"Two Towers" Extended Edition DVD News!

cinematic Happenings Under Development (CHUD) ^ | December 29,2002 | Mike Arsenault

[Long Cut]

News on the Extended DVD is out already! Among the highlights to be found at www.chud.com:

There will again be 30-35 minutes of extra footage;

The battle at Helm's Deep may get an "R" rating after the new footage is included;

More footage of Gollum will be included.

Hit the link for more info: CHUD Article on TTT DVD

[weegee]

In a different vein you might want to watch the movie, "Forgotten Silver" in which Peter Jackson "uncovers" the lost films a groundbreaking NZ filmmaker. The whole thing is a hoax (modern footage made to look old). There are some prank films, some Charlie Chaplin like films, and the epic Salome. He even gets historians like Leonard Maltin to share in the joke.

The DVD has commentary by Peter Jackson explaining some of the jokes (at the beginning of the film, he leads the viewer down the "primrose path" to a shed where the films were discovered).

12 years ago I wrote to Joe Bob Briggs (back when he had his newsletter). I mentioned Peter Jackson in NZ and John Woo in HK. I asked why was it that the rest of the world was making drive-in movies better than anything America had turned out in decades. All he could do was concede the point. I would say that Peter Jackson has made the transition to Hollywood a lot better than John Woo.

[KantianBurke]

Three words to you regarding how Gimli's humor which was being used to take away intensity came off as: Jar Jar Binks.

Regardless, that was just one of many dumbed down scenes in the flick. Not saying it wasn't a good film overall but its not exactly as flawless as FOTR.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I don't get it. How can a departure from the book be more true to the story? The book is the story. What am I missing here?

There is the rub. These movies are evidence that Tolkien succeeded in his ultimate goal. Creating a mythic past for England. The Lord of the Rings is a myth and as such there is no "right" or "wrong" way of telling it.

Imagine it this way. Tolkien "found" original sources and novelized the myths he "discovered". Jackson then read the same sources Tolkien "discovered" and made a film version.

The novelization isn't the "true story", it's just a particular way of telling the story. Jackson's films aren't the "true story" either, just his way of presenting it.

Tolkien has won. His "myths" have taken on a life of their own.

[Wordsmith]

I didn't mind Gimli's comic relief, as he adds a lightheartedness to this section of the novel as well. The orc-beheading contest, his fussing over the fact that the Rohirrim call The Glittering Caverns "caves", his trouble with horses, his comment to Legolas about the Huorns, "I wish to see on eyes!" Admittedly the comedy is more subtle in the book, but everything about the movie is more exagerrated in general.

[Samwise]

Hillary Balrog Clinton. Nice ring to it. Now if we can keep Gandalf W. Bush on the right course.

No, no, no. Hillary is the Mouth of Sauron. Dubya is Aragorn. :^)

[Samwise]

I don't get it. How can a departure from the book be more true to the story? The book is the story. What am I missing here?

Yes, LotR is much more than a story to those of us who love it. It is, in truth, history--the history of Middle Earth, and J.R.R. Tolkien meticulously and lovingly preserved that history for us. We aren’t liberals, we don’t want to alter history.

However, Professor Tolkien spoke of a concept he termed “the truth of myth.” To him the greater Truth of a story was much more important that the actual “truth” of a matter.

Tolkien was working in the written medium; Peter Jackson is translating that format into the cinemagraphic medium. There is no direct correlation between the two. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Character development is better achieved in written form. Battle scenes can come to life on screen. Movies have time constraints. Peter Jackson had to make changes--some subtle, others not so subtle in order to translate from one medium to the other.

Jackson tried to remain true to the Truth of the myth, while sometimes sacrificing the “truth” of the history.

This is something that can help but bother those of us who have loved LotR for years. But Jackson has done such a magnificent job of translating the work that we love the movies in their own right. We wish the movie (like our children) were perfect; however, we love it anyway. And besides, we’d never ever agree on what perfection is anyway.

