The Lord of the Rings: Book IV – The Journey of the Ringbearers
 a TRUE FANEDIT by Kerr
The fourth of a six-part edit made to bring Peter Jackson’s adaptations of “The Lord of the Rings” as close as possible to the original book by J.R.R. Tolkien, this covers the last half of “The Two Towers”. member ratings: |
(20 votes, average: 8.35 out of 10, rated)
Loading ...
|
FULL TITLE:
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Book IV – The Journey of the Ringbearers
INTENTION:
To separate Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy into six parts that adhere as closely as possible to the six books of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. This is done by both restructuring the films to match the narrative structure found in Tolkien’s book, and by removing as much as possible of the material that has no basis in Tolkien’s vision of Middle-Earth. For Book IV, this has meant separating Frodo and Sam’s journey from the rest of the story, to extend the story with scenes from “The Return of the King”, and drastically alter some key plot points, most notably Faramir taking the hobbits to Osgiliath and Frodo sending Sam home, events which did not take place in the book.
CUTLIST:
- - New title sequence
- - Removed Frodo seeing the Eye in Emyn Muil.
- - Cut Frodo’s line “What food have we got left?” and Sam’s reply “Well let me see… Oh yes, lovely – lembas bread! And look… More lembas bread!” Sam’s line is just odd and unnecessary, and I think the scene works better with less talk.
- - The Emyn Muil scenes have been rearranged to closer match the book, so their climb down the cliff is the last event before they encounter Gollum.
- - Cut Frodo’s line “We’re not alone.” With the rearranging, the line doesn’t work (Sam says later “Who’d follow us down here?”) – and the “horrid stink” most likely emanates from the Dead Marshes, not Gollum, anyway.
- - Cut Sam’s line “Boats and rope and goodness knows what… It’s not natural – none of it!” Another really strange line from Sam.
- - “Book IV – The Journey of the Ringbearers” title added over Gollum climbing down to the hobbits.
- - Like in the book, Frodo does not fall into the CGI waters of the Dead Marshes.
- - The Smeagol flashback from RotK has been inserted into the scene in the dead marshes, after Gollum says “Smeagol…” The flashback has to be somewhere, and this is the most fitting place, since it was originally intended by PJ to be included here. Only the first part of the flashback has been used, since the narration doesn’t really fit when placed here.
- - Cut Deagol being dragged by a CGI fish.
- - Sam does not fall off the cliff at the Black Gate, and they do not use the elven cloaks.
- - The last part of the scene with Gollum catching fish in the stream has been removed. As in the book, there is no quarreling between Frodo and Sam in this edit. It now ends with Frodo’s “I have to believe he can come back”.
- - Some cuts made to the hobbits being captured by the rangers to remove repetitive actions.
- - Cut mention of “the fight coming to men on both fronts” from the map scene. Saruman is old news at this point, so the line is redundant.
- - Some cuts made to Faramir’s interrogation of the hobbits to make him seem a bit less threatening.
- - Cut Faramir’s flashbacks.
- - The rangers do not beat up Gollum.
- - Cut the scene where Sam urges Frodo to use the ring, both to make Faramir less of a villain, and because the scene has a grievous continuity error regarding the barrels.
- - Cut Frodo looking like a drug addict/like Elijah Wood when threatened by Faramir.
- - Cut Faramir’s line “The Ring will go to Gondor”. Instead, the scene cuts to…
- - … Faramir’s dream/vision of Boromir’s funeral boat. Faramir holds the Horn of Gondor, sitting in deep thought. This cuts to…
- - … Faramir: “Go, Frodo. Go with the goodwill of all Men.” Frodo: “Thank you.” Sam: “Captain Faramir… You have shown your quality – the very highest.” As in the book, Faramir lets the hobbits go, instead of taking them to Osgiliath. The scene has been pieced together from recolored bits of the final Osgiliath scene.
- - This cuts to Gollum leading the hobbits through Ithilien. First a shot from the beginning of RotK, then the “Songs and tales” scene from TTT.
- - Some cuts made to Frodo walking towards Minas Morgul.
- - Cut the closeup of the Witchking, in order to keep some mystery for his big reveal in Book V.
- - Several changes have been made to the Stairs of Cirith Ungol sequence. Gollum does not steal Lembas, and Frodo does not send Sam home. Instead, Gollum separates the hobbits by pushing Sam down the stairs.
- - Cut Galadriel’s cameo. Not in the book, and it feels weird – I always expect her to exclaim “Now, get up!” as she extends her hand to Frodo.
- - Cut Frodo’s final encounter with Gollum. Not in the book, not needed, and it makes more sense for Frodo to continue on without Sam without the Gollum-encounter, since Shelob is now still a threat.
- - Cut Frodo looking like a drug addict/like Elijah Wood when stung by Shelob.
- - Sam’s fight with Shelob has been shortened somewhat.
- - As Frodo is taken by the orcs, we cut to “End of Book IV”.
- - Frodo answers his questions more freely, and does not lie about Gollum.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
This fanedit primarily intended for fans of Tolkien’s work. Its intention is not to improve the films in and of themselves, and viewers unfamiliar with the book will probably be left confused and unsatisfied, and would be better off watching the originals. But if you’ve made it this far, you already know that, right?
Disclaimer: You must own the original movie before acquiring any FanEdited movie. We here at FanEdit.org respect the company’s copyrights, and don’t want to infringe on any company’s rights. Thank you, FE!
