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As I mentioned in an earlier post (about my “Phantom of the Opera” edit), I made a “Special Abridged Edition” of LOTR. My goal was to condense the whole saga – including some essential footage from the extended editions – into a single, unified and coherent three-hour movie that does not necessarily adhere to the novel (and yes, I am familiar with the novel – as well as Ralph Bakshi’s animated fiasco – and the animated “Return of the King” – and new stage version in Toronto, though I made this edit some months before that opened). So please spare me, purists. (And for those of you who are curious – I loved the stage version. By a twist of good fortune, I got to see it twice for the price of one admission. It has its flaws but it is an incredible work of theater, and it has some lovely music in it. I never thought another composer could do justice to Middle Earth after hearing Howard Shore’s soundtracks, but I was wrong.)
Mine is a minimalist approach to LOTR, so all I have is all that is essential to the central story threads. I left out the characters of Faramir and Denethor entirely, though I humorously acknowledged that fact in the end credits (and coincidentally, those two characters are not in the stage version either). I excised the most material from The Two Towers, omitting the battle of Helm’s Deep altogether.
There are moments in the various characters’ journeys when I superimposed maps showing their route (taken from the extended DVD extras) – though on retrospect, I may have overused that effect just a little.
I did include some of the new footage from the extended editions that I felt were important to the story (actually, I only used the extended editions and not the theatrical cuts as my source) – for example, more Gollum; the additional scene of Frodo, Sam and Gollum in the Dead Marshes when Gollum talks about how, once the Ring takes a hold of you, it never lets go (and in my edit, he’s interrupted by the Nazgul flying over the swamp); Pippin and Merry discovering Saruman’s storehouse of food (I used that merely as a way to transition into The Return of the King, with the two Hobbits celebrating when Gandalf and gang arrive at Isengard); a thoroughly altered version of Saruman’s parley with Gandalf; the Witchking’s confrontation with Gandalf; and Aragorn looking into the Palantir.
I completely rearranged the order of many of the scenes, especially in The Two Towers and the first half of The Return of the King. I attempted to juxtapose some scenes in such a way as to bring out the dramatic irony – for example, right after Elrond tells Aragorn to “become who you were born to be”, I cut to Gollum about to work his little scheme to get rid of Sam, “becoming who he was born to be”. I also juxtaposed Aragorn entering the Paths of the Dead with Frodo entering Shelob’s lair, and intercutting between those two tunnel scenes (amid shots of the ongoing seige of Gondor). At a later point in time, I intercut between Eowyn’s confrontation with the Witchking and Sam’s battle with Shelob in such a way that the two heros stab their enemies almost simultaneously, and we see both villians writhing in pain. (I know, I know, that means that the Shelob’s lair scene is spread over a greater period of time than it should have, but that can easily be attributed to a greater distance – color timing is not really an issue here because it’s always dark near Mordor.)
Gandalf now battles the Balrog immediately after he falls in Moria, and when it cuts to a wide shot of the two plummeting down into the watery depths, I fade slowly into the rest of the fellowship making their way out of Moria in despair. I cut out a lot of redundant lines of dialog, much of which will probably not be noticed except by the most hardcore fans of the movies.
I altered the color timing of some scenes to match the surrounding scenes, though I rarely had to do that.
For those who loved the multiple endings (and I’m actually one of them), sorry – I ended the movie at Aragorn’s coronation.
I will describe my edit in greater detail at a later time. I’ve stayed up far too late. Namarie – for now.
