Comments on: The Lord of the Rings: Book IV – The Journey of the Ringbearers

By: Brumous

Brumous — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:44:29 +0000

A fine chapter in the series. In the original, the Rohan and Helms Deep scenes benefited from intercutting with Frodo’s story, but it turns out the opposite is not true. The Ringbearers’ journey stands fine on its own, and I think the consolidation makes Gollum’s scenes a more intense character study. The relationships among the three main characters seem to develop more naturally.

The big payoff was deleting Faramir’s abduction of the hobbits, for me the most annoying departure from Tolkien’s book in the entire movie trilogy. The editing gets a little rough toward the end of this, but I am impressed at Kerr’s cleverness in assembling a reasonable narrative from the original materials. Faramir is a more thoughtful and sympathetic character, which makes a better setup for the next episode.

Another important cut is Gollum saving Frodo from drowning in the marsh, which changes a lot about their subsequent relationship and makes Frodo seem a much more patient and generous character, and Sam less harsh. Overall the story flow is handled well and any moments of confusion or discontinuity resulting from the edits are few and minor. 9/10.

By: mullholland665

mullholland665 — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:37:00 +0000

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.

By: Ripplin

Ripplin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:38:59 +0000

More niceness! Great editing and nice cliffhanger ending, too.

By: kerr

kerr — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:20:21 +0000

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”.

By: Kirkafur

Kirkafur — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:07:02 +0000

Kerr, could you tell me which music track you used for Faramir’s contemplation scene before letting Frodo go?

By: joebshmoe

joebshmoe — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:19:16 +0000

great, as always!

By: Sunarep

Sunarep — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:50:09 +0000

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!!!!

By: TMBTM

TMBTM — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:44:22 +0000

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!

By: white43

white43 — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:38:23 +0000

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.

By: henri2all

henri2all — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:07:42 +0000

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.

By: spelledaren

spelledaren — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:13:02 +0000

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!

By: searcher

searcher — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:05:21 +0000

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

By: buddythegoon

buddythegoon — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:15:57 +0000

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.

By: Kirkafur

Kirkafur — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:34:04 +0000

Wow, I can’t wait to see the Faramir scenes and Sam’s separation from Frodo before Shelob’s lair!