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I wanted to purchase Lord of the Rings' first two movies as a Christmas gift, but checking out a couple of online DVD sellers can't make heads or tails out of all the versions available.Widescreen vs. full screen I can figure out.
But "Special Edition" and "Extended Edition" and even "Special Extended Edition"??? And from a search here in the Asylum also talk of a director's cut. How many freaking versions are out there?
Follow Ups:
There are only basically two versions of the movies:Theatrical versions = the ones that was shown in the movie theaters, obviously, And,
Extended Edition versions = versions with added footage compared to the theatrical versions, making them longer (in the case of The Two Towers, more than 40 minutes extra). Also, the theatrical versions have 'only' Dolby Digital 5.1, whereas the EE versions have DTS 6.1 sound, too (though still option for Dolby Digital 5.1!).
The various other 'Special Editions' (I think "The Fellowship..." came out on a 5 DVD version, too) ALL have the SAME 'Extended cut' of the movie - they only vary in terms of extra material, & only to a degree in that respect even, since the two extra material DVD's are ALSO the same on all of them. In short, get the normal Extended Edition & forget the rest, including the 'full screen' versions - very bad idea with this movie.
Btw., Peter Jackson refuses to recognise such an animal as a 'directors cut' - he says that if that exists, it's actually the theatrical versions... :-)
Hope this helped - btw., Dalton, funny post ;-). I will order tickets for the midnight premiere of "The Return of the King" tomorrow.
The theatrical versions and extended versions both contain "extras", but the EE (extended editions) are the ones that contain the real goodies - hours and hours of production notes, terrific commentaries, documentaries on art direction, special effects, costumes etc. - quite the most exhaustive extras you will find on DVD, a fan's dream.The Special Edition EEs contain collector items: polycast Argonath bookends for FOTR, a Gollum statue for TTT, as well as a few other goodies (such as game cards) and an additional DVD (a National Geographic one for FOTR and a Gollum DVD for TTT). These sets are pricey, over $50 bucks discounted. LOTR fans have to have them, but other folks should be content with the regular EEs.
Most fans, as well as the cast and critics, prefer the longer extended versions of LOTR - this is especially true of TTT, which flows better in the extended cut than the theatrical version. Some films with added scenes are just longer movies, not better movies. In the LOTR's case, the opposite is true - the added footage enhances the films and is integrated seamlessly into the whole. I haven't watched the theatricals at all since the EEs came out.
BTW, the EE DVDs are available *only* in anamorphic widescreen - the theatrical releases can be purchased in pan & scan (foolscreen) but I can't imagine why anyone would.
The EE FOTR & TTT are the way to go. You get the most complete version of the story, superior video and sound quality compared to the theatrical version, DTS, plus the best bonus material thus far in the history of DVDs.
Widescreen: Anamorphic widescreen that will either reformat for 16:9 widescreen sets or display a letterboxed (black bars on top & bottom of screen) image on 4:3 sets.Full screen: Also called standard format and may be refered to as the "pan & scan" version. This version has material edited from the left and right part of the picture to fit older 4:3 sets without bars on top and bottom of picture.
Forget the term Director's Cut in regard to Lord of the Rings series because the Director, Peter Jackson, carefully edited ALL versions of these films. The theatrical release version doesn't have any special phrasing attached to it. The extended version is called the Special Extended DVD Edition. There is also a Collector's Edition, but it's basicly just the extended version combined with detailed scenes or figurines depicted in the movie, packaged in a nice gift box, but at a premium price.
My suggestion would be to go with the Special Extended DVD Edition; I think that the Extended Editions are all anamorphic widescreen although I wouldn't swear to it. In any case, I wouldn't recommend the pan & scan (Full screen) version anyway, because most folks prefer seeing the whole film even if they have to put up with the black bars while watching over a standard 4:3 set. Besides, the way things are going, it's only a matter of time before we all own widescreen digital sets of one kind or another and let me tell you, viewing WS movies over a good progressive scan DVD player (RGB outputs) makes these films blossom in rich, amazing ways.
AuPh
...JVC DVDp? Did you compare it to the Malata player?I was hoping the Philips 963SA was going to be the answer to my PAL> NTSC-with-Sage-Faroudja chip prayers, but apparently it's not...it's a buggy beast, very buggy.
Still have my RP91 on my HDTV and a RP56 on the 2nd TV.
...and the ONLY glitch I've found is that on some dual layered PAL discs it can lock up on changing layers. However, I'm not convinced that this isn't a software related issue since this doesn't seem to occur on all dual-layered discs.AuPh
The Extended Edition is the "director's cut" that adds 43 mind-numbing minutes to an already overlong movie. However, devout LOTR fans seem to prefer the extended versions of both films.The extended films contain more footage of the battle of Hoth's Deep, more banter between the female hobbits (Mary and Poppins) and that talking tree thing, and more footage of that computer-generated creature (Jar Jar?) that wants to steal the plans to the Death Star. Also, there's more footage of Obiwan Gandolfi waving his staff around Theremin, causing him to emit strange noises.
As for myself, I'm waiting for all three movies to come out on DVD, then I can get the Super Platinum Director's Special Extended Edition box set. I hope we don't have to wait 10 years for the prequels to come out! I'm looking forward to LOTR Episode I - The Phallic Menace.
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