BOFA Theatrical Release available today on demand, DVD/Blu ray March 24th

Eldorion wrote:Deleted scenes and bloopers would both be appreciated, I agree.

deleted scenes would be cool so long as they finish them with post production. I don't mind some unfinished stuff but when you got nothing but green screen around an actor or couple actors it doesn't have that same magic to it the finished sequence has. I really like seeing what was deleted from a film though and hearing the explanation why it was deleted.

Now Blooper reals on the other hand I LOOOOOVE those things no matter what. Some of the stuff is hysterical, what the actors say once they know they have messed up but it hasn't gotten caught yet. Makes for some side splitting humor IMHO

I know I have said this before a million times but I think they actually filmed Faramirs wedding properly and it was a big scene with major costumes etc. It still frustrates me we have never got so much as a peep at what it looked like. not even a photo still.

Mrs Figg wrote:I know I have said this before a million times but I think they actually filmed Faramirs wedding properly and it was a big scene with major costumes etc. It still frustrates me we have never got so much as a peep at what it looked like. not even a photo still.

it would have been something nice to see but how to fit it into the narrative of the story and make sense on screen is my thing. i know it would be cool to see, but in the context of the film would it make sense. There is no dating or love interest present of those characters in the film really. So to show their wedding would kind of be out of place. maybe as just an extra scene unrelated to the films narrative maybe but something like that wouldn't make sense added back into the film for sure

but as part of the films they don't get any closure. We don't even know if they have become a couple. we only see them standing side by side at the end of ROTK. In the theatrical version its even less obvious what happens to them. At least in the EE we get the Houses of Healing, and to just dump them before the end isn't really good storytelling imo. But obviously there wasn't time to include Faramirs wedding in the theatrical cut. Therefore to include the wedding scenes would be a suitable end for their characters story arc. It ties up loose ends for those people who are interested in their story.

Eomer pretty much disappears after film's version of The Last Debate, and Gimli and Legolas don't get much in the way of denouement after the Ring's destruction. I've heard some people argue that ROTK should have been split into two films. I've been quite critical of this trend in movies (which didn't start until years after ROTK was released), but I kinda see their point. I think it would have been better to have left more TTT material in the second film so that the ROTK stuff had more room to breathe, though. Though even then, the Gimli and Legolas scenes probably would have gotten shit from the people who think there were too many endings, but personally I think that when wrapping up a nearly 12 hour story, you should take your time with the conclusion.

A great deal of RotK's issues stem from only having half of TT in the film of the same name. Its just leaves far too much story to be told in RotK.
And to make matters even worse they waste the Frodo/Sam time in TT with rubbish- Faramir taking them captive and taking them to Osgiliath is only there because they choose to end the film on Helms Deep, the problem being there is no suitable break point in the Frodo/Sam story at that point so they had to create one and set it up and wind out out long enough to fill up the time. And its completely irrelevant, if you take it back out again the Frodo/Sam story loses absolutely nothing- when they first meet him Faramir acts like book Faramir and after he lets them go its like it never happened anyway, there are no consequences or follow up to their changes in the characters. Complete waste of screen time.
Self made problems creating more problems.

The Frodo/Sam storyline was going to be tricky regardless of the Helm's Deep stuff because of the intercutting between them and the rest of the characters. Going by the book's timeline, the Shelob's lair stuff was indeed happening at the same time as Minas Tirith. I think PJ made the right decision not to try to recreate the six book structure on screen, but a little more flexibility with the timelines and he might have been able to end with the Frodo's capture cliffhanger in TTT. This would have meant some changes to the book's structure, but I think the trade-off would have been worth it. This would have had larger consequences to the pacing of ROTK, which has a very slow start, but that start could be quickened considerably in the Aragorn and friends storyline too.

I do genuinely like most of TTT, but it has a bit of flab at the beginning (at least in the EE) that could probably have been trimmed down. Lose the warg fight and Aragorn's fake death too since that was pretty pointless, and you'd probably be able to include the Road to Isengard without making the movie too much longer.

Well my edit ends exactly here the book does on both story lines and it clocks in about 3hrs 15, but just as an experiment I did try to see if its possible to get it under 3hrs to make a theatrical length cut- the answer is yes, easily, you jst take back out some of the scenes from the EE. And its a much better ending or a middle film.

The purist edits arent intercut, but they can be easily. I just dont see any excuse for the way PJ did it crap ending, boring noncanon Frodo/Sam rubbish, contrived dramatic ending (Nazgul rubbish at Osgiliath) and totally screws up the pacing and amount of story you can tell in RotK.

Of PJ's three LotR's films TT is my least favourite. Of my own purist edits its my most favourite.

You can really feel him stretching to try to come up with some sort of conclusion for TTT after breaking off a little more than halfway through both Books 3 and 4, and the result is a denouement that drags on (much moreso than ROTK) and ultimately goes nowhere and resolves nothing. I have never been a fan of Sam's dramatic speech (too overwrought for me, and he wasn't the right character to give it), but the movie goes on for like another 10 minutes of speechifying after that. Frodo trying to give the Ring to the Nazgul is also a top five nonsensical PJ change/addition.

I do think that Helm's Deep was an expertly-realized battle, even if it was given far more importance than it deserved and included Elves. And I like Rohan and appreciated it getting a little more time in the spotlight even if that time could have been used more economically.

Everything from the moment Faramir declares to take them prisoner to them leaving Osgiliath is pure filler- and its not even good filler- an, as you say, overwrought, overly indulgent sentimental speech, or ten, the mind numbingly stupid Nazgul stuff- its all completely wasteful and doesn't do anything at all to either move the plot along or develop any of the characters. Faramir just reverts to book type afterwards like it never happened. And Frodo and Sam just go on the way same as they would had it never happened.

I just dont understand how when trying to abridge LotR's down to 3 films anyone can justify wasting this amount of screen time on absolutely nothing at all.

Eldorion wrote:Eomer pretty much disappears after film's version of The Last Debate, and Gimli and Legolas don't get much in the way of denouement after the Ring's destruction.  I've heard some people argue that ROTK should have been split into two films.  I've been quite critical of this trend in movies (which didn't start until years after ROTK was released), but I kinda see their point.  I think it would have been better to have left more TTT material in the second film so that the ROTK stuff had more room to breathe, though.  Though even then, the Gimli and Legolas scenes probably would have gotten shit from the people who think there were too many endings, but personally I think that when wrapping up a nearly 12 hour story, you should take your time with the conclusion.

interesting idea. you are right about Gimli and Legolas and I think they filmed those scenes too, if I remember theres Legolas wandering a forest and Gimli in the caves already filmed. So I reckon they must have a ton of material never seen before which could be used. I really hope they do it.

it will be interesting to see what they have but i would prefer seeing after post production work is done to it. Like I said before I'm not a fan of acting in front of green screen and them being pushed off as additional scenes. When in truth they are scenes but unfinished or unrealized scenes