The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Special Extended Edition
January 2, 2004
Since 2005 is only one week old, and there has yet to open a “good” movie that can technically be called a 2005 entry, I thought it would be nice to take a look at one of 2003’s best films, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, as seen through the Extended Edition DVD released a few weeks ago. Don’t let anyone tell you film critics live for the Now, it’s a well regarded fact that we love to review the past as much as possible, so bare with me as I highlight some aspects to this new DVD of one of my all-time favorite fantasy films, and one of the most deserving of all Best Picture winners. It’s a big film, and this DVD is up to the task.
By now, we’ve come to expect nothing but the best from Peter Jackson and the folks at New Line in releasing these “Extended Editions”, but ‘King’ is the best of the trilogy, thanks in no small part to the sense of camaraderie (“fellowship” if you will) within the crew, and the overall weight of a long (four years for some, seven, eight years for others), fruitful journey winding down for good. The centerpiece of the nearly seven-hours of documentaries culled on the two extra disks is titled “Cameras in Middle-Earth”, a 75-minute “making of” look at the progress of shooting this huge film- the most complex of the three, visually, and emotionally- directly following the other two, starting in ’01, and wrapping, after pick-up’s, almost two years later. The final twenty minutes of this feature get rather gooey and sweet, as production on principal photography wraps, the actors, and their papa bear, Peter Jackson, hug and laugh, mourn and cry, at the massive collaboration, knowing they’ve made something special. As Jackson re-shoots Elijah Wood’s final line, over and over, we, as well as the crew, understand just how hard the separation was, but how special the kinship between actor and director was, something that shows through in the films flawless performances. Similar segments recounting the final shots of Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, and Sean Astin (so important to ‘King’ as the tough, sensitive Sam) are equally as touching as Woods’ lengthy finale.
Similar in theme and nostalgia, the production documentaries on everything from initial artwork, to early computer images of Shelob, the great spider, and the huge Mumakil mammoths, are extensive and informative, but never boring for lack of interest. Like the extended editions of ‘Fellowship of the Ring’, and ‘The Two Towers’, ‘Return of the King’ focuses many minutes on the gifted, totally dedicated crew at WETA workshop in New Zealand, a scrappy bunch of Kiwi’s who do everything from fashioning Shelob’s sticky webs, and creating thousands of tiny skulls (for a sequence chopped from the theatrical cut, but now restored in the new 50-minute longer edition), to laboriously perfecting the films over 2,000 digital effects shots. These people slaved day and night (quite literally when push came to shove, and the film was lagging way behind with the “lock” date looming ever closer), and how they did it all, and pulled it together, with extensive notes and supervision from Jackson- a shlubby perfectionist- is thrilling to watch, and serves as Epic Filmmaking 101 to anybody with desires, and gifts as large as Jackson’s.
The rest of the DVD is filled with thousands of production images and artwork, and some of the smaller documentaries focus on sound technology, horse rearing, last-minute editing, Howard Shore’s brilliant conducting of the London Symphony Orchestra, for which he won an well-deserved Oscar for; a documentary on J.R.R. Tolkien and the possible inspirations for his expansive series, and a final look at the opening (including a huge day-long celebration in Wellington) and the eventual Oscar sweep last March. There is also a special half-hour devoted to a young New Zealand filmmaker, Cameron Duncan, who was befriended by Jackson because of his talents, but unfortunately was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and died at 16, after making two well filmed shorts (included on the DVD) indirectly about the sapping effects of chemotherapy, and the strong will to survive. This special documentary is remarkably joyous and appropriately mournful for a very talented kid, took well before his day, and what a sweet gesture on Jackson’s part to tribute him here with a big audience to see his young life’s work. But that is the spirit of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, both as a technically massive production, a celebration of New Zealand, and as an incredibly vast piece of epic storytelling and filmmaking; that whatever it takes to create a lasting masterwork, will be exhausted through a total team effort. It worked wonders in theaters, and now on DVD- delivered only a few months after George Lucas dropped the ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, what everybody seems to liken ‘Rings’ to (personally, I think ‘Rings’ is better from start to finish, barely, but ultimately)- ‘Return of the King’ is a crowning achievement.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Special Extended Edition can be purchased almost everywhere for a tidy 30 dollars or less. What a bargain for nearly (including 4 commentary tracks) 27 hours of material.
by Adam Suraf