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I finally got around to purchasing the extended DVD version, which was released on 11/18. I’d been chompin’ at the bit for some time, eager to see if this version matched up to the extended Fellowship.

I had mixed feelings when watching it. There are a number of scenes that were either removed completely or cut down considerably from the theatrical version, and while I felt that this practice was to the detriment of Fellowship, the editing job done this time, in retrospect, was tremendous. Had they extended certain scenes as originally intended (and essentially been more faithful to Tolkien), the essence of Two Towers would have changed dramatically: instead of the growing, relentless dread that permeates Middle Earth and overshadows the entire film, we would have had to endure more of the playful goofiness spilled over from the Fellowship.

The reintroduction of Gandalf (Ian McKellan) is a good example of this. The extended DVD version includes a brief portion of Legolas (Orlando Bloom) apologizing for mistaking Gandalf as Saruman, and Gandalf informing him that he is the reincarnation of Saruman as Saruman was intended to be. (There’s also a few brief light hearted scenes throughout dealing with the trees of Fangorn forest and some discussion to bring the audience more up to speed on what’s going on.) The changes are subtle but nonetheless important — an indication not only of how Gandalf’s character is changed in director Peter Jackson’s eyes, but the general focus of the movie itself. In the final theatrical version, Gandalf has been reincarnated as a greater being — a general — who doesn’t have time after passing through “fire and water to bandy words with a witless worm.”

It makes sense then, with this focus in mind, that the majority of the scenes included in the extended DVD were cut. A number of Treebeard’s (voiced by John Rhys-Davies, who also played Gimli) were thankfully removed: they could be kindly summarized as goofy at best, and would have certainly risked comparisons with that damn Jar-Jar character. There’s also a chunk of scenes removed from the ending, all of them more comical in nature, better and more humorous than the ones with Treebeard, but ultimately taking away from the emotional, climactic finish of “Forth Eorlingas!”

There was one great (and probably expensive) segment that I felt should have been included dealing with Faramir (David Wenham). In the final version, there’s a scene of him sitting in silence and deep in thought, and based on everything we’re told throughout the movie, and what happens immediately afterward (he threatens to kill Gollum), we can only assume his thoughts aren’t totally lawful. The extended version however reveals that he’s reflecting on his relationship with his older brother Boromir (Sean Bean) and his disaproving father Denethor (John Noble) — the overall message being that the Ring doesn’t merely create evil in a vaccum but instead uses our best intentions (“A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor…to prove his quality”) against us. Hopefully they’ll include it in Return of the King, because it makes Faramir’s decision to release the Ring all the more powerful.

Okayyyyy…didn’t mean to ejaculate this much about the movie. I should take off my Gandalf robe now.