[Samwise]

Sigh...I should have read further before I posted. We answered the same question. And yes, you're correct. Tolkien has won.

[eno_]

I think Grendel's mother is the truly immortal part. Remember there are no small, dumpy, ugly, hideous, hateful, parts, just small, dumpy, ugly, hideous, hateful actresses.

[montag813]

Sam Peckinpah? How about George Romero, Lucio Fulci, or Ruggero Deodato? Talk about gorefests.

"Dawn of the Dead", one of the best movies ever made.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Beggin' yer pardon, Long Cut, but the Haradrim were from the South...also known as the Southrons.

The company that Frodo, Sam & Gollum saw at the black gate were the Easterlings.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Don't forget that the image of Arwen approaching the Shards of Narsil (which was in the trailer) wasn't in the theatrical release.

Hopefully that will set the stage for RotK, where she'll have it re-forged, and get it to Aragorn before the Battle of Pellenor Fields.

[af_vet_rr]

Hopefully that will set the stage for RotK, where she'll have it re-forged, and get it to Aragorn before the Battle of Pellenor Fields.

I have only seen the extended FotR once (plan on watching it again this weekend) but I remember one of the new scenes revolving around the sword, so it makes sense, since it'll be so important in RotK.

[DoctorMichael]

.........Haradrim, men from the lands South of Mordor............Easterlings...........

If you check some of the more obscure Threads posted here at FR, there are a few where the authors criticize Tolkien's "racism". It is the characterization of these southerners (Africa?) and easterners (Muslims?) that has led to line of thought.

[HairOfTheDog]

I know all about the line of thought! I have seen them.

I read the books without having a mental image of those peoples, even after reading it many times in my life, I didn't really need to picture them.

The moviemakers had to make an image though. The southerners... Haradrim, actually looked more Middle-Eastern to me... or northern Africa perhaps (due to the Oliphants). Their costumes, to my anthropologically untrained eye, looked nomadic Arabian or Bedouin-like. Notable though, the structures that the oliphants carried looked asian.

And the Easterlings in the film seemed very Oriental in design, to my eye.

[HairOfTheDog]

If we must try to compare them to real people, that is what my eye saw anyway.

[DoctorMichael]

I read the books without having a mental image of those peoples, even after reading it many times in my life, I didn't really need to picture them.

Agreed. I too read the books many times and disagreed with the critiques leveled by "modern reconstructionists" trying to read into Tolkien's words a message that wasn't there.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

That's the really funny thing about the Extended Edition. You almost HAVE to see it in order for parts of The Two Towers to make sense.

I can see someone watching The Two Towers, having not seen the EE, saying:

"Wait a minute, where'd Sam get the rope from, and why does it burn Gollum?"

"What did Gimli pull out of the Orc-fire? A belt? Why is that important?"

"What did Frodo mean when he said that Gandalf had said, 'Smeagol's story is a sad one.'?"

"Secondly, who is Smeagol? I thought he was called Gollum?"

LOL

Having watch the EE several times, it must have absolutely KILLED Jackson to cut some of those scenes...especially the gift-giving scene in Lorien.

[HairOfTheDog]

I think some of the cuts started to kill him when he started editing TTT! Wait... we didn't explain that!

[Long Cut]

"Dawn of the Dead", one of the best movies ever made. "

Yeah, for a while there, the Italians (or those of Italian descent) had a lock on true gore movies, or "Grand Guignol".

Bad news: Dawn Of The Dead is being REMADE. As a PG-13, sadly.

Good News: George Romero's long-awaited fourth movie in his "Zombie Cycle" is now in production, with a big budget to boot! The title at this time is "Dead Reckoning". He will, it is told, bring it in for theatrical release with a "hard R", and release it uncut and unrated to DVD, much the same as Rob Zombie is doing with the equally-controversial House Of 1,000 Corpses.

[Long Cut]

My mistake! In the film, they kind of looked the same. Thanks for setting me straight.