The official thread for Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King [LOTR ROTK TROTK ROK] (NOW CONTAINS SPOILERS)

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And for that alone, I could kiss you.....but I'll just send flowers.

You know you've been around too long, when we can second guess your dreams.

Piss-up, brewery, etc.

THAT is a LIE. I'm weary of your malcontent.

Wait, only twice? Tsk. (Two times through as it is, four further times through for each of the commentaries.)

Haha yes, without makeup he looks like Pete Burns.

"AND I!"

I'm not very cool about multiple DVD releases myself. Particularly not when they're carefully timed so that people desperate for it will buy the regular version first. Cynical cynical cynical.

I still think it's a bit shambolic.

To my mind, cynical would have been not telling anyone there was going to be an extended version and then releasing one later.

If you got wise after Fellowship, you knew patience is your friend. (And no, I STILL don't have the Extended Edition yet. I'm thinking of my own solo marathon before the 17th)

Hm, couldn't imagine what you mean...

i'll let you know how it is, ned :)

Yes, you will.

Not if they just rent it.

I bought extended boxes for FOTR for $25.99 (which included a free pass to see T2T) and T2T for $26.99.

That's 8 DVDs for $50.98 at a cost of $6.37-ish per. Not sure how much cheaper it can get frankly.

I'm actually not convinced Jackson himself has much to offer as a director, really. Sure, this was a tremendously ambitious project, but beyond getting the project supported and having a decent cast, who could go wrong? The cast are mostly great. Otherwise, it lives on the back of the FX (which are brilliant) and the scenery.

I realised watching The Two Towers how repetitious and banal the directing actually was. I got thinking, 'This has a lot of great things in spite of the direction, not because of it.' Those bloody endless, interminable fight scenes... incredibly boring, drawn-out stuff, in spite of the excelent visual quality. So they (originally) cut a seven-minute scene that was probably quite interesting so we can have more SLASH! CUT! THRUST! WAM! BAM! It could stand to lose more than seven minutes of that junk.

I think it was after the 3,000th identical tracking shot that I started feeling that, beautiful scenery or not, this is a director with a small bag or tricks and not much imagination. Lose the cast. Lose the locations. Lose the FX. What remains is actually kinda crap, and that's PJ's contribution.

He ain't no Orson Welles. [cue abuse!]

WELL DUH.

And as to renting: who wants to rent stuff these days?

The book was great just on story and characters. The film has those things too. It practically doesn't need anything else to be good if a good director's making it happen. Really. I'm not convinced these films have a particularly good director. I know, this is rocket science. Never mind, eh.

I AM NO MAN. I AM IRONMAN!
snaps fingers

"I AM NO MAN" works as a more iconic moment than the wordy banter imo

― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, June 9, 2024 9:17 PM

otm

Needless to say we've talked about this film (and the Rankin-Basses) on the podcast. Another thing that Rankin-Bass does that Jackson didn't was have the proper faceoff between the Lord of the Nazgul and Gandalf at the ruined gate right before the Rohirrim arrive -- the Jackson version was in the extended cut and didn't have anywhere as much impact as the book, due to changing when and where it happened.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, June 9, 2024

It made sense to cut it given how it's directed. The Witch King is about to strike, the horns blow, and he turns around and goes, "Uh, brb, I left the oven on" and flies away.

and due to his lack of intervention w/the Rohan charge, that's apparently what he went off to do.

the wordy banter could have really worked, if directed and staged well. just to return some supernatural menace to the Nazgul. and you could have still ended on the same verbal coup de grâce from Eowyn. but it's all good, she took down that Witch-King hard, damn.

My preferred version is the one in Tolkien's third manuscript, reprinted in one of the oversized folio editions, but I admit it might work better on the page than on the screen:

'Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!'

Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed.... 'But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.'

The winged creature screamed at her, but then the Ringwraith was silent, as if in sudden doubt. Eowyn, daughter of Théodwyn, had torn him open. His guts had fallen out.

He was naked to the Lidless Eye, and his terror was extreme.

Hell yeah

even the lord of the Nazgul sometimes must have to stand naked

Connecting the Ukraine war to LOTR

https://open.substack.com/pub/counteroffensive/p/lord-of-the-rings-in-ukraines-war

I still really love all the stuff w Shelob, it looks so fucking great

and when Sam unwraps Frodo from the cocoon & Frodo fully looks like Lilian Gish all ghosty white with those big sunken eyes lol

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