Extended Edition

Ahem: Movie Geek Rambling To Follow. Proceed At Your Own Risk.

I have just finished watching the extended edition of “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For those of you who haven’t been paying close attention, the Lord of the Rings movies were released in the theatre and on DVD in one version, and then later re-released in an “Extended Edition.” In the case of the first movie, “extended” means “thirty minutes longer,” bringing the total run time up to a whopping three hours and twenty-eight minutes.

I’m always interested in the various choices that are made in the theatrical release and subsequent director’s cut or extended editions of movies. The basic assumption in releasing the extra material is, I assume that the director’s true vision didn’t make it to the screen in its full manifestation because of the marketing-based concerns of various studio big-heads who think that the public isn’t going to put up with a 208 minute movie. Three hours is stretching the general public’s attention span, so why push it? I think that was probably the case with “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I thoroughly and completely enjoyed the extended edition. I’ve seen the regular size several times, so I know it pretty well, and I was able to tell what had been added back on for the jumbo version. In this case, the difference between the two movies was incredibly simple: the extended edition added more depth, detail, and background to almost every aspect of the story, and I loved every addition. None of the extensions changed the nature of the plot or the depiction of any of the characters, but simply seemed to bring the movie even closer to the book. As such, this brief recommendation comes down to just that: If you enjoyed the theatrical release and would like to see thirty minutes of additions sprinkled pretty equally throughout the whole movie, definitely check it out. If the land of Hobbits and Elves and such was fleshed out about as well as you cared about in the shorter version, skip the epic edition.

On a note related to “The Fellowship of the Ring” but not to its length or version, I think that the scene in which Sam follows Frodo into the lake and nearly drowns is one of the best-earned tear jerking moments in a big budget action/adventure movie, ever. We’ve watched these two on this unexpected, terrifying, violent, and relentless trek, and despite of the epic weight of their journey, the thing that grabs you is the commitment of one person (okay, Hobbit) to another: “I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. ‘Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.’ And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.” Gets me every time. It is certainly one of the most powerful moments in the trilogy.

This alternate version of “The Fellowship of the Ring” is in sharp contrast to two other movies that I own, “Apocalypse Now” and “Blade Runner.” In the director’s cut of “Blade Runner,” which is pretty much the only version you can find any more without a great deal of effort, the biggest and most dramatic change is the removal of the voiceover narration provided by Harrison Ford’s character. I used to recommend that people see the non-director’s cut version first because the subtraction of the voiceover left people in the dark regarding background details of the plot that made the film more accessible. Then, a few months ago, I caught part of the original version (with the voiceover) on TV and realized that I had been wrong and director Ridley Scott had been right for wanting to remove it. Ford’s character simply tells us in words what the movie is already telling us in action and image, so much of what he has to say comes of as either patronizing or beating us over the head with a metaphor that would otherwise come off as a subtle touch. So in retrospect, hey, you’re pretty smart, so see the director’s cut of “Blade Runner” and not the original.

As far as “Apocalypse Now” goes, I think the original was better. “Apocalypse Now, Redux,” is a whopping forty-nine minutes longer than the 153-minute original, and unlike the extended edition of “The Fellowship of the Ring,” most of the added material comes in a few extremely long scenes. While they certainly fit with the overall tone and message of the movie, “Apocalypse Now” is about a boat trip up a river, and the two major deleted storylines are essentially distractions or pauses from that journey. I’m not convinced that they really add much. I think that Coppola decided that since about a gazillion dollars was spend on making the movie and that the process nearly killed several of its stars, he was at some point going to get damn near every foot of film in front of the general public. I’d say skip “Redux” unless you were absolutely bonkers about the movie, in which case you’ve seen the long version already.