If the original theatrical version of "The Lord Of The Rings:
The Return Of The King" was a pretty long film, weighing in at a hefty 3 hours
and twenty minutes running time, then the New Line Platinum Series Edition of
"King" is truly an epic for the ages. This extended version of the Oscar-winning
film has an additional fifty minutes of footage added to it, making "King" a
robust 430 minutes long--that's well over four hours of life in Middle Earth, and
it is still time well-spent. Both the added and extended scenes make Return Of
The King a much richer film, giving it the feel of reading a good book that
carefully delves into all the details of this larger-than-life story.
The first and most noticeable added scene is the final confrontation with Saruman
(Christopher Lee) at the flooded Isengard. Despite being soundly defeated at the
end of The Two Towers, Saruman won't go down easy. Brad Dourif also returns as
the little weasel Grima Wormtongue in a startling scene that is very well done.
Later, at the celebration in the Rohan banquet hall, Legolas (Orlando Bloom)
gets into a drinking game with Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), with comic results.
Another added scene adds a more somber tone to the film as a sleeping Eowyn
(Miranda Otto) awakens and shares a scary, foreboding dream she had with Aragorn
(Viggo Mortensen). Later, after Pippin (Billy Boyd) rides off to Minas Tirith with Gandalf (Ian McKellan),
Merry (Dominic Monaghan) confesses his fears for Pippin's safety to Aaragorn. Once they arrive at
Minas Tirith, Gandalf laments the present sorry state of the White City to
Pippin. He also explains why there are dark storm clouds heading towards them
from Mordor; these clouds are created by Saron to protect his advancing army of
Orcs from the harsh sunlight. Meanwhile, another added scene has Frodo, Sam and
Gollum walking through some ruins of an ancient human civilization. Sam notices
how the decapitated head of the statute of a human king now has a crown of
flowers, which is a nice foreshadowing of what may yet come.
One noticeable addition is the sequence where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli all
descend into the kingdom of the dead to recruit their help for the coming battle
against Saron's forces. Director Peter Jackson has added a touch of grisly
horror to these scenes as our heroes walk over the very bones of the dead
themselves. There's also a great humorous bit, when ghostly hands reach out for
Gimli, he frantically blows them away as so much smoke. Finally, Aragorn,
Legolas and Gimli must suffer through a morbid sequence as a massive avalanche
of human skulls come crashing down upon them.
And this is just the first half of the film! On disc two (the break in the film
comes at the battle for Minas Tirith, when the Orc troops bring up the fearsome
battering ram Grond), more notable added/extended scenes include an added
sequence where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli take control of the pirate vessels
with the help of the undead troops. There an extremely funny bit when one of the
pirates get shot with an arrow by Legolas--this pirate turns out to be Director
Peter Jackson in a cameo. In fact, much of the crew aboard the pirate vessel is
members of the film's production crew, who are all doing cameos.
There's a sweet little scene between Eowyn and Merry, where Merry lifts her
flagging spirits just before they ride off into battle. During the battle of
Pelennor fields, while Gandalf and Pippin race to save Faramir, they have a
skirmish with the Witch King on top of his dragon. The battle scenes themselves
have been extended. The unconscious Eowyn is discovered on the battlefield by
her brother, who nurses her back to health with the help of Aragorn. It is while
healing from her wounds that Eowyn meets with Faramir and they bond. And finally,
when Aragorn leads his forces to the Black Gate of Mordor, they meet with a most
unusual underling of Sauron's. A dark lieutenant with no eyes, and a huge,
gaping mouth that is lined with filthy, dagger-like teeth, he is an eloquent
spokesperson (spokes-thing?) who tries to convince Aragorn that Frodo has been
captured and tortured to death by Sauron. Because of lack of space, I have not
discussed all of the added/extended scenes here, just the more significant ones.
There are no less than four audio commentaries on this film. The first one has
Director Peter Jackson and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The
second commentary has the film's design team, the third features the film's
production and post production team, and the final audio track has commentary
from the cast, including Elijah Wood (Frodo), Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler (Arwen), Sean Astin (Sam), John
Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill (Theoden), Christopher Lee (Saruman), Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan,
Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Miranda Otto, David Wenham (Faramir), Karl Urban (Eomer), John Noble (Denethor),
Andy Serkis (Gollum), and Lawrence Makoare (The Witch King). Andy Serkis abruptly launches into his Gollum
character from time to time during the commentary with riotous effect. And
Hobbits Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are often side-splittingly funny with
their off the cuff comments.
And then there are the two additional discs, which contain a massive "making of"
documentary that is just as epic as the film itself. Tackling the making of the
third and final film from the script process, through the elaborate production
design, the arduous filming and finally the postproduction. If you ever wanted
to see what making a major motion picture was like, this is the documentary for
you to watch; it's like having a mini film school on DVD. The Lord Of The Rings
saga may finally be over, but they will live on, thanks to these handsomely
produced DVD sets. --SF
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