- Actors: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Bruce Allpress
- Directors: Peter Jackson
- Writers: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair
- Producers: Barrie M. Osborne, Bob Weinstein
- Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, EP, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 4
- Classification: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: New Line Home Video
- DVD Release Date: 18 Nov 2003
- Run Time: 179 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00009TB5G
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 113,254 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I am a huge fan of Tolkien and after watching the original theatrical version of The Two Towers I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in some of the changes that were madefrom the book. Obviously a book of such complexity could not be fitted in to 3 hours.
Then I saw the extended editions. WOW!
For fans of the books you have the satisfaction of seeing some of the books most imaginitive creations come to life. Such as the Huorns at Helms Deep, a personal favourite part of the book for me.
It also redeemed the character of Faramir, thankfully. Unless you read the book, where Faramir is portrayed as the nicest man on earth, you would find him to be a selfish old grump. A few extra scenes added redeem his character a little and make his actions more understandable.
The extra scenes link the film better together, add more to the characters so that they become more three dimentional and explain where on earth that horse came from who seemed to rescue Aragorn when he fell off a cliff!
For fans of the excellent Sean Bean you get more of him in this and for fans of action and battle Helms Deep is extended (so awesome!)and seems to fit together a bit better.
The extra features get a full five stars on their own just for being superb (watch the Gollum one with Andy Serkis' screen test, his expressions are amazing).
Overall it is much more satisfying and thrilling then the original edition.
Worth every second.
Then I saw the extended editions. WOW!
For fans of the books you have the satisfaction of seeing some of the books most imaginitive creations come to life. Such as the Huorns at Helms Deep, a personal favourite part of the book for me.
It also redeemed the character of Faramir, thankfully. Unless you read the book, where Faramir is portrayed as the nicest man on earth, you would find him to be a selfish old grump. A few extra scenes added redeem his character a little and make his actions more understandable.
The extra scenes link the film better together, add more to the characters so that they become more three dimentional and explain where on earth that horse came from who seemed to rescue Aragorn when he fell off a cliff!
For fans of the excellent Sean Bean you get more of him in this and for fans of action and battle Helms Deep is extended (so awesome!)and seems to fit together a bit better.
The extra features get a full five stars on their own just for being superb (watch the Gollum one with Andy Serkis' screen test, his expressions are amazing).
Overall it is much more satisfying and thrilling then the original edition.
Worth every second.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I saw the theatrical version of this film in the cinema and it was so good it prompted me to read the books. That was well over a year ago. Since then I have become more and more obsessed with Tolkien.
The extended DVD offers much more than the theatrical version DVD. The extra scenes are wonderful to see, putting more from the books in, and a lot more humour.
The whole film is fantastic.
The documentaries are fascinating not only to those interesting in Tolkien, but also those interested in the film industry. They cover all sorts of things from Tolkien himself, the writing of both the books and film, the filming and post-production.
There is also a large range of pictures showing both designs, and production photos. The photos are not always brilliant, because some have been squashed out of proportion, but they're still nice to look at.
There are four commentaries from different groups of people. They are entertaining at some points, informative and interesting in others, but they do tend to drag. Fortunately, there's the film to watch when it gets boring!
A superb buy, but I'm not sure how many other different extended DVDs will be released on the Two Towers alone.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
914 reviews
82 of 83 people found the following review helpful
Sam Cable, what are you talking about?
29 Oct 2003
Format:DVD
No movie protrayal can match a good book, but Jackson's attempt is the best ever effort in the history of movies. His team's enormous amount of research, attention to detail and love of the original literary work comes through. Yes, some plot lines are altered in minor ways to keep the off-screen characters part of the movie as it still has to serve an audience that didn't read the books, but overall anyone must admire their work. Yes, all of us Tolkien fanatics would love to see a movie of 139 hours in length that shows every scene and includes every line of dialog from the books, including Tom Bombadil and the everything else, exactly as written, but that obviously isn't going to happen.
