The Lord of the Rings: Book VI – The End of the Third Age
 a TRUE FANEDIT by Kerr
The final chapter 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. member ratings: |
(19 votes, average: 8.95 out of 10, rated)
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FULL TITLE:
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Book VI — The End of the Third Age
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 VI, apart from only following the journey of Frodo and Sam, several small cuts have been made, including the near-removal of Sauron’s electric lighthouse-eye. The events surrounding the destruction of the Ring have also been recut, and custom credits with new music have been added to the very end of the film.
CUTLIST:
- - The edit opens like the book, with Frodo in captivity in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
- - Added some sound effects as Sam passes the statues outside the tower.
- - Cut Frodo’s line “I’m so sorry Sam”, since he didn’t send Sam away in Book IV.
- - Added “Book VI – The End of the Third Age” title over Sam and Frodo leaving the tower.
- - Sauron the Floating Eyeball has been minimizedThe searchlight has also been cut as much as possible, but can still be seen, faintly, in some shots.
- - Removed the shot of the orcs moving off. They move far too quickly, and the bit is not needed since we do not intercut with the rest of the Fellowship’s diversion.
- - Removed some wide shots from the Mount Doom sequence. The focus here should be on the characters, not the scenery.
- - Removed Sam’s “Come on!” after “… but I can carry you!”. I feel it is much more effective without the final bit.
- - Sam’s fight with Gollum has been shortened, both because there’s no good way to merge the two parts of the fight, and because Sam would have received some serious injuries from the thrashing Gollum gives him. Now Sam just slices Gollum’s belly with Sting.
- - The Mount Doom sequence is not intercut with the battle in front of the Black Gate.
- - Added some flashes of the Eye of Sauron (from FotR) to keep Sauron’s presence in the sequence without having the electric searchlight-eye.
- - Removed Sam’s line “Throw it in the fire!”
- - Gollum and the Ring are destroyed immediately upon hitting the lava.
- - Shortened Frodo dangling over the lava. Sam now pulls him up immidiately, without Frodo considering suicide.
- - Reordered the consequences of the Ring’s destruction. Mount Doom erupts, the Nazgul are destroyed, Sam and Frodo escape from Sammath Naur and then witness the destruction of Barad-Dur.
- - After Frodo’s line “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee. Here, at the end of all things” we cut to the end of the battle in front of the Black Gate.
- - Some of the fades to black or white have been removed – the remaining have been shortened.
- - Gandalf’s “Now come the days of the king. May they be blessed” and Aragorn’s speech at the coronation have been cut.
- - Aragorn’s reunion with Arwen has been recut. Since that story has such a small role in these edits, the original scene felt too out of place.
- - The final shot of Frodo has been cut.
- - New credits with new music – “Bilbo’s Last Song” from the BBC dramatization.
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Just a short review here…
I have seen and enjoyed all of Kerrs book edits, this is the end of a very well done fanedit series
10 out of 10 … he successfully did what he set out to do and i will add this version of LoTR to my shelf along side Peter Jacksons
Excellent
Review by jelio — January 17, 2010 @ 3:15 am
10/10 for this very well made book VI, and for completing such a wonderful work on the whole series.
Review by TMBTM — January 18, 2010 @ 12:24 am
This fanedit is and allways be my favorite.
PJ’s version is good, Kerr’s is better if not the best.
I can watch this version forever.
Thanks Kerr
Review by henri2all — January 19, 2010 @ 10:13 pm
I have seen this fanedit already twice complety.
I just cab say; Awesome.
A must have for all Tolien fans.
This is a request for Boon23:
Please make a cover for part 6.
I wopuld be great to have the series complete with your covers.
Thanks
Review by henri2all — January 31, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
An epic saga concluded. Respect.
This one really has to be watched straight after book V, as it doesn’t stand all that well on it’s own. The build up to Mount Doom goes by quickly, no matter how much I liked the little changes on the way there. Some things I would have done differently, and other things I hadn’t thought of doing were great. Most of the time Kerr makes really good editing choices. The opening scene! It worked so well, I was having goosebumps, at least until the orcs started talking…
I’m giving this 8/10. It does lack some for me to call it truly brilliant, but this is one damn fine edit in a row of fine edits.
Congratulations on making it this far.
Review by spelledaren — February 9, 2010 @ 3:59 pm
Others don’t seem to worry about the continuity errors. I do. Biggest problem for me is that it comes off as a real movie, but does not at all get close to Peter Jackson’s original, which was fantastic and in itself flawless. If the intention was to create a workprint of how LOTR would have looked if it was closer to the books, it should look like one and present itself as one. Now it is just the lesser version of the original. Closer to Tolkien? Probably, but not better.
I don’t get it why people are praising these edits so much.
