When I first saw The Return of the King in theaters a year ago, I decided that I would reserve judgment until the extended edition DVD came out. After all, for the first 2 films in the trilogy, I regard the extended editions as being definitive. It just seems ludicrous to me to limit a movie to 3 hours, just for marketing reasons. The extended edition movies are just better, in every way except brevity.
Well, suffice to say that this third extended DVD continues the trend of the first two. Indeed, I take all the movies together, extended edition, as one long 11-hour movie. And I also regard it as the most striking cinematic achievement in history. It’s certainly my favorite film, without question.
I won’t go into the details and the nitty gritty. But man. Peter Jackson, along with the thousands of people working with him, have cemented their place in our cultural legacy.
Now I want to take the time to watch the entire trilogy, back to back, blocking out an entire day to do so. Anyone feel like throwing a LotR party? ;-)