Sam - please read the books again as many of your review details are wrong. Gollum does have an internal struggle of Smeagol vs. Gollum, it's right in the book. It is pretty obvious in the movie that Sam is disgusted by Gollum and Frodo is more pitying him, same as the book. There is the conflict between Arwen and Elrond about her relationship with Aragorn and her struggle with remaining elfen and going West vs. staying with Aragorn. But it is subplot not detailed in the books as much, but Jackson is trying to flesh out characters. Aragorn does have doubts and struggles about coming out of hiding to rise to the thrown, he sets this up more in movie #2 for movie #3 but it is there in the books. Saruman does have control over nameless character "A" which nameless "B" breaks with a struggle and in the movie he has to make it obvious (over-do-it) what is going on or movie-goers would go "what the heck?" since they aren't reading the book. Saruman does rip down all the trees and into forest which P-O's the Ents, moving them into action, which WAS inspired by Tolkien's dislike of the industrial age (more to come in movie #3 I'm sure as in the books). There are warg-riding (i.e. big rats) orcs (even back in the Hobbit books) - READ THE BOOKS AGAIN!!!
But some variations are needed for a movie version for the general public; I'll agree with you that all were not needed _FOR_US_, but there is the Joe Blow ticket buyer he is trying to entertain as well, to actually make money on this colossal project (which was completed, by the way, before movie #1 came out and was still a gamble then; hindsight only shows he could have gotten away with "less", perhaps).
It's easy to tear down pick on every detail especially when movies are based on books. But this has to be (with the others in the series) some of the best movies ever made, and clearly the best attempt to mirror books on the screen; especially with the fantasy setting and special effects requirements. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is another great adaption, but it's not so hard to find a small Southern town and a guy named "Boo" as it is to create Balrogs, Orcs, Rings of Power and the Eye that Never Sleeps. Give him a break.
100 of 112 people found the following review helpful
Arwen's love story was close to Tolkien's heart
9 Nov 2003
Format:DVD
I give LOTR The Two Towers five stars. It is among the best movies ever made. And those Tolkien purists who complain about the differences between the books and the movies don't understand that the love story of Arwen and Aragorn was really close to Tolkien's heart.
The love story of Arwen and Aragorn is not found in the LOTR story itself, although it is found in an Appendix in Vol 3 ROTK, and is also found in Tolkien's Silmarillion. And so we know that the story is based on the love story of Beren (mortal man) and Luthien (immortal elf-maiden). In the movie FOTR (extended version), Aragorn as much as tells us this himself, when he sings the song about Beren and Luthien while he leads the hobbits in the wilderness on their way to Weathertop.
The love story of Beren and Luthien was important to Tolkien. After the Hobbit was a smashing success in 1937, the publisher asked Tolkien if he had any more material to be published. Tolkien gave him the story of Beren and Luthien, as part of the Silmarillion. The publisher declined to publish this story, preferring instead to print a sequel to the Hobbit. As we all know, this sequel is LOTR...
And here's the reason why the story of Beren and Luthien was so important to Tolkien. Beren is Tolkien himself, and Luthien is Edith Mary, the sweetheart of Tolkien's youth, whom he married in 1916, and faithfully adored until her death in 1971, two years before Tolkien himself died. You can see the inscription on their tombstone in the Wolvercote Cemetery in the northern suburbs of Oxford, UK (http://www.lordotrings.com/misc/grave.asp).
When Tolkien wrote that Luthien was the fairest elf that ever lived, he was writing about his wife. And when Peter Jackson decided that his movies should showcase the themes that Tolkien really cared about, he knew what he was doing when he included the love story of Arwen and Aragorn.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Compared With Theatrical Release
22 Nov 2003
Format:DVD
The extended version of The Two Towers is richer, flows more smoothly, makes more sense, fills in the blanks on missing motives of a number of characters, most notably Faramir and Eowyn, adds some important details about Aragorn. It provides more depth, background information, humor, and overall character development. Though many of the changes are small, they affected the way I interpreted scenes from the theatrical release, put a slightly different spin on things, making for a fuller experience. Which is not to say the theatrical release didn't hold together well - but the extended version is just a better film.
I'd like to add that I notice a number of people have commented on the disappointing editing done in the theatrical release - to be fair to Jackson, et al, I would say: Just remember the theatres make their money by having multiple shows. They probably limited the length of the film to get more showings in per day. It would take planning for an intermission and a greater commitment by theatres to fit in what is essentially a four-hour movie. I don't think that's intentional "dumbing down" for the audience, it is just a business decision a lot of us would rather they didn't have to make.
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