Easterhay said:
Scruffy said:
Jackson has wrought exactly one change on the home video releases of the theatrical edition of LOTR.
I was referring to the changes made in the extended editions.
Which are not analogous to any version of the Star Wars Trilogy, for reasons already explained. In fact, they serve as an excellent counterexample or foil to the continuing Star Wars debacle. Jackson (or whoever controls these things) released the Carless Theatrical Trilogy and the EE on DVD. Then, when Blu-Ray became a thing, he released both versions of the trilogy on that. All of them were quality products, with good transfers* and a bunch of well-thought-out extras. The creators obviously saw value in both versions, and put a lot of work into giving them the treatment each deserved. If two versions of LOTR can circulate side-by-side for years, surely we could have had multiple versions of Star Wars all this time?
It's also kind of relevant that the EE really is an extended edition, not a new edition. It was produced alongside the theatrical editions. It draws from the same script, cast, crew, photography, effects work, score, locations, etc. They are all products of the same filmmaking effort; one is simply a slightly longer cut than the other. The Star Wars SEs are not so closely bound to their theatrical editions. The SEs represent a variety of viewpoints, ideas, techniques, and actors from across several decades. Older George has different ideas than younger George.** Grafting 21st century George Lucas's ideas on top of 1977 George Lucas's ideas, then taking 1977 George off the market, is a completely different prospect than Peter Jackson making two different versions of a movie for different audiences.
* though there have been complaints about a green tint to the Blu-Rays
** My own hobby horse is Luke's dilemma throughout RotJ, and his debate with Obi-Wan Kenobi. As originally envisioned, Luke was right and Kenobi was wrong. There was good in his father, and we see that the old man is good at heart when Darth Vader's aged spirit turns out to be a kindly old man. In the revision, Kenobi was right. Anakin Skywalker really had died when he became evil, and thus his redeemed ghost has the aspect of a young, not-yet-corrupted man. I think this is due to the aging auteur shifting his sympathy from the idealistic youth to the cynical senex, but I might be overthinking it. I don't think there's anything in the LOTR EE that really reverses the story told in the theatrical editions like that.