The extended editions are even longer clocking in at almost 12 hours. Some of these scenes are great, others would have just added a necessary detail to the plot or fleshed out the world, and most are a mixture of both. But they're all sequences that, for one reason or other, should have been in the main trilogy, even if they would've padded out that runtime even more than normal.
This important moment from the source material not making it into the extended editions, however, is a little strange. The Scourging of the Shire manages to show how far Frodo and crew have come when they return home.
It proves their meddle and heroism one final time. For all this, it's still a lovely and heartbreaking scene of grief. Which is important, as expressions of grief are strangely missing in a war epic like Lord of the Rings. As much as it is a funeral for Theodred, it is really an acting spotlight for his cousin, Eowyn. Miranda Otto is superb as she delivers a funeral dirge for her departed prince. Thankfully, it can be found in the extended editions, but for such a small and well-acted scene that so adds much to the atmosphere of the movie, it should've never been left on the cutting room floor.
In the theatrical cut of Return of the Kings , Frodo and Sam kind of simply walk into Mordor, probably much to the ghost of Boromir's chagrin. It's fine a leap in logic. It does take them three rather lengthy films to get to Mordor anyway. In the extended editions, their trek into the dangerous land is explained, in a great and tense sequence where they disguise themselves as orcs.
The trope of the heroes dressing up as the villains and infiltrating their ranks is something that has been seen in everything from The Wizard of Oz to Star Wars.
It might be familiar, but it works. He nearly collapses at one point and almost ruins the whole ruse for them.
Aragorn wakes Frodo up singing the ancient tale of Beren and Luthien, a human and an elf who fell in love. While the theatrical version mainly focuses on her understanding of Frodo, the extended edition makes clear with the other gifts that her understanding extends outside the ring bearer.
He kneels at the grave of Gilraen, his mother, who left him in Elrond's care when he was a baby. Elrond comes across him and muses that Gilraen knew her son would always be hunted because of his royal lineage.
It's clear how heavily this burden of secrecy and legacy weighs on Aragorn and how unsure he is at the prospect of someday reclaiming the throne. These are each useful and magical in different ways, like the length of Elven rope Sam receives that later proves extremely handy in The Two Towers.
Gimli notably receives three golden hairs from the Lady's own head, a gift with great significance to those fans familiar with The Silmarillion. This edition gives much more screen time to Saruman's various preparations for his siege on Rohan, including his decision to burn Fangorn Forest and recruitment of the Dunland people as mercenaries.
He also orders a great dam to be built, which the Ents later destroy in their attack on Isengard. Speaking of the Ents, there's plenty of added material on their culture and history, including a scene where Treebeard talks wistfully of the lost Entwives. Aragorn receives more character and backstory-establishing moments, including a scene where he meets and soothes Brego the horse, who later saves his life.
Meanwhile, Wormtongue returns to Saruman and tells him of his meeting with Aragorn and the unique ring he bore. Saruman realizes it is the Ring of Barahir and that Aragorn may be Isildur's descendant.
Throughout the three films he talks of his place as the rightful King of Gondor and his devotion to Arwen but rarely anything else which adds to this enigma. So in the extended edition of The Two Towers the decision to add a scene where Eowyn talks to Aragorn and he unwraps one mystery by candidly discussing his age - looking good for 87 - feels entirely out of character.
The scene also sees her cook some revolting soup for Aragorn which he attempts to stomach before throwing it away in a demonstration of psychical comedy more akin to Gimli than his more serious demeanour, a strange moment in this extra scene.
The theatrical cut doesn't end Saruman's story. The extended edition, on the other hand, includes Saruman's death scene. Saruman dies after being off pushed a balcony, where he is impaled by a spiked wheel below the Tower of Orthanc. Before this, when the heroes join the Rohirrim pushing back Saruman's orc army, the enemy troops flee into the forest and are implied to have been killed by the Ents inside, judging by the screams.
One character was cut completely from the original version: the Mouth of Sauron Bruce Spence. The Mouth of Sauron is a disfigured creature with an unsettling appearance. He lies and tells the heroes that Frodo is dead, but Aragorn isn't fooled and chops off his head.
Some argue this moment was out-of-character for Aragorn but Jackson claims the scene was cut because it lacked effect. One of the best moments cut from the theatrical Return of the King was Gandalf fighting the Witch King. Gandalf is losing the fight, but the sounding of the horn distracts the Witch King, forcing him to depart without killing the white wizard.
Other scenes in the Return of the King extended edition give various characters and storylines a chance to breathe and offer further explanation for certain actions. For instance, Eowyn and Faramir's romance is provided some screen-time, it's shown how Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli take the Black Ships and what happens after convincing the oathbreakers to help them, as well as how Aragorn's mind wins over Sauron when he holds the Palantir.
Every movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy received many more scenes in their extended editions, but Return of the King easily had the most to gain. One does not simply stop re-releasing The Lord of the Rings. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Frodo's cinematic trek to glory, Peter Jackson has remastered The Lord of the Rings in full 4K and Dolby Atmos, revitalizing the trilogy with a modern sheen.
To be clear, there are no new or extended scenes added alongside the 4K transition, with the emphasis placed firmly on sound and visuals, rather than material that might've been left in the editing suite.
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