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LOTR: The Two Towers: Sharkey’s Purist Edition 2.0

Hal9000

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Modeled after the "purist edition" of TTT that has floated around for the past few years, this fan edit sets out to bring the Jackson films more in line with Tolkien's original novel. Hopefully a version the die-hard Tolkien purists can find easier to stomach, by removing as many offending bits as possible.

original film name: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: Extended Edition
new film name : The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: Sharkey's Purist Edition 2.0
film studio name : New Line Cinema
edit crew name : Shelton, Dragash, and Kerr
Date Original Film Was Released : December 18, 2001
Date Edit Was Released : December 24, 2009
Original Runtime : 223 minutes
New Runtime : 173 minutes
Amount of time Cut/Added : about 76 minutes cut, 26 minutes added

Cuts removed/added/extended :

* Cut the eye of Sauron's interaction with Frodo at the beginning. Downplayed Sauron's floating eye as much as possible.
* Trimmed Gimli's comedic relief during their pursuit of Merry and Pippin.
* Cut Frodo's acid trip in the waters of the Dead Marshes.
* Inserted Smeagol's backstory, formerly the prologue to the third film, into his conversation with Frodo during their nighttime scene in the Dead Marshes.
* Cut Gimli's remark about squirrel droppings.
* Treebeard discovers Saruman's ravashing of the woods prior to scheduling the Entmoot. Treebeard is trying to convince the other Ents to go to war.
* Gandalf does not refer to Saruman as "Sauron's puppet." We do not see or hear from Saruman directly until after Helm's Deep.
* Cut the peril at the Blake Gate, with Sam getting stuck in the ground and nearly spotted.
* Cut most of the backstory of Rohan, primarilly to sever the concept that Saruman is working for Sauron directly. We are introduced to Rohan via the eyes of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, which is more like the book.
* Removed the children arriving on horseback, since the burning of the Westfold was removed.
* Removed the antagonism between Theoden and Aragorn, and Gondor.
* Theoden's decision to move to Helm's Deep is equated with riding out to meet Saruman in battle, and Gandalf does not view it as a cowardly decision of retreat.
* Saruman and Wormtongue's scenes at Orthanc are cut.
* Cut Frodo's outburst toward Sam regarding Gollum along the river.
* Cut the warg attack along with Aragorn's separation from the rest of the van and his rescue by Brego the wonderhorse, who's earlier introduction was also cut.
* Aragorn and Arwen's "dream" scene is retained, along with a modified version of her scene with Elrond. She is not sailing to Valinor, and has already made up her mind. (The prophetic description of Elrond about the end of her life matches the book's appendices.)
* Faramir is made to appear less Boromir-like and mistreatful to the hobbits. As he is in the book, a gentle and insightful Captain of Gondor.
* Cut Boromir and Faramir's backstory. Denethor did not send Boromir to the Council of Elrond for the express purpose of bringing the One Ring back to him. It ruins all justification of Boromir as a member of the Fellowship, making him an undercover agent who was not sincere in his pledge to it. He came to Rivendell because of his vision, and was corrupted more gradually toward the Ring.
* Removed Theoden's antagonism toward Gondor prior to the battle.
* There are no elves, save Legolas, at the battle of the Hornburg. The movie's depiction is comparable to an army from Canada inexplicably arriving to bolster the Polish defenses during WWII. In Tolkien's Middle-Earth, this is baffling.
* The Entmoot makes the correct decision the first time, to attack Isengard, and do so. Merry and Pippin are not sent home to the Shire.
* Trimmed the drawf-tossing reference.
* Faramir does not decide to take the Ring to Gondor, and does not take Sam and Frodo to Osgiliath. He meditates on the death of his brother, and then releases them into the woods of Ithilien.
* Cut Gimli's line about an orc's nervous system, because it is too modern of a term and seems jarring.
* About 27 minutes from the third film have been bumped up here, to finish off the falling action surrounding Helm's Deep and Edoras, and allowing the third film to begin with Minas Tirith. Also prevents a ghastly discrepancy between the films' running times.
* Fixed a continuity error in the extended editions where Merry and Pippin identify the Longbottom Leaf (in what formerly was their introduction in the third film) after being shown already knowing what it is (in a scene added to the extended edition of the second film). They weren't *that* stoned.
* Cut the sub-plot about not knowing where Sauron would strike next.
* Removed Gimli's and Legolas's drinking game. (Here's a drinking game: take a swig every time Jackson deviates from Tolkien's writings.)
* Pippin does not discover Sauron's next move via the Palantir.
* Removed more of Theoden's antagonism toward Gondor at Gandalf's briefing scene.
* Pippin rides with Gandalf toward Minas Tirith, we cut back to Frodo and Sam and go to credits.

Fanedit details : The video should be of identical quality to the original DVDs, and the audio is 5.1 surround.

Intention for this fanedit:
Modeled after the "purist edition" of TTT that has floated around for the past few years, this fan edit sets out to bring the Jackson films more in line with Tolkien's original novel. Hopefully a version the die-hard Tolkien purists can find easier to stomach, by removing as many offending bits as possible.

How intention was achieved:
Aside from small cuts, such things have been cut away as: Saruman is not Sauron's direct subservient, Arwen is not sailing to Valinor, Theoden is not a coward and does not hold a groundless grudge against Gondor, Faramir does not drag the hobbits to Osgiliath, Frodo does not attempt to give the ring to a Nazgul, no elves at the Hornburg, the Ents do not refuse to attack Isengard, and the good guys already know Sauron moves against Minas Tirith.

Time needed for the edition: A good couple of months

persons involved: 3

release information:
As NTSC DVDs:1 SL, 1 DL
or two 700MB MP4s.

available on fanedit.info
 
I was wondering when this would be posted here. The change list looks excellent. I didn't know Kerr was on board though. Very interesting!
 
I really enjoyed kerrs book edits

This seems to have all the stuff kerr did ... only difference it notice from what im reading is that this has the pacing of Peter Jackson's movie and not the text order of Tolkiens books.

This sounds very good i will definitely check it out.

Am i right in my assumption that this follows Peter Jacksons pacing but uses kerrs cuts?



-Jelio
 
Yes. It's meant to be a complimentary version to Kerr's book cuts.

Same basic meat, but a different form factor. When I first set out to edit LOTR, I had always wanted to make two versions: one "book cut" that follows the narrative of the book, and a "purist edit" that holds to the structure of a film trilogy.
Kerr created the book cuts that we've always wanted, and this is the three-film structured alternative way to watch it.

It's not just a re-ordering of Kerr's work, and most of it was done independently. I did lift some audio directly from Kerr's edits, with his approval. Once I had seen Kerr's work, I could not leave my earlier "purist edits" as they were. So this is somewhat of a blending of the two.
 
Well, I just go through a test screening of this fan edit. I was a little nervous, given the radical nature of this particular episode, but I think it turned out well. The audience, consisting of my fiance, her mother, and my own mother, seemed to follow the plot even without much to see of Saruman.

By the way, please throw any input or suggestions at me regarding this fan edit. If enough of them mount up, I may be able to justify to myself a version 2.1 to take care of a few minor things.
 
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