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The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition)
- Color
- Closed-captioned
- Widescreen
Avg. Customer Review: 
 Latest Details On ROTK: Extended Edition
Not sure why there's such a vacuum of information available here on ROTK- the platinum extended edition release.Its no secret that Peter Jackson has finished the version - and that it contains a whopping 65 minutes of additional footage that was cut from the theatrical version, putting the final movie at four hours and ten minutes. Awesome! Apparently there was some rumor that New Line Cinema was going to cheap out on the special effects for the extended release version - and go with a cut-rate American outfit instead of the New Zealand firm they've worked with on the prior two films - but this was just that - a rumor, as far as I've been able to obtain. New Scenes from the book to appear in the extended release version include the following: Confrontation with Saruman at Isengaard in which the Palantir is acquired (tossed out tower by Wormtongue), Parley with the Mouth of Sauron outside the Black Gates, Merry pledging his swoord and allegiance to Theoden, Sam and Frodo, disguised in Orc garb, marching with (and then escaping from) Orc Troop in Mordor, Eowyn and Faramir meet in the Houses of Healing in Gondor, and finally, a scene in which Aragorn reveals himself to Sauron in the Palantir. All in all, good stuff. The only liberty it sounds Jackson has taken with the material is that Saruman is killed in the confrontation at Isengaard - falls to his death from the tower - rather than simply cast from the order, stripped of his power and humiliated by Gandolph, as the book. We can certainly live with that, can't we?
Tolkien's story, Jackson's movie
It's interesting how the ultimate movie fan reviewed LOTR:ROTK as if Peter Jackson wrote the story. Yeah, he wrote the screenplay, and he did change quite a bit to make it more dramatic for the silver screen, but this story was written 60 years before Jackson started developing it for the screen. And as much as I love the books (I've read them a couple dozen times), I gotta tell ya, Jackson made some great changes. I did think that the Battle of Helm's Deep in LOTR:TTT went on a bit long, but his addition of the elves added depth and tragedy that the book did not have. Jackson fleshed out characters that Tolkien had left as two dimensional (such as Boromir) and made them even better. Aragorn became a lot more accessable and human, and Gandalf had humor and humanity. But the ending of the third movie was the ending of the third book, only more concise, dramatic, and emotional. Jackson did a fabulous job with this epic story. I don't think that anyone else could have done a better job. I can't wait for the extended release of The Return of the King.
An amazing cinematic accomplishment
I think these films have done an EXCELLENT job of capturing the essence of Tolkien's writings. Once I read the Silmarillion I was completely drawn in. Vividly imaginitive and truly epic story-telling. The films stay true to these themes even with the changes done in the story! I really don't mind them. The Extended DVDs are a must for any fan of Tolkien! I'm anxious to get the third one! For me the Return of the King is THE best film ever made.
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