Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

For discussion of the upcoming films based on The Hobbit and related material, as well as previous films based on Tolkien's work
therightstuff
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by therightstuff »

Hi everyone i The Red Book of Westmarch,BookI-The Return of the Shadow fanedit by kerr
i have all the other books from fanedit.info site as a source dvd , but i am missing a single .rar file from the first book which is Red.Book.I.part08, i tried all around the net and the torrent and i even tried the editor kerr who says he lost the files,so please if any one has this single file please upload it , or please upload the .avi version of the whole first book edit , thank you very much.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Impenitent »

I've just discovered this thread. Apparently, I live under a rock.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Alatar »

Well, they're all up there now Impy. Would love to hear your thoughts!
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Jude
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Jude »

Are these the same fan edits that we posted and discussed on TOB a couple of years ago?
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Alatar »

Yep.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Jude »

Those were great! The Return of the King especially was a huge improvement.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Impenitent »

Alatar, I have not yet downloaded them. After I do, it'll take me some time to watch them all (work is eating into my leisure time as well as my sleep), but then I will post feedback.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Sunsilver »

And of course, having just discovered this thread, I can't download anything as I am over my monthly limit for my ISP! :P

Well, I COULD, but it would be supersuper slow... :cry:
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Zapruder 313 »

Greetings, everyone! First time poster but lifelong Tolkien obsessive here.

I found this forum after a Google search on the subject of "Tolkien Fanedits", after a conversation with a friend where I was saying that there was so much to love about Peter Jackson's film of "The Lord of the Rings", but also so much that I really wish they hadn't included. "Funny you should say that", he replied, and told me that there were other people who felt this so strongly that they had done something about it!

I just wanted to say "Hello" and to thank Alatar for posting these links. These edits were a revelation. I really enjoyed the Jackson trilogy when it came out in the cinema, and I bought all the Extended Edition DVD box sets and watch them often, but these edits just felt far more like the books, and far more like what I had always wished the New Line releases had been like. The skill and care that have gone into creating these is quite incredible. There are a few moments where the edit doesn't work, but only a very few, and very many moments where the edit is flawless and I only know it is there because I know the original versions so well. Overall, these edits are much, much closer to what I hoped the Jackson films would be like. It is truly fascinating to see what could be achieved simply by cutting and rearranging what exists in the official versions.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Elentári »

Greetings, Zapruder and welcome! 'Fraid it's a lot quieter around here than it used to be....

Glad you enjoyed the LotR edits, and I certainly agree with many of your comments - personally I can't wait for The Hobbit trilogy to get a similar treatment, which I think needs it even more than 'Rings.'
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Zapruder 313 »

Thanks, Elentári!

There is so much to praise here that I am finding it easier to list the very few things that I don't think work with this "Red Book" edit than to list everything that does work, and in almost all cases it is a fault with the source material -- there's only so much you can do with fixing Faramir or the Ents when Peter Jackson just didn't film the bits you'd need.

Cutting Frodo sending Sam home doesn't work for me -- I know it "never happened", but cutting that scene is one of the few edits where you can see that something has been removed. Likewise the Mouth of Sauron -- the film depiction is a bit silly, but I'd rather keep the silliness than be taken out of the moment by the obvious editing that is meant to tone down all the hissing and smiling. There are also a few moments where the editor has removed things I miss -- Sam telling the sick Frodo to look at Mr. Bilbo's trolls is a nice character moment that I would have kept. Also, a couple of lines that made me cringe even on first viewing at the cinema have made it through: Aragorn really, really should never say "Let's hunt some orc"! Cutting any of Sean Bean's truly wonderful performance also seems a shame.

These are all minor complaints, though, in the face of what can only be described as an incredible achievement: this is far, far more like Tolkien than "The Jackson Edit", and the editing is for the vast majority of the time flawless and truly beautifully done. The moment where the Fellowship first meet Galadriel honestly made me applaud and cheer out loud (much to my wife's amusement). One of the worst offenders in the Jackson version is now a moving, well-paced scene, and I defy anyone who has not seen the original to find the joins. It is beyond brilliant.

I entirely agree that "The Hobbit" is in dire need of the same treatment, although the source material is so much less promising there that I really wonder how much can be done. "The Lord of the Rings" was for me a great movie with a few silly excesses that needed trimming, but I unfortunately felt that "The Hobbit" amplified all of Jackson's worst instincts and so rarely played to his genuine strengths.

