Is there a different cut of the Hobbit movies?

[Victariongreyjoy]

I saw some pictures of Beorn in Dol Guldur, Gandalf finding the Palantir and Azog chasing the dwarves and Bilbo in Mirkwood.

[Zigûr]

Are they from the extended editions? I think there was even more material filmed than made it into the EEs, but I've never watched them so I don't know either way.

(Incidentally, the only other cut I'm familiar with is the fan-made 'Bilbo edition' which, despite deleting literally all of the digressions added by Jackson/the studio, I still couldn't get through...)

[Michael Murry]

Does another edit of the Hobbit films exist? I asked myself that a few days ago and an Internet search turned up a 6.5 giga-byte mp4 download (via torrent):

The Hobbit: The Tolkien Edit
by tolkieneditor
(January 13, 2015)
https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/

The wife and I watched the first three hours at one sitting yesterday. This covered the first two of Peter Jackson's films. We watched the last hour and 15 minutes today (not including the end credits), which wrapped things up "acceptably," in my opinion. An editor makes a great difference and Peter Jackson would have done well to employ one. So, two films at two hours and ten minutes each would have done The Hobbit -- and most importantly, Bilbo Baggins -- suitable justice.

The kindly person who performed this valuable service explained:

My main goals in undertaking this edit were to re-centre the story on Bilbo, and to have the narrative move at a much brisker pace (though not so fast that the audience lost grasp of what was going on). Creating smooth transitions between scenes was of particular importance in this regard. I even reordered a few moments in the film to make it flow better. The toughest parts to edit were the barrel-ride and the fight on Ravenhill (since Legolas and Tauriel kept bursting in with their gymnastics routine).

Next, for those who do not care to download and watch this labor of love, I will post the film-editor's own specific explanations:

Let me start by saying that I enjoy many aspects of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Overall, however, I felt that the story was spoiled by an interminable running time, unengaging plot tangents and constant narrative filibustering. What especially saddened me was how Bilbo (the supposed protagonist of the story) was rendered absent for large portions of the final two films. Back in 2012, I had high hopes of adding The Hobbit to my annual Lord of the Rings marathon, but in its current bloated format, I simply cannot see that happening.

. . . This new version was achieved through a series of major and minor cuts, detailed below:

• The investigation of Dol Guldor has been completely excised, including the appearances of Radagast, Saruman and Galadriel. This was the most obvious cut, and the easiest to carry out (a testament to its irrelevance to the main narrative). Like the novel, Gandalf abruptly disappears on the borders of Mirkwood, and then reappears at the siege of the Lonely Mountain with tidings of an orc army.

• The Tauriel-Legolas-Kili love triangle has also been removed. Indeed, Tauriel is no longer a character in the film, and Legolas only gets a brief cameo during the Mirkwood arrest. This was the next clear candidate for elimination, given how little plot value and personality these two woodland sprites added to the story. Dwarves are way more fun to hang out with anyway.

• The Pale Orc subplot is vastly trimmed down. Azog is obviously still leading the attack on the Lonely Mountain at the end, but he does not appear in the film until after the company escapes the goblin tunnels (suggesting that the slaying of the Great Goblin is a factor in their vendetta, as it was in the novel).

• Several of the Laketown scenes have been cut, such as Bard’s imprisonment and the superfluous orc raid. However, I’ve still left quite a bit of this story-thread*intact, since I felt it succeeded in getting the audience to care about the down-beaten fisherfolk and the struggles of Bard to protect them.

• The prelude with old Bilbo is gone. As with the novel, I find the film works better if the scope starts out small (in a cosy hobbit hole), and then grows organically as Bilbo ventures out into the big, scary world. It is far more elegant to first learn about Smaug from the dwarves’ haunting ballad (rather than a bombastic CGI sequence). The prelude also undermines the real-and-present stakes of the story by framing it as one big flashback.

• Several of the orc skirmishes have been cut. I felt that the Battle of the Five Armies provided more than enough orc mayhem. If you pack in too much before then, they just become monotonous, and it lessens their menace in the audience’s mind. I was tempted to leave in the very first Azog confrontation* (since it resembles a chapter from the novel), but decided to cut it for a variety of reasons. Specifically, I found it* tonally jarring to jump from the emotional crescendo of Thorin being saved by Bilbo (and the sense of safety the company feels after being rescued by the eagles), straight back into another chase sequence. Plus, I think the film works better if Bilbo is still trying to earn Thorin’s respect the entire journey, as he was in the novel. Not to mention the absurdity of Bilbo suddenly turning into John McClane with a sword!

• Several of the action scenes have been tightened up, such as the barrel-ride, the fight between Smaug and the dwarves (no molten gold in this version), and the Battle of the Five Armies. Though, it should be noted that Bilbo’s key scenes—the encounter with Gollum, the battle against the Mirkwood spiders, and the conversation with Smaug—have not been tampered with, since they proved to be excellent adaptions (in no small part due to Freeman’s performance), and serve to refocus the film on Bilbo’s arc.

• A lot of filler scenes have been cut as well. These are usually harder to spot (and I’ve probably missed a couple), but once they’re gone, you’ll completely forget that they ever existed. For example, the 4-minute scene where Bard buys some fish and the dwarves gather up his pay.

And then this:

Update (22 Jan): Apologies for the delay, but I have uploaded the 6GB version of the fanedit. This version also has a few alterations, based on people’s requests, including trimming down the chase sequence through the goblin tunnels; colour correcting the transition from the Misty Mountains to Beorn’s house; taking out the Bombur “barrel bounce” (which is apparently the bane of some people’s existence); and tidying up the final fight on Ravenhill. I have no idea how to remove the gold-coating from Smaug, though. I tried a few variations, but none of them work very well. So, this is the final version, for good or ill.

I hope this helps answer the question leading off this discussion thread. While I have a few minor quibbles with this edit, I consider the slimmed-down and Bilbo-focused narrative far superior to the original -- and excruciatingly bloated -- Peter Jackson films, which I would never watch again under any circumstances.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Michael Murry

Does another edit of the Hobbit films exist? I asked myself that a few days ago and an Internet search turned up a 6.5 giga-byte mp4 download (via torrent):

The Hobbit: The Tolkien Edit
by tolkieneditor
(January 13, 2015)
https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/

I don't know that I will watch the whole thing, but I just watched the Edit's version of Smaug attacking the Dwarves in Erebor.

It is so much less stupid than (my memory of) the theme-park ride from the films. I can hardly believe it.

hS

[mhagain]

I have this as well but haven't watched it. I think I'm still traumatized by the full-length Jackson movies. To answer the OP, the last thing we need is even more unnecessary bloat. Jackson's greatest failings were not trusting his source material and not trusting his audience. Just let it die, already.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Oh my gosh: this cut is SO MUCH better! The focus is on Bilbo and on the quest, it has drive and continuity, most of the bloat and tedium is gone, along with much of the silliness (although I wish the Stone Giant bit had been cut)-

It just goes to show that Peter Jackson cannot be trusted to write his own material.