Great, but the extended dvd will be better, part 2 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Reviews

The Houses of Healing. It was confirmed a month ago in either Time or Newsweek in a big article on the film, that this will be in the extended DVD as well. It was cut as he felt the story was getting too far away from Frodo for too much time. I'm not sure, but likely the meeting of Eowyn and Faramir will be in that scene. Aragorn and the Palantir. This should be on the DVD. I was surprised it wasn't in the film as the visual companion book for the film, which is fairly well written as far as these things go, describes most of the major scenes that influence the plot and it talks about this scene, saying Aragorn reveals himself and Sauron shows him images of Arwyn dying. The Mouth of Sauron. This was also talked about in that book. It would work well being put back in after they call out their challenge at the Black Gate before it opens to reveal all the orks. This one I really want to see too. However, it would have probably slowed the theatrical cut down a bit. I'm hoping it will be on the extended cut. The Many Endings. I feel that a 10-11 hour film should have a good long ending. And I think each of the 6 endings in the theatrical cut are important, even if they get quite weepy at times. The first one was obviously not the end. When it faded to black on Mount Doom after Frodo talks about the End of All Things, anyone that got up to leave there is like one of those people at a classical music concert that applauds the second there is any silence, whether it is the end or not, even when it doesn't sound like the end. The second one was after Frodo wakes up and each of the Fellowship comes in one by one. This is important, I fell, as, first off, Frodo hasn't seen Gandolf since he came back as Gandolf the White, and it's the last time the Fellowship is all together on screen. Plus it's sort of a curtain call for each of them. During Trilogy Tuesday, the audience applauded like mad as each person showed up. Third ending: The coronation of Aragorn and bowing to the Hobbits. It could of ended here, but would have felt incomplete as it didn't go full circle back to the Shire. The Fourth ending is after Sam is married. It also could have ended here, but not if it wanted to follow the ending of the book. #5 - Frodo goes to the Grey Havens. The most cinematic ending. Probably where it was intended to end. However, the final ending, Sam going back home, was there I'm sure for the fans, as it is the last scene of the book as well, complete with Sam's line, "Well, I'm back." One ending I think was needed as well (not sure if this will be on the extended DVD or even if it was ever shot, just my wishing): the funeral of Theodon and the crowning of Eomer. Well, I know there's lots more, I haven't even addressed why I think some changes were made, but I think I've covered a lot for now. People must realize that you can't make a film from a story this big without changing things and leaving some things out. Otherwise you get Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which was an adaquate film version, but felt like a Reader's Digest Condensed Version of the book, without much passion for the story. Hope this review helps people who are worried about some of their favorite scenes. Many of them will be there eventually. I am sure all the changes were made for very good reasons. In the commentary of the extended DVD of The Two Towers, Jackson and Fran Walsh discuss in detail the reasons for their changes in the characters. The changes were made for very specific reasons in order to make the story work on film, not because they didn't know the books. In retrospect, after hearing the reasons (and seeing the extended Two Towers, which has much more with Faramir), the changes seem somewhat essential from a film perspective. Hopefully a revival of the films in a year or so will see the Extended cut of The Return of the King on the big screen along with the other two. It will be long though. Assuming the same amount of material is added as was added to The Two Towers, the Return of the King will be 4 hours and 5-10 minutes long. Worth every second.