Like I said, I'm a purist :-)

Is such a rescue even possible for "The Hobbit"? I'd love to think so.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Elentári »

Well, I guess there are total purists and then there are purists who don't mind creative elaboration on the basic story, as long as it works cinematically and doesn't undermine the story and message that Tolkien was telling - I'm in the latter camp! I certainly agree with you that a totally book faithful version would not do justice to Jackson's efforts. Like you say, when he gets it right it can be magnificent, but unfortunately he has tendencies to veer towards excess all too often. The recent fan edits of AUJ and DoS that I've seen so far have been too "purist" for me - cutting anything that wasn't in the book, which is a shame. There was a Barefoot Hobbit edit of AUJ a couple of years ago that, from memory, wasn't quite so ruthless, but that was TE only and the EEs have, for the most part, so far enhanced the TE versions. I can't see that the BotFA will be any different in that respect as the TE was so abrupt.

But, as you have pondered, it's going to take a deft hand to produce a convincing fan-edit of TH...
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Zapruder 313 »

Oh, absolutely: some of Jackson's work on "The Lord of the Rings" is just stunning, and my praise for someone who has brilliantly curbed his excesses should not distract from the fact that I loved these edits so much because they cleared away the clutter around the many wonderful moments that Peter Jackson gave us.

For me, Jackson is at his best with Men. The other races, he has mixed results with: he badly misjudges Gimli as "comic sidekick", for some reason he thinks that Legolas is Spiderman, and I don't recognise his Elrond at all, but Théoden, Boromir, Wormtongue, Faramir (once the real Faramir turns up in the third film), even Denethor (much as the character differs from that of the book) are judged to perfection. When he needs to keep it small and have human characters depicted through their reaction to dire circumstances, he shines. For every time he interrupts the appearance of a Balrog with ten minutes of ridiculous platform video-gamery, he redeems himself with Wormtongue and Éowyn's moments together, or with Denethor calmly eating lunch after he has sent his last son to die. When he's doing humans being humans he can't be touched, and that is what is ultimately so frustrating about his work.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Elentári »

And yet, Alfrid is hit and miss - great in DoS but used too much in BotFA, while Lee Pace's Thranduil is superb, IMO the ultimate Tolkien Elf, though much of that is no doubt down to Pace himself, while the scriptwriters haven't exactly given us the Elvenking of the book so far...
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Zapruder 313 »

I was thinking more of Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" in citing his treatment of Men: I'm terribly sad to have to say that by the time we'd got to the stage of inventing whole characters purely in order to create a Dwarf-Elf love-triangle in "The Hobbit", I'd pretty much lost the will to live :-(

Lee Pace as Thranduil was superb, yes. I think I really need to watch those films again and try harder to find the positive in them. I got the first two EE DVDs out of loyalty and, well, "because it's Tolkien", but somehow I just never seem to want to put them in the player. There must still be lots to enjoy in there, but I think I need to work harder to find it.

Despite the seemingly universal praise it garnered, I didn't even like what they did with Smaug, who is one of my very favourite Tolkien characters, but just didn't seem to be cunning enough in the film, and looked too much like a generic "movie dragon" (although admittedly a superbly realized one). I just really missed his sly little grin from Tolkien's colour illustration. Smaug for me should always have that element of being dangerous because he is really smart, as well as being physically powerful.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Alatar »

This is quite nice. The Dol Guldor storyline split out into a short standalone movie!

https://vimeo.com/122578580
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I enjoyed watching that, even though a few of the edits were still a bit jarring (though very well done, as it is done by a professional editor, I believe). It will, however, have to be significantly updated in November. Hopefully.
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Elentári »

Yes, very well done, and clever rearrangement of scenes, including some from DoS slotted within the White Council meeting. Will certainly be interesting to see how the BotFA EE adds to the overall edit.

One thing I noticed from having all the DG scenes spliced together, which I hadn't before, is that in AUJ Gandalf says to Radagast that he believed DG to be abandoned, and Radagast says "Oh no, Gandalf...it is not" - then in DoS when the two wizards approach DG After the High Fells side-trip, it is Radagast who says "It looks completely abandoned!" with Gandalf following up with "That is what we are meant to think..."
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Re: Fan Edits Discussion - Book I The Return of the Shadow

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I thought that when I first saw DoS. I attributed it to the mushrooms. ;)
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