The Extended Edition: I finally got it! Thoughts, discussion, etc.

[Knight of Gondor]

Well, I finally went in together with my brother and sister, and bought The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring extended edition platinum gift set! This is the set to end all sets. It has those cool Argonath bookends, that dumb Natl. Geographic Special, and the DVDs themselves. We have YET to watch the DVD extended edition, but I did get to see the Natl. Geo special. I guess most of you know, but it reeks of greenie save-the-earth political garbage. The bookends are awesome! <P>If you decide to get this, which ever store you get it, you might try to price-match it to Wal-Mart like we did...it's available there for 58 dollars!! Anyway, this is just a topic to discuss it, the gift set, and our thoughts on the extended scenes...as soon as I <I>see</I> them!

[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

I always liked your picture of Legolas. That angle makes him look funny and small like a guinnea pig or a prarie dog. Just had to say it.<P>I got my dvd gift set first day at best buy for about 50$, and I think maybe 54$ after tax. I liked the Nat'l Geo movie. It gave some interesting facts. I don't think that it was portraying save the earth but showing how certain events in Tolkien's life might have influenced his writing, even if they didn't represent events in the books. <P>I like the extended DVD. Just those few extra scenes makes the movie seem more like the book. But I have to say the extra's were outstanding. It would take all week for me to say how great they were and I need to go so I'll leave it at that.

[Diamond18]

Well, I didn't get the Special Special Edition, just the Regular Special Edition . I read the reviews on Amazon for the National Geographic special and they were really bad. They said that it was really heavy on the enviromentalism and totally glossed over his Christianity, plus really harped on the WWII allegory theory. So after reading that I thought....nyyyah, why pay extra for a thing like that?<P>Now those bookends...those I regret... <P>As to the special edition itself, well of course it rocked! But there are a couple threads discussing just about all the added scenes and some of the special features, so you might want to check those out.<P>Edit: I might as well give links!<P><A HREF="http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001268" TARGET=_blank>Here,</A> <A HREF="http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001307" TARGET=_blank>here,</A> <A HREF="http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001291" TARGET=_blank>here,</A> and <A HREF="http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001301" TARGET=_blank>here.</A><p>[ December 10, 2002: Message edited by: Diamond18 ]

[Eruwen]

I got the Extended DVD Gift Set also. Although, sad to say it, I think my sister has watched it more times than I have. I know, I'm supposed to be the one obsessed with it. But now she is the one with the shrine to Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom in her room. And everyday I come home from school I see my box opened and my movie still in the DVD player. It's pretty sad.<P>But I loved the extra Behind the Scenes things. My favorite are the "Day in the Life of a Hobbit", "The Fellowship of the Cast", and "Production Shots" located on Disc 4 and in the section "Filming the Lord of the Rings". Those scenes with Billy and Dom and the rest are hilarious!!! I especially love the part when Billy, Dom, and Elijah are making fun of each other on the Hobbiton set. <P>But I have talked way too long about this. {And I could still go on much further.} But oh, one more thing...yes, the book ends are AWESOME!!!! They look so cool holding up my, so far, collection of the Tolkien books. Have fun enjoying your movie, Knight of Gondor. It really is great.

[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

At first, he nat'l geo seemed to show how things in the book are represented by events in Tolkien's life. That ****ed me off because they didn't represent anything. However, they <I>can</I> represent events if you want it to. I think that Tolkien was influenced by them, and I believe Tolkien, when he said that they did not represent anything. I think that when you read it, you can have suaron represent a villian in your life. Or you can have anything in the book represent anything in your life. Tolkien did not write to make anything in his book represent any thing in his life. Tolkien left the door open and allowed the reader to relate things in thier life to anything in the book, but I don't think Tolkien intended that to happen and I don't think that he even wanted it to happen, but its just they way it is. The good thing is, is that this is one of the reasons the book is so universal and timeless.<P>I'm straying off topic...Anyways, the nat'l geo did make it seem like certain events in tolkien's life were represented in the book, even though its not true. So, I can see how it got a bad review. But I liked the nat'l geo because of the backround it gave on tolkien, and especially because of the visual backround. It showed where Tolkien grew up and some other stuff that you don't really get with reading about him. That's why I liked it.

[Knight of Gondor]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I always liked your picture of Legolas. That angle makes him look funny and small like a guinnea pig or a prarie dog. Just had to say it. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P> Well...that's <I>one</I> way to put it! Hey, if you know where I can find a 50 x 50 pixel photo of Legolas that looks like that, please pass it on!<P><BR>Since this topic is mostly about the Extended Edition itself, perhaps I'll create a separate thread to discuss the NG special. One thing though; the DVD had some bonus stuff about the Inklings, and this stuff mentioned Tolkien's affiliation with C.S. Lewis and his Christian influence.<P>But I still think it's too focused on being politically correct when they compare Frodo's mission to destroy the Ring to some guy hiking across Africa to stop the logging of the rain forest. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we should use our natural resources responsibly...but it ain't got nothin' to do with Lord of the Rings!

[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

I agree. IS that rainforest really as important to him as ME was to the free peoples of ME? I think not. And the ring represents the nuclear bomb and Hitler represents Sauron? Tell me, when did Hitler ever have the atomic bomb? Well, I look forward to your thread.

[Knight of Gondor]

Well, I actually got to watch the prologue today...yay! Up to Gandalf driving up to Bag End. And. . .I can't say that the different beginning is <I>better</I>, actually. Different, maybe. But it seems a little strange to edit out a lot of Frodo and Gandalf's conversation. And it didn't seem appropriate to begin the actual movie with Bilbo (even though he gives a good introduction to hobbits which some non-book readers may need) since Frodo is the main character, mostly. I almost felt like I wanted to get the first version too. Anyway, that's Knight's progress report.

[Diamond18]

Your patience amazes me, Knight. I watched the whole thing in one go, pausing only to switch DVDs. Yeah, I sort of still prefer the theatrical version's beginning (except that I liked seeing Sam gardening) for the reasons you mentioned. I just really liked them going from the Misty Mountains to Frodo reading a book with "The Shire...60 Years Later" across the screen.<P>But the new beginning does improve on further viewings.

[Haelothiel]

Indeed, I agree with Diamond. I thought the alternate beginning was a tad bit stupid the first time, but I liked it better the second through tenth viewings. Luckily I do have both the theatrical and extended edition, but I usually stick to the extended edition anyway. Or better yet, even more accurate: the books!

[Mattius]

Hey up, I have the British version (being British and all duh!) and I don't think we have any National Geographic thing on it. I have gone through all the DVDs and I am prety sure there isn't anything on it. Thank god, it sounds like it goes against everything Tolkien thinks!! Price wise the thing cost me £25 which is about Oo0o0o0o0 $40 but we don't add tax on to stuff here so Naa Nah Naa Nah Nah!!<P>Hee hee, seriously though my favourite added scene is definatly the gift giving with Galadriel and then all the extra little battle scenes, Boromir getting his *** kicked by the Cave Troll, Aragorn sliting the Uruk-Hai's throat etc, but thats just me and my blood lust!<P>PS Yes the book ends are great, I wonder what will be the gift for TTT EX. DVD, maybe a Treebeard model or Gollum?? Mmmm, preciousssssssss.

[Inderjit Sanghera]

I loved the parts of the Shire, the were great, and me being a idiot, I found ir hilarious.<P>Some other great parts were, Legolas (I think) saying:<P>"It was a Balrog of Morgoth"<P>And of course that short scene in which Aragorn is singing a short part of hte 'Lay of Tinuviel'. Lothlorien, and in particular Galadriel, was developed, and the gift giving scene was amazing.