Product Description

The Award-winning $1 billion dollar franchise is revisited with three new 2-disc limited editions. Each DVD features the theatrical and extended versions of the film and a new documentary. Filmmaker Costa Botes, who was personally selected by Peter Jackson, created three ground-breaking documentaries using rare behind-the-scenes footage.

DVD Features:
Documentaries:Never-before-seen behind-the-scenes documentary by Costa Botes, the filmmaker director Peter Jackson personally hired (85 minutes)
Other:Part I - 106 minutes (Extended); 93 minutes (Theatrical) Part II - 122 minutes (Extended); 86 minutes (Theatrical)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10035 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-08-29
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Limited Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 178 minutes

Amazon.com
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films gave "double-dipping"--releasing a DVD then releasing an improved version shortly afterward--a good name by offering both a better film and stupendous extras in the Extended Editions. This "triple-dip" 2006 Limited Edition falls far short of that standard but is still of interest to devoted and casual fans.

What do you get?
Both the theatrical and extended versions of The Fellowship of the Ring are on one double-sided disc. The versions use seamless branching, meaning that the scenes that are common to both versions are stored on the disc only once. If you choose to watch the extended version, the disc "branches" out to the added or extended scenes. What does this mean to the viewer? Not much. The viewing experience is the same because the branching is imperceptible. But because both versions of the film don't have to be stored on the disc in their entirety (which would be six and half hours total), both versions together fit on two sides of one disc. The downside is that whichever version you watch, you have to flip over the disc halfway through; the film breaks at the same spot it did on the Extended Edition, right after the council at Rivendell. Also lost are the meager features included on the theatrical edition, plus the four commentary tracks, two discs of bonus features, and DTS 6.1 ES sound from the four-disc Extended Edition.

What's new?
The second disc has an 85-minute documentary directed by Costa Botes, who was personally selected by Peter Jackson. Rather than the formal documentary structure of other editions, it consists of off-the-cuff interviews with Peter Jackson, Alan Lee, and others, and random bits of behind-the-scenes action and special-effects work. Those who have worked their way through the many hours of bonus content on the other editions might recognize some of this footage, such as the Hobbit actors mocking whichever of them is not around, then greeting him warmly when he shows up. Other things--Liv Tyler riding a fake horse, a snowfall during shooting, interviewing the rank-and-file cast members, touring Peter Jackson's trailer--seem new. And some bits seem geared to those who've watched the other material--for example, some of the visual tricks explained there are only glimpsed without explanation here. It's entertaining, but because there's no structure (there are chapters, but no menu or chapter listing), it's not as convenient to watch, and go back to, as a documentary broken up into bite-size pieces. Oddly, the documentary is in widescreen, but not anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. Note: New Line Home Entertainment couldn't release this material on its own a là the King Kong Production Diaries due to contractual restrictions.

Bottom line: Do you need this edition?
This Limited Edition combination of theatrical and extended versions plus new documentary seems likely to appeal to two camps. One is the devoted fan, who already owns both editions but has to have everything LOTR. The other is the casual fan who liked the movie in theaters, heard good things about the Extended Edition, and doesn't need a ton of bonus material. This edition is attractively priced for that buyer, and the packaging is quite handsome. In between is the devoted fan who already owns both editions but doesn't feel the need to watch more bonus material. When watching the whole movie, that fan will always choose the Extended Edition, but keeps the theatrical edition for (1) watching with guests, (2) the music video, or (3) the convenience of skimming through favorite scenes without having to change discs. That fan can safely skip this edition, as can home-theater fans who love DTS. --David Horiuchi

From The New Yorker
It takes about forty-five minutes for the movie to emerge from Sir Ian McKellen's beard (he plays the garrulous wizard Gandalf), but once it does, this enormous hunk of quasi-medieval myth, based on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, is consistently beautiful and exciting. The New Zealander director Peter Jackson, who wrote the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, works with enough dramatic tension and pictorial grandeur to sustain us through long periods of complicated exposition and heavy bouts of swordplay. Elijah Wood, of the troubled blue eyes, plays the hobbit Frodo. He is accompanied in this quest by Gandalf, two noble human warriors (Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean), an intemperate, black-bearded dwarf (John Rhys-Davies), and various scampering halflings. The New Zealand landscapes-jagged mountains, thickety glens, limitless plains-add to the aura of enchantment. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Finally! A fantasy masterpiece for the cinema!
A cinematic version of Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS ranks up with the hope that Lucas will indeed make another Star Wars Trilogy, and, I think I can safely say, this is one of the most anticipated films in the movie industry's long and checkered history. You would think it's movie paradise, considering Lucas has been in the midst of another Star Wars trilogy and LORD OF THE RINGS has finally got a cinema deal (live action!), but PHANTOM MENACE proved something of a disappointment (Mesa Jar Jar Binks!), and I think quite a few people will enter into the theatre with a certain amount of trepidation.

