christmas was on december 14th this year

...at least for me it was.

i didn't really know what to write about the extended return of the king dvd. it's increedible (kiwi accent there), 50+ minutes of additional scenes, but some nice re-editing make it go by in a quick 4 hours.
no, really... it doesn't seem any longer than the theatrical version. but it seems a lot better.

anyway, this was in salon, and the last paragraph here sums up my feelings about the (extended) trilogy as a whole pretty well.


"Watching the extended editions of all three films together still takes less time than reading Tolkien's novel, but the effect is similarly immersive. You swim in this story, and drink it and breathe it. By the time Sam rallies that last bit of willpower, if you're still with it, your defenses are entirely gone. You'll cry, too -- you just try not to. To envelop yourself in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" is to surrender all cynicism and irony, all reservations about underlying symbolism and troubling imagery, and to be carried along on an irresistible current, at least until Frodo sails off to the Undying Lands. For Jackson and his collaborators it took several years and an epic creative journey to deliver us into this pristine state, but as Bilbo Baggins himself would surely observe, it was well worth the trip. "

posted by scott 3:29 PM