:26 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
To kick things off today, we've got a more comprehensive spec list for New Line's 4-disc The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Special Extended DVD Edition (11/12 - SRP $39.99). Here goes...
Discs One and Two - The Extended Version of the Film
208 minutes (split over both discs), anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS 6.1 ES, isolated 5.1 sound effects mix, isolated 5.1 music track, Commentary Track One with the director and writers (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens), Commentary Track Two with members of the design team (Grant Major, Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor, Alan Lee, John Howe, Dan Hennah, Chris Hennah and Tania Rodger), Commentary Track Three with members of the production and post-production team (Barrie Osborne, Mark Ordesky, Andrew Lesnie, John Gilbert, Rick Porras, Howard Shore, Jim Rygiel, Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, Randy Cook, Christian Rivers, Brian Van't Hull, Alex Funke), Commentary Track Four with members of the cast (Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee and Sean Bean).
Note: Discs Two and Three can be viewed in "explore" mode with traditional menus or "tour" mode via a Play All feature.
Disc Three - The Appendices Part I: From Book to Vision
2 and 1/2 hours of documentary content, including J.R.R. Tolkien-Creator of Middle-earth featurette, From Book to Script featurette, Visualizing the Story section featuring Storyboards and Pre-viz featurette, Designing and Building Middle-earth section featuring Designing Middle-earth featurette, Costume Design featurette and Weta Workshop featurette, design galleries including The Enemy, The Last Alliance, Isengard, The Fellowship, Rivendell and Lothlorien, interactive Middle-earth Atlas with timeline, New Zealand as Middle-earth intertactive map with video, disc introduction with director Peter Jackson.
Disc Four - The Appendices Part II: From Vision to Reality
3 and 1/2 hours of documentary content, including Filming section featuring a production photo gallery and the The Fellowship of the Cast featurette, A Day in the Life of a Hobbit featurette, Cameras in Middle-earth featuette, Visual Effects section and featuette, Post-Production section featuring Editorial featuette and a multi-angle presentation, Digital Grading featuette, Sound and Music featuette and Sound Design Demo, The Soundscapes of Middle-earth featurette, Music for Middle-earth featurette, The Road Goes Ever On featuette, disc introduction with director Peter Jackson.
All told, the 4-disc set is expected to include over 30 hours of unique content created just for this release (including the film and the commentaries). The discs will also feature additional DVD-ROM content and over 2,000 photos and conceptual sketches. And let me tell you... we've seen a few of those featuettes. These aren't 5-minute EPK pieces. They're much more substantial - 20 to 30+ minutes in many cases. Good stuff.
Now then... in a feature in today's print issue of Video Store magazine, Warner reveals that they're gearing up to release an 18-title Charlie Chaplin Collection on DVD, starting in June 2003. Each title will be digitally remastered and cleaned, and will be released as a 2-disc set with numerous extras, including documentaries, outtakes, photo galleries, alternate versions re-edited by Chaplin himself and other material. They'll be available in 2-disc digipack (SRP $26.99) and collector's box ($34.99 - also containing a booklet and film frame) versions. All this is being done in association with MK2 and the Chaplin family. The first three films tentatively due next June are The Great Dictator, City Lights and The Circus. More information will be available at CharlieChaplin.com in the weeks ahead.
Stay tuned...
Look at this unjust patriarchal family structure. The big male has all the fun while the opressed female and neglected children can only watch. This is against natural rights - some feminist reeducation or sensitivity training is urgently needed.
I'm not Christian, no offense, but I didn't see any Christian symbolism in LOTR. I did see a lot of pre-Christian, pagan elements from German, Norse and Celtic mythology. Some of the characters have very clear counterparts in the Nibelungenlied.
Gandalf=Wotan
Aragorn=Siegfried
Arwen=Brunnhilde (Arwen is much more of a sword-swinging valkyrie in the movie than in the book, so maybe Peter Jackson also saw a similarity)
Bilbo and Frodo correspond, although not as strongly, to Alberich and Hagen from the Nibelungenlied, although Hagen and Alberich are much darker, more sinister characters.
Oh, and there is one strikingly modern resemblance that Tolkien never planned on or dreamed of, which is this:
Hmm, not really. Gandalf is rather a type of a Biblical priest or prophet or angel (he is after all a type of incarnated angelic being). Aragorn and Arven correspond rather to the JRR Tolkien himself and Edith Bratt while the role of Elrond could be inspired by Father Francis.
I think you've got this backward. Tolkien was a life-long Catholic. Lewis went thru an agnostic or atheist phase which Tolkien helped him to escape.
One Hobbit weirdo vote for stomping all over the Iraqi orcs!
Actually, D&D is like LOTR. Check your dates.
Tolkien was a lifelong Catholic, and helped his friend Lewis to become Christian....
Just one hobbity weirdo helping another!
Perhaps, as has been pointed out, it is one's frame of reference. Tolkien said his work was not intended to be allegorical, but that as a Christian, his faith would be reflected in his work (that's a major paraphrase).
I did my freshman English paper on "Christlike Symbolism in The Lord of the Rings." I actually found a copy of it recently.
As I see it, these are the representations:
Gandalf = The Resurrection
Frodo = The Deliverer
Aragorn = The Triumphant King
Very well put! - That is the concept I was looking for but couldn't articulate. Nice beef allegory! I am hungry!
After 9/11, no matter where we were, we all felt victimized. We all felt as if evil was winning. Even by December that thought was still with us.
So what if LOTR is escapist. We saw a darn fine presentation of good vs. evil. And most of us know the end of the story.
I think it was (is) an incredible movie and would have been a success in any year. But, I've never really thought about this, but perhaps last year was the perfect year for The Fellowship of the Ring.
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