Aragorn takes the time to inspire the men of Rohan to face incredible odds, and he tenderly responds to Eowyn's flirtations. There's also more time setting up Aragorn's rise as a leader we know that he is destined to lead the armies of men because of his heritage, but these scenes show why he is the right person for the throne. This makes it even more devastating when the Ents watch Saruman's ( Christopher Lee) armies crush their forests we’ve seen the natural beauty that's being taken away. While the extended negotiations between Treebeard and the Council of Ents humorously make Merry impatient, there's more time paid to their customs and sacred traditions. Similarly, the added moments in The Two Towers extended cut featuring Merry ( Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin ( Billy Boyd) with Treebeard (who happens to also be voiced by Rhys-Davies) and his Ents are both more humorous and more profound. A beautiful scene where Eowyn ( Miranda Otto) performs at her brother's funeral shows the cost of war and why Théoden is so hesitant to march into battle. However, the extended cut of The Two Towers allows for more scenes of mourning and grief. The theatrical cut of The Two Towers does a great job at showing the political chess game that Aragorn and Gandalf the White ( Ian McKellen) play as they vie for King Théoden’s ( Bernard Hill) assistance. While Sauron's onslaught begins in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers is where the entire world is forced to begin choosing sides. The critical 45 minutes added to the director's cut of The Two Towers turn a film regarded as "filler" into the most mature installment in the series. While the extended edition of The Two Towers doesn't diminish this intensity, it turns into a more reflective contemplation on the ramifications of war. The theatrical cut of The Two Towers plays out like a thriller Aragorn ( Viggo Mortensen), Legolas ( Orlando Bloom), and Gimli ( John Rhys-Davies) are on a desperate mission to rally the sources of men against Sauron, while Frodo ( Elijah Wood) and Sam ( Sean Astin) race to Mount Doom as they are guided by Gollum ( Andy Serkis). While the other films in the saga simply add on additional moments, they don't fundamentally change the nature of the story. However, there's no film in the saga that improves as significantly as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Between the touching extra moments with Galadriel ( Cate Blanchett) in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the awesome moments with the Mouth of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and the gory details from the final battle in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies( which even earned it an R rating), there's more than enough you should see if you're in the middle of a Middle-earth marathon. However, Jackson's films each pack in extra details and moments that make these near-perfect films somehow even better. Considering how rich Tolkien's text is, it's incredible that Jackson added so much more, and that there were still elements from the novels that were never brought to life.ĭirector's cuts are often simply for completionists who love a certain director's work it's rare that you find a film like Kingdom of Heaven or The Godfather: Part III where the two cuts are radically different. While each of the six installments within Jackson's Middle-earth saga were among the longer films of their respective years, his extended edition packed in even more details from J.R.R. If there's anyone who set that precedent, it's Peter Jackson. Babylon, Avatar: The Way of Water, and The Irishman all passed the three-hour mark, and other recent films like The Batman, Eternals, No Time To Die, Dune, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever weren't that far behind. We're currently within an era of increasingly long film running times. With The Two Towers turning 20 years old this year, it's the perfect time to celebrate the fundamental importance of the film's extended edition. It's hard to improve a film that is already nearly perfect, but the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers does exactly that.
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