There's a reason for that. Three animated Tolkien films have been released with very problematic results. The 1978 Bakshi release is just embarrassing; the film is both incoherent and confusing.

Rankin & Bass's two movies are fine for little kids; those two films are Tolkien for Saturday Morning cartoons. They proved my introduction to Tolkien and for that I am thankful, but the movies still fail to capture the grandeur of Tolkien's imagination.

There are two things to consider here about a work of literature. Although all good literature has a polarization effect on its readers, this work has a gigantic legion of followers which are extremely dedicated to Tolkien's vision (I count myself a member of this camp). The other camp cannot figure out what the big fuss is about and why they should care about the novel.

Now, there's a reason why all this is relevant to the film: had Peter Jackson gone to far either way the film would have fallen apart. Appeal to much to the fan-base and you loose the general movie-goer. Appeal to much to the movie-goer, and you'll lose the fan-base.

So when the fan base learned of Peter Jackson's decision to film all three films at once, an unprecedented move in movie history, most of us really wanted it to be good but were just simply afraid. We've already been burnt. Would it be so bad that it would alienate both fan base and those who are just looking for a good movie?

Not only does Peter Jackson's film work, it's glorious, beautiful, has all the myth and grandeur of the book. Jackson, a Tolkien fanatic, could have gotten so involved with bringing out the extremely detailed world Tolkien gave us that the pacing would suffer or we'd lose patience with all these obscure details which would alienate the regular movie goer. Not only does he not alienate the general movie goer, but he entices the fan base so much they can't help but fall in love with his vision of Tolkien's world.

The only real flaw is how rushed first section of the movie is. Although I can understand cutting the Old Forest and Tom Bombadil, the way they handled getting the hobbits out of the Shire was unacceptable. There is not that sense of camaraderie between the Hobbits that there is in the book, there is no "conspiracy," and Merry and Pippin just join without any questioning from Sam and Frodo. While Jackson does a good job at building the Hobbits' characters and establishing their personalities, I couldn't come up with a good reason why Frodo and Sam would just let Merry and Pippin join them.

The Prancing Pony is worst. There is no questioning from the Hobbits about Aragorn proving himself, there is no scene about him asking them to trust him, and the whole sequence feels much too rushed. Sam only questions Aragorn while they're actually out of the inn and traveling.

Thankfully, however, that is the only real flaw. The rest of the things the script changed (tightening Elrond's council, the expansion of Arwen, cutting Sam from the Galadriel mirror sequence, tempting Aragorn with the ring, etc) I can see why they did it for dramatic tension. I also liked the way they handled Elrond's council, because that could have ruined the movie like it did with Bakshi's. They had established and covered much of the material in that chapter elsewhere by means of voice-over prologue and actually showing the viewer what is happening (especially with the Isengard sequences), and as a result lessened the screentime of that scene and helping with the dramatics of it.

As for the controversial expansion of Arwen, I tend to agree with the film makers in their decision to enlarge her role. By making her part of the Ford sequence it introduces the character and establishes her in the viewer's mind, and the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn is more fully explored. As for their romantic interlude in Rivendell, not only do I agree with that but think it should have been done in the book. Tolkien did not know who Strider was when he was first writing FELLOWSHIP, and did not go back and change the scenes to further explain the romance between Arwen and Aragorn, and by not including a scene in Rivendell to establish their love for one another lessens by far the impact of their union in Part III, and (for once) this romantic scene is actually an improvement on the book. As for her role in the Flight at the Ford, for the movie they made the right choice though the book is still preferable.

In achieving the balance between fan base and the more causal fan, this film is a spectacular success. Making a movie out of a book the size of Fellowship, the fact is you will have to condense, tighten, rearrange, and make changes for dramatic tensions. The mediums are different, and you cannot have a direct translation from a book to a film. Despite of what they cut, the movie still clocks in at three hours, which is very generous. The real problem with this film, as others noted, is it's going to be a full two years before we finally get to watch THE RETURN OF THE KING.

