The sheer amount of thought, time, and effort that goes into a film, and 90% of it goes completely unnoticed.
As you watch the extra documentaties on the extended edition you realize that this thing consumed years of people’s lives. It changed lives. It gave people unforgettable memories. It created loving friendships. It changed the cinematic world.
Worth a mention of it’s own is the touching story of Viggo bidding on the horse that the woman who rode him desperately wanted for her own but couldn’t afford. She was Arwen’s riding stunt double (amongst other things).
Nearly all the people who worked on the film were enveloped by the “subcreation” phenomenon, which is what makes the written story a lasting popular work to begin with. It has depth, it has endless backstory of which you can see hints and glimpses , and it taps into the archetypal myths of human societies. Making the movie was a truly creative endeavour, on a wider and deeper level than most contemporary story-telling. And it invited thousands of people to join in that endeavour. And told them: “Be inventive! Make it real!”
And the Charge of the Rohirrim was awesome.
Who’da thunk that Grond had runes in the Black Tongue engraved on it painstakingly by the the Giant Wolf’s Head Battering Ram Maker?
What amazed me was the time put in by the production designers. Everything from the set construction to the particulars of various weapons and armor displayed an incredible vision of the the world and its various factions. Stuff that may have occupied no more than a few seconds on film was fleshed-out and detailed at levels which would be almost impossible to justify in advance of the release of the first movie.
It was a huge gamble and I could not be happier at how it has paid off (both financially and artistically) for those involved.
I’m getting my RotK EE for Christmas, so I haven’t yet seen the RotK extras. The extras on the first two EE’s were quite amazing. It’s really unbelievable, the detail the designers and artisans add to the film.
There are many reasons why I enjoy the LOTR EE documentaries - First off being of course my obsession with LOTR. But next, it’s the chance to see so many creative minds at work. Quadop’s comments are very well taken & I agree whole heartedly. Even though the artists and craftspeople were guided by Peter Jackson, Alan Lee, and John Howe’s artistic vision, you get the feeling all were welcome to add their bit to this subcreation. And to many an artist it doesn’t matter if anyone else sees the work and the detail - they know it’s there and they have that pride.
(And the horse doucmentary does have a few non-kid friendly - but funny - moments…
So, all the EEs are out now, and I think that there is a boxed set of them, no? I had been waiting to purchase any of them until there was a complete set, as I expected it to contain some extras beyond the sum of those found in the individual movies. Is this so? Is there any plan to make it so?
We cracked up completely at the cast commentary track… with Gollum and Smeagol both making comments, even arguing with Andy! Dom and Billy are very, very funny; Elijah and Sean are very, very pretentious.
No. There aren’t any extras found in a box set, and there aren’t plans for such. The only extras beyond those found in the Extended Edition come in the Collector’s Editions, which include the statues and an extra CD of music. Some of the earlier CEs contained a National Geographic DVD that covered on-location promo bits, but nothing special.
The box set contains the EEs for all 3 movies, and a cardboard slipcase to keep them all cozy in. Nothing more, nothing less.
Regarding the cast commentaries: When Elijah’s with Sean, he seems a bit pretentious - not when he’s with others or by himself on the documentaries. Then he seems funny, likable.
Cause/effect?
Also regarding the cast commentaries: I remember vividly a year ago that the fans over at TORn were discussing how Sean Astin annoyed them with his “stream of consciousness” verbosity on the TTT commentaries. With this latest ROTK commentary, almost the first words out of his mouth were “. . . here with my stream of consciousness commentary”. I think the LOTR film folks are highly aware of the fan chatter over at TORn and monitor it.
Sorry, Silentgoldfish…if Billy and Dom reference that in the commentaries (I’ve never even seen an extended edition, so I don’t know), they probably nicked it off F&S. Their Fellowship special was dangerously hilarious…