Maybe downloadable from Fanedit.info (enter and download at your own risk and responsibility)
| FANEDITFORUM LINK | IMAGES / COVER ART | TECH INFO | VIDEOS / TRAILER |
Wow, I can’t wait to see the Faramir scenes and Sam’s separation from Frodo before Shelob’s lair!
Review by Kirkafur — May 12, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
Man this is hard. I’ve been throwing out 9’s and 10’s up until now. It breaks my heart to do this, but this one’s an 8. It’s almost unfair, because Kerr had so little with which to work. He did the best he could, and I’m not docking any points for technical flaws, but it’s all in the entertainment. This chapter just isn’t as entertaining as what has come before. It’s Sam and Frodo walking; then Sam, Frodo and Smeagol walk some; then Faramir is mostly marginalized, mainly because PJ decided the Ringbearers should take a nice long trek to Osgiliath (how in the F did that ever fit into the timeline!?).
Clever move separating Sam from Frodo before Shelob’s cave – still a bit awkward, but I won’t spoil it. Again, I feel really bad about this, but as unfair as it is to Kerr in light of the source material, it would be more unfair to give it a 10 when I just didn’t feel the same about it as with its predecessors.
Review by buddythegoon — May 14, 2009 @ 6:15 am
Well I have read the above comments and I feel it deserves a 9, no its not as intertaining but that is no fault of the editor the edit itself is flawless and very well put together. Look forward to the remaining two edits. 9/10
Review by searcher — May 14, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
I really appriciate the work done here. Sam being pushed down the stairs actually worked, though the images didn’t fit exactly right with each other in the scenes before. The beginning has an odd pacing, but nothing can be done about this. That feeling of epicness doesn’t really show up, and we have a hard time tracking how much time has passed.
I’m going for 7 out of 10 here. This gives respect to Tolkien’s work, and I was happy to see the re-arranged scenes. But the oddness of some shots and few fast sound changes get in the way somewhat.
Thanks, and keep bringing them on!
Review by spelledaren — May 14, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
I just can say thanks.
Ever since the film came out. i had the feeling this looks like the books but these are not the books.
Peter Jackson had every right to do it his way and i can only say he did a great job.
But this project is more to my liking.
Please continue.
Review by henri2all — May 14, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
I downloaded and watched the AVI version last night.
I can happily report that the kerr’s seemless editing is still highly present
I noted no issues as such with audio or video editing at all. For an AVI, the picture quality was great – but I’m not so bothered anyway as the DVD will inevitably follow.
I felt the story flowed rather well. Pacing was good and I certainly didn’t bore of Sam and Frodo for an hour odd. There were a couple changes that I was really looking forward to –
- Faramir lets the Hobbits go and doesn’t take them to Osgiliath
- Frodo doesn’t tell Sam to leave while climbing to Shelob’s lair.
These changes work impressively well. I was really surprised at how well the latter worked. Aside it being a little odd that Sam seems to take ages to catch up with Gollum and Frodo at the entrance to Shelob’s lair, the next cut which then shows Sam threatening Gollum, Gollum screeching and Sam then plumetting down the steps is excellent. Well done!
Other things I liked was Frodo not falling in the water, Smeagol’s tale being placed after Frodo calls Gollum Smeagol and less fighting with Shelob for Sam.
Of course Faramir letting them go early was good as well. All in all I actually enjoed this a little better than Book 3 which for me had a couple issues. This one didn’t at all.
So 10/10 from me – I look forward to the DVD.
Review by white43 — May 17, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
Great book IV! I personnaly always loved that part of the story.
I understand people may be bored by that long walk to Mordor,,. but to me it is exactely what Tolkien wanted. He wanted us to feel the length of Frodo’s journey.
So even if I understand why Jackson did not edit his movie like that, I’m also very pleased that Kerr finaly shows us the original storyline in this great fanedit.
Can’t wait to see Book V!
Review by TMBTM — July 26, 2009 @ 11:44 pm
Congratulations Kerr it was a good ride!
some scenes seemed to drag a bit cause it is a lot of frodo and sam walking and talking and this was initially the reason i didn’t watch the thing because i forgot that you added shelob and was under the impression it’s just two towers scenes: walking without osgiliath
but to get in the mood for your fabulously looking part V i watched it and after the 10 minute mark i was totally in this movie
the faramir departure worked better than anticipated but still felt a little of – i really missed the flashback from the extended edition
but minas morgul was phenomenal – especially how you managed the shelob – sam thing, wow… i never thought it was possible!
8/10 because it has some drags… still great entertainment now… book V!!!!
Review by Sunarep — September 19, 2009 @ 12:50 am
great, as always!
Review by joebshmoe — November 15, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
Kerr, could you tell me which music track you used for Faramir’s contemplation scene before letting Frodo go?
Review by Kirkafur — November 27, 2009 @ 10:07 pm
Kirkafur – It’s “The Departure of Boromir”, which is track 6 on disc 3 of the FotR Complete Recordings. On the regular soundtrack, a slightly different version of the bit I used begins about halfway through track 16, “Amon Hen”. After Faramir’s vision is over, the music fades over to track 13, disc 3 of TTT Complete Recordings, “The Tales That Really Matter”.
Review by kerr — November 28, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
More niceness! Great editing and nice cliffhanger ending, too.
Review by Ripplin — April 22, 2010 @ 6:38 am
Part IV is beautifully edited and thought out. No major continuity issue here as I found with Part III, which is still pretty great by the way. I agree with the post here by White43: the two major changes he mentioned, which are in deference to the novel, work very well indeed.
Kerr, kudos to you once again. 10/10.
Review by mullholland665 — July 19, 2010 @ 12:37 pm