Ahira's Hangar

Saw it!

The first thing to note is that the additions/changes in TTT are far more numerous than those in FOTR. Literally dozens and dozens of tiny changes were included, from reaction shots to single lines of dialogue. This on top of several small exchanges, or extensions of existing scenes plus entire new sequences!

Do they work? Yes! With three small privisoes <sp?>

SPOILERS!!!







1) Theodred's funeral doesn't quite flow with what goes before and after. It is strong mostly in terms of Eowyn's song--which is not some pretty melody sung by a professional musician but more like a ritual dirge by a lady with a strong voice. Which I suppose it is. I was left with a jarringly intense glimpse at Eowyn's pain.
2) I was looking for something that didn't happen. When Treebeard utters his great howl that summons the other Ents to march on Isengard, I frankly hoped in the EE that howl would go on and on and on, so that Saruman would hear it then have a reaction that would freak out Wormtongue. Myself, I even hoped for echoing/answering howls from the other Ents. Had no concrete reason for expecting this, but I did somehow.
3) Several wrap-up scene-ettes were at the end. The Uruk-hai going into the forest of Huorns, Merry and Pippin finding food and tobacco, Faramir seeing Frodo off. The first of these was okay, but the second and third didn't really do anything for me. Found myself wishing they'd been left out.

Regarding additions we've heard about...

Faramir is much more fleshed out, and interestingly his relationship with the Ring becomes clear in the process. It literally is a siren call to the young Captain of Gondor, offering him what he desires most--not power or glory, but his father's love. Yes, Denethor does give Boromir an order to bring him the Ring, but you can see Boromir is not at all convinced this is a good idea. Plus Faramir does have a lovely bit of dialogue about a fallen Haradrim warrior.

The Ents do get more screentime, including references to the Entwives (and a line from Treebeard that nearly made me cry).

Theoden overall gets a much clearer story arc, as does Eowyn. I'm not complaining about what theatrical version had for either, but its better in the EE. Pretty much the same for Gollum, whose dual nature makes an earlier appearance.

Honestly, I'd say the EE isn't quite the improvement in TTT as it was for FOTR, but I'm still thrilled. The extra Faramir scenes and extra bits in Rohan alone make it worth it. "O let my name be in the Book of Love; if it be there I care
Not of the other great book above. Strike it out!
Or write it in anew. But let my name be in the Book of Love!"<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 11/20/03 10:24 am
</i>

You should label this post as containing SPOILERS, Zahir. I know that some people, in particular, Foamy, the esteemed moderator of this forum, will be unhappy if they read your comments before they have viewed their own copy of TTT Extended Edition (which Foamy has acquired but hasn't had time to view yet).

~MsMary~ "Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"<i></i>

Wishes had DVD player! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

I finally got a chance to watch it tonight. And just as I liked the extended version of FOTR much better than the theatrical version, I liked the extended TTT better...

SPOILERS





The Faramir scenes in particular made a great addition. The character is so much better now! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i></i>

Okay, so I'm really late to the party, but I just finished listening to the film's audio commentary by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. I'm afraid that their arguments for the changes they made to the book irritated me more than they persuaded me. They can rationalize all they want, but in the end the results onscreen still looked like a confused mess to me. The Two Towers had always been my least favorite of the films, and seeing the extended edition did nothing to change my opinion.

It seemed to me that Fran Walsh was the only one of the three who expressed remorse about some of the changes to the book. Still, all of them constantly talked about how they needed to inject tension and conflict to bring excitement to the story, because apparently they felt the book was very weak in those areas. Oh really? Is that why I tore through the book in four days? Yeah, it was such a boring story that I just couldn't put it down. I got the impression that they thought Tolkien was a clueless hack who didn't know what he was doing, and that they had to come along and rescue the story from his incompetent hands.

Yeah, sorry, I'm not in a very forgiving mood at the moment. I'm too tired now to talk about all the things I liked and didn't like about the film compared to the book...BUT there is no doubt that the changes to Faramir will always remain a sore point for me. The onscreen Faramir just feels wrong, wrong, wrong, no matter what spin the film's writers try to put on it. Bah!

Oh yes, those Faramir scenes are very wrong, but not quite as bad in the extended edition. He is a little more human in the extended edition, and you can see more of how and why the Jackson Faramir (not the Tolkien Faramir) has become a bit warped due to the attitude of his father

And the only way I can deal with the changes in this character are to completely divorce the Jackson and Tolkien versions in my mind!

Some changes from the book that do make a bit of sense:

* having Arwen watch over Aragorn from afar, as we find out that she did in the appendixes. I can understand why the director did this, as we do not see much of Arwen in the books, and a lot of people on their first read of the books scratch their heads and say "Why did he end up with her rather than Eowyn, the heroine?". Jackson strengthened the romance and character within the film so that people unfamiliar with the story would better understand why Aragorn married whom he married.

* in the appendixes, we know that the elves and dwarves and other nations of men were fighting their own epic battles against Sauron's forces in the War of the Ring - but there was probably no time to show any of that on screen, thus we see elves coming - and dying - at Helm's Deep