Review by walls83 — February 11, 2010 @ 2:50 pm
“Others don’t seem to worry about the continuity errors. I do.”
What continuity errors?
I’m trying to figure it out, and there are a couple of things that you could mean. Is it that some of the events in this movie take place after events in the previous one? That shouldn’t be it, since it’s just the narrative structure. Is it the scenes when Mt Doom explodes? Is it Frodo getting up to run very fast when Sam slices Gollum? Is it something else that I can’t even imagine? The original editors allowed for more jarring things than how Kerr handled those two things anyway.
The rest of the argument is fine, and I think Kerr would agree that it isn’t possible to match the originals. The intention wasn’t, I believe, to surpass PJ, but just to create a version as close to the books as possible. There was a demand for such an edit, and that Tolkien fan boys cheer this work isn’t very surprising…
Review by spelledaren — February 11, 2010 @ 9:42 pm
I have enjoyed your work on all of this saga, and I have to echo what spelledaren say’s .
What continuity errors??
Its impossible to match the original books with the metarial the guy had, but these are as close a match as possible.Very well edited and hard to believe we had not heard of Kerr before these edit’s. Well done Kerr 8/10 from me.
Review by searcher — February 26, 2010 @ 11:02 pm
Not my fave chapter in this DVD series so far, perhaps because by necessity it is so short. But as a flow-on from Book 5 it’s great. Lots of little changes to the sequences in Mordor add up to quite a different viewing experience.
This part gets 8/10 from me. But the whole 6-part series gets 10/10. Bravo Kerr!
Review by mullholland665 — July 23, 2010 @ 7:35 am
This was my first time watching LotR since seeing Return of the King just once in theaters. Also, I’ve never read the Hobbit (Although these edits have inspired me to check them out.!)
I was most drawn to this edit by its economy. I had only gotten around to watching the Fellowship extended edition, not the others. I think what kept me from rewatching these films was their staggering lengths. This edit brings all the material down from 11+ hours to a little over 7. With all this time trimmed and me having vague memory of the theatrical releases and no book memory to base it on, I was still hooked and found the plot easy to follow. I didn’t really get that odd sense I get with many fanedits that things are missing. Continuity was never a problem. The quality of the editing was flawless to my eyes. No hard cuts. The audio flows effortlessly.
On the other hand, the only time I got the sense that something should be cut was in RotK after Aragorn says “You bow to no one.” I had forgotten this scene and it floored me. All the moreso because of Kerr’s editing. I felt his breaking up of the stories into uninterrupted parts made their emotional impact that much stronger. As a result that scene had me in tears. I do love the remaining scenes and the ideas they explore. Also, I realize they’re in the book (otherwise, why would Kerr leave them?). Still, to me they dampen the impact of the aforementioned scene considerably. If this edit had been in deference to these works as films foremost, I would have expected the rest to go. But since this was not the aim of Kerr, he’s not to blame. He faithfully lived up to the goals of his project.
My significant other has never seen these films, but after having ensured their coherency and impact, I think they will be the best way to introduce her to this story.
Staggering work, Kerr. I highly enjoyed all 6 parts of this edit. Thanks for your work and inspiring me to pick up the books!
Review by Joish — September 11, 2010 @ 4:59 am
Just finished all 6 “Books”
Absolutely amazing job Kerr.
I saw Fellowship and Towers in the Cinema and only on the extended DVD when they were released.
I have never seen any version (Cinema, DVD or Extended) of Return of the King, until now.
The reason being that they cut The Scouring of the Shire.
1 – I’m assuming that the extended ROTK still does not have that scene?
2 – As daunting as this task was to do (I imagine), will you be updating it when the BluRay Extended Cuts are available?
Review by Kinetic_Blue — March 30, 2011 @ 5:49 am
This is the shortest episode of the series, covering Sam and Frodo’s final approach to Mt. Doom followed by the endings to the entire series. It is surprising how fast the Mordor scenes go by, but they pack a lot of emotional punch. In Kerr’s reassembled version the travel itinerary is much clearer and the emotional arc is delivered with full force, uninterrrupted.
The original movie has 5 (or 6?) different endings to wrap things up, and I usually get antsy plowing through all of them. They are a big shift in tone and relatively dull after 3-plus hours of epic action. But set within this short episode, the endings are perfect. The bittersweet moods complement the Mordor scenes instead of competing with the Minas Tirath battle; they can shine instead of being washed out.
I like the deletion of the “eye” and its searchlight – even though it looks cool, it is too obvious a plot device. Without it, Sam and Frodo seem more deserted and desolate; the power of the ring seems more like a force of nature than a gimmick belonging to a fiery prison guard.
Rating for this episode: 10/10.
Review by Brumous — June 20, 2011 @ 10:50 pm