The Lord of the Rings on DVD

The Fellowship of the Ring - Special Edition

One of the most anticipated films in the history of cinefantastique was this Peter Jackson version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy, the first installment of which was received with critical and financial success in late 2001.

And why not? Jackson et al did a terrific job with this tale, remaining as true as possible to the book and, while that may affect some of the pacing at times, it’s a remarkable achievement that (along with Harry Potter) will hopefully encourage others to make classic movies out of classic books without throwing the book away in the process.

The movie is also far better than Ralph Bakshi's animated version from the 1970's.

New Line Cinema has been a strong DVD supporter since the rise of the format, and they have always been the most reliable studio for releasing great discs. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was originally released on DVD in August 2002, with an already very fancy two-disc set.

It featured the three-hour movie on one disc, with a second disc dedicated to a couple hours of special features.

This new four-disc version sports an extra half hour of the movie itself, four – yes, four – audio commentaries, a six-hour documentary on the making of the film, and a few other extras that don’t really compare. But more about that later...

By now everyone is at least reasonably familiar with the storyline of a Hobbit and his compatriots who embark on a perilous journey to destroy the Ring of Power before the evil Sauron can use it to enslave all of Middle Earth. So we won’t get into that here, concentrating instead on the DVD and its execution.

And the DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring is a classic example of why the home theater can be so much better than a movie theater in this age of widescreen, high resolution televisions.

That’s because we saw the movie upon its original release, one of those rare times (Lucas films are another example) when we actually pry our bums into a theater seat. We deliberately chose a THX-approved theater to see what promised to be an excellent big screen visual and aural treat.

And we hated it! The picture was dark and fuzzy, so much so that during the darker sequences it was hard to make out what was happening on the screen. The audio was worse. It was loud, which is fine. We love it loud, but there’s a difference between volume and quality - and this supposedly state-of-the-art theater’s audio system was not only deafening, but shrill, so shrill we left the theater with a headache. And the bass was anything but tight; it was boomy and annoying.

So we waited with baited breath – and both DVD releases of The Fellowship of the Ring are an eye and ear opening experience to say the least!

And boy, were they worth the wait!

The video transfer appears to be the same as that of the previous version, but that’s perfectly fine. You really can’t ask for better picture than this unless the movie was filmed digitally like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. It’s as clear as it can be, with no traces of anything abnormal on the screen at any point. It’s perfectly crisp, with even the smallest detail visible. The audio track also seems to be the same, except for the addition of a 6.1 DTS surround version. Surround use is heavy in this film, as it should be. There is almost always something coming from the rear speakers, even if it’s just the movie’s great score. During the intense action scenes, everything from sword clangs to orc growls can be heard filling the room. This is one of those movies you can use to show off your impressive home theatre system.

As mentioned, the movie itself has an extra half hour of footage not seen previously. The scenes are spread throughout the 208-minute duration, and many of the scenes are actually quite good. Obviously, most of them were cut for reasons of pacing and length, since today’s generation has a hard enough time sitting in a theatre for three hours. What happened to the good old days when movies could be nearly four hours and still have a hefty box office take (Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia for example)? Since Fellowship stands as one of the greatest movies of recent years, an extra half hour is merely more of a good thing as far as we're concerned. There is a bit more character development, and some things may not make sense in the next two movies if the extended edition is not seen.

The only flaw in this set is that the movie is spread over two discs, causing you to get up halfway through and switch them, in the old tradition of laserdiscs. Obviously this can be a good thing, since it gives you an opportunity to empty your bladder and fill up your glass, but if you plan on watching it all the way through uninterrupted, that’s too bloody bad.

Of course the flaw is due to the addition of four audio commentaries featuring more than 30 participants. The first features the director and writers: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The second is by the design team, and features production designer Grant Major, costume designer Ngila Dickson, Weta Workshop creative supervisor Richard Taylor, conceptual designers Alan Lee and John Howe, supervising art director/set decorator Dan Hennah, art department manager Chris Hennah, and Weta Workshop manager Tania Rodger. Commentary number three has been recorded by the production/post-production team and consists of producer Barrie Osborne, executive producer Mark Ordesky, director of photography Andrew Lesnie, editor John Gilbert, co-producer Rick Porras, composer Howard Shore and visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel. Finally, the fourth commentary features members of the cast including Elijah Wood (Frodo), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Liv Tyler (Arwen), Sean Astin (Sam), John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), Billy Boyd (Pippin), Dominic Monaghan (Merry), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Christopher Lee (Saruman) and Sean Bean (Boromir).

The cast commentary is probably the most fun (despite Elijah Wood), and McKellen and Lee seem as wise in real life as the characters they play. Best in terms of all-around quality would have to be the director/writer commentary. The trio are never short of things to talk about, and it probably features the most amount of relevant information. Most impressive is how the name of the speaker is put at the top of the screen every time he/she speaks, so you know who it is you’re listening to.

Moving on to discs three and four, we get what is probably the most extensive documentary ever created. Running a total of about six hours, it is actually split into 18 documentaries focusing on different aspects. Disc three covers J.R.R. Tolkien himself, adapting the book into a screenplay, designing and building Middle-earth, and a close-up look at the costumes, weapons, creatures and miniatures used in the film. There is also an art gallery featuring nearly 2000 images with commentary by the artists, and some storyboard-to-film comparisons.

The documentary on disc four is split into 11 mini-documentaries, and covers most of the filming process and post-production work. There is nothing you wanted to know about the making of this great film that you won’t find somewhere in this documentary. Of course, if you didn’t really want to know much, six hours can seem like massive overkill. Also on disc four are some galleries of behind-the-scenes photographs.

This is probably the best DVD set ever assembled, and fans of the film will definitely not be disappointed.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Extended Edition, from New Line Cinema/Alliance Atlantis Home Entertainment
208 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) 16X9 enhanced, Dolby Digital EX 5.1, DTS 6.1
Starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean and Ian Holm
Produced by Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Tim Sanders
Screenplay by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Directed by Peter Jackson

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