In the end, we get a movie that stays true to the SPIRIT of the book. This is what we Tolkien fans have long been waiting for. Thank you so much Peter Jackson and your cast and crew.

The Ultimate DVD set for all time!
I already reviewed the regular "Motion Picture Trilogy" containing the non-extended editions of the legendary Lord of The Rings masterpieces on one set. However, this newest edition is a grand improvement on the previous edition. This item is a much, MUCH better investment than the old theatrical counterparts and is perhaps the greatest DVD purchase one will likely ever make.

A lot "Director's Cut" scenes are usually just added footage that doesn't do a whole lot to add onto the theatrical edition of movies with examples like Star Wars, Manhunter, or even most of the "Aliens" movies as well. The extra material is just that, extras, that wouldn't kill me to never see again.

It's a totally different story altogether with the "Lord Of The Rings" movies altogether. While the regular theatrical editions were mind-blowing, the extended cuts of the same films do wonders in fleshing out the story and expanding the characters a lot more. Several characters that were not much more than background people are shown much more screen time, stories are greatly expanded, other scenes are much more meaningful, and the movies overall have a totally different feel altogether thanks to all of the extra footage that was not included on the theatrical editions. Now as I watch them, the old editions of them are rendered almost completely obsolete due to the chopped up nature of them. I sometimes wonder if Peter Jackson grimaced when he had to leave a lot of extra shots out of the movies to fit them onto the theatres when they were released.

"Fellowship" has 30 minutes of extra footage included to a length of 3 and a half hours. "The Two Towers" was extended 43 minutes to a total of 3 hours and 42 minutes and finally "The Return of The King" is extended by a grand 50 minutes and the ultimate result is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! I don't know about you but I don't know how one can make a longer movie like this but Jackson did it! The grand total of all three extended editions is at least an astronomical 11 hours long! This is just the movies themselves.

As for all of the extras on the "Extended Editions", there are over a days worth of extras for surf through on the latter two discs of each film set. The things on them are too great to explain in detail with this review.

Whether you buy them individually or all at once on this massive gift set, "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy goes down as the greatest trilogy of all time. You could not make a better purchase. I swear it!

Deserves more than 5 stars
For all of you who think owning the theatrical editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is good enough, think again. These editions are not like any other director's cuts or special editions of films that we've seen in the past. Usually, when a film has a special edition, we don't get a whole lot more added in, and it's stuff that doesn't really add anything significant to the story.

But with these editions, just the opposite is true. The extended editions of the first two Lord of the Rings films proved to enhance the plot and characters so much more than anyone ever anticipated. Characters and their journeys become so much clearer and more interesting. The story makes so much more sense. And the whole thing has been re-edited with new music for new scenes and extended musical scores for extended scenes! It's absolutely seamless! Everything that's added in really makes me wonder how I could've enjoyed the films in their original theatrical release. These extended editions make THAT MUCH of a difference. And I have no doubt that The Return of the King extended edition will prove just the same, based on previews I've seen and what's been proven with the extended editions of the first two films.

The Fellowship of the Ring has 30 minutes added in. The Two Towers has 42 minutes added in. The Return of the King has 50 minues added in. Can it get any better? Well, of course! With each movie, you get two discs of bonus features! And these are not features that are boring to watch. You really get a first hand look at the journey that many, many talented people took when making this trilogy. Everything from adaption of the books, to special effects, to the music, to the editing process, to stories that happened on set, etc. The bonus features make a whole story in and of themselves!

For some of you, you may be thinking that 3 hours was long enough for these films. I guarantee you that it was not. When you watch these extended editions, you'll seriously re-evaluate your standards for how long these films should be. And besides, it's not like your sitting for 3 1/2 to 4 hours on your butt in the theater with no break. This is DVD. It's a different medium that allows you to pause it, take a break, cook dinner, or do whatever else you want to do and then come back later to finish it. They won't seem as long, especially when you actually see how great the footage is that they added back in. Simply breath taking.

Of course I didn't wait for this box set to come out to own "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" extended editions. The theatrical versions of those two films alone WERE plenty good to motivate me to buy their corresponding extended edition DVD sets. But I'll probably buy this set anyway and sell the extended editions of the first two that I bought, just so that I can have the trilogy in this nice collectors box.