I Just Watched (Films)

[Sly Boots]

Can't remember if I mentioned it, but over the past few weeks I've been working through the LOTR trilogy with my youngest (11yo), and we both enjoyed them tremendously. I was a little unsure if it could hold her attention for more than a couple of hours at a time, but each film did and she was fully engaged with them throughout. Such great films.

[Wrathbone]

other than a couple of scenes I couldn't tell which bits were added back in after the theatrical cut.

A lot of the changes with Fellowship were merging extra material in with the theatrical cut, such as the first scene in Hobbiton where Gandalf arrives. In terms of entirely new scenes, I think there are only three substantial ones:

- In Lothlorien where Sam composes a verse about Gandalf's fireworks

- Again in Lothlorien where Galadriel hands out the gifts

- A scene near the end where Aragorn mentions to Boromir that Gollum has been trailing them on the river, clinging to a log.


The real benefit of the extended editions is felt in the Two Towers, which completely changes Faramir's character from an opportunistic dullard (the antithesis of his book character) to a grieving brother trying to complete Boromir's task and thus demonstrate his worth to his father. Still very different from the book, but it makes him a more rounded, compelling character.

Return of the King is a mixed bag, because while some of the extra stuff is great (and there's a lot - a whole extra hour on an already massive film), some of it actively breaks the narrative tension. For example, the Paths of the Dead, where Aragorn goes to recruit the ghosts: in the theatrical version, the scene ends with Aragorn's "What say you?!" in the face of their mocking laughter, leaving the outcome uncertain until the ghosts dramatically appear to ransack the corsairs; in the extended edition, Aragorn and co are forced to flee the crumbling ruins, and then the ghost leader meets them outside and agrees to the deal, meaning the reveal at the corsairs is a damp squib. Similarly, the new scene with the Mouth of Sauron holding up Frodo's mithril shirt as 'proof' of his death has zero impact, because we've just seen him and we already know why he's lost his shirt. In the book, this is totally different because the last we saw of Frodo and Sam at that point (I'm fairly sure?) is in Shelob's lair or thereabouts, so the reader could well believe that Frodo is dead.

Oh, and there's also an extended/changed scene where Gandalf is talking to Pippin in Minas Tirith and he has a lengthy coughing fit for no obvious reason. The original scene was fine, no idea why they made that change. And Gimli does a lot more improvised 'comedy', which is tiring.

[Animalmother]

Isn't there way more ent stuff in The Two Towers as well? It was cut for a reason as it's beyond dull. Switching from the battle at Helm's Deep to talking fucking trees standing in a circle was insanity.

[Raid]

I think there are only three substantial ones:

Was the scene with Boromir picking up the remains of Narsil in the theatrical cut? That was the one that I was convinced I didn't recall being in earlier versions.

[Sly Boots]

I think there are only three substantial ones:

Was the scene with Boromir picking up the remains of Narsil in the theatrical cut? That was the one that I was convinced I didn't recall being in earlier versions.

I'm reasonably sure it was always in.

[Stormbringer]

Yeah, 'twas.

[Wrathbone]

Isn't there way more ent stuff in The Two Towers as well? It was cut for a reason as it's beyond dull. Switching from the battle at Helm's Deep to talking fucking trees standing in a circle was insanity.

Yeah, and the scene with Merry and Pippin squabbling over the ent draught, which is just childish. I do like the extra scene at the end where they find Saruman’s larder with a bunch of pipeweed, especially since it shows Saruman was a hypocrite for berating Gandalf in Fellowship for having his mind dulled from smoking.

[Stormbringer]

So Saruman spent his evenings getting high on Pipeweed after his daily Zoom call with Sauron?

For some reason I assume he'd just hoarded that stuff, but wasn't using it.

[Wrathbone]

Don’t think there’s any suggestion of Saruman having pipeweed in the book, but I always took the scene as a sign of hypocrisy.

Also, he wouldn’t be getting high - pipeweed is explicitly tobacco, not marijuana. Tolkien only called it pipeweed because the word tobacco was anachronistic.

[Animalmother]

Was there a scene with Saruman taking over The Shire like in the books ever filmed? I remember something about Christopher Lee being pissed off that it wasn't used, I think.

[Wrathbone]

No, I don't think that was ever on the cards. The closest they came was a few shots of the Scouring of the Shire which are shown in Galadriel's mirror. Lee was pissed off because Saruman's confrontation with Gandalf and Theoden at Orthanc was ditched from the theatrical version of RoTK, but it was restored in the extended edition.

[Raid]

No, I don't think that was ever on the cards. The closest they came was a few shots of the Scouring of the Shire which are shown in Galadriel's mirror. Lee was pissed off because Saruman's confrontation with Gandalf and Theoden at Orthanc was ditched from the theatrical version of RoTK, but it was restored in the extended edition.

That was always a baffling decision. Didn't the theatrical cut just have Saruman being held in his tower, and nothing ever comes of it?

[Sly Boots]

No, I don't think that was ever on the cards. The closest they came was a few shots of the Scouring of the Shire which are shown in Galadriel's mirror. Lee was pissed off because Saruman's confrontation with Gandalf and Theoden at Orthanc was ditched from the theatrical version of RoTK, but it was restored in the extended edition.

That was always a baffling decision. Didn't the theatrical cut just have Saruman being held in his tower, and nothing ever comes of it?

Yep. There's a brief exchange to the effect of "shouldn't we do something about him?" "No, he has no more power" and that's about it.

Job done, clearly!

[Mantis]

The theatrical cut also doesn't explain how the Palantir randomly ends up at the foot of the tower under the water. Pippin just wanders over and picks it up because the glimmer of it catches his eye. It's a bit messy.

[Raid]

There's a line in Fellowship about the Palantirs not having all been found. Perhaps they just didn't look very hard.