Recently, my family and I decided to watch through ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, the extended edition. While I’ve watched the trilogy multiple times in the past, I’ve never seen the full extended cut before. Of course, the films were every bit as good as I remembered them being. Even after all this time, this trilogy is one of the best I’ve ever seen. But one of the most interesting parts about watching the extended edition for me was seeing all the scenes they cut from the theatrical release. Even though I haven’t watched the movies for several years now, it was surprisingly easy to pick out the bits that weren’t in the original cut. And for very good reasons. Every scene that was cut from the original release, though they were, for the most part, excellent scenes, had something in common. They were either unnecessary filler, sweet but useless, or fun but not in keeping with the tone of the movies. The extended movies are definitely a great watch, but in my personal opinion, they’re not nearly as strong as the theatrical cut.
Some of the scenes that were cut reduced the amount of unnecessary plot complications. The Lord of the Rings is a complex enough story, with dozens of characters and locations and events happening simultaneously. Complications for complications sake can be too much to take in, or feel like one thing too many. For example, in ‘The Return of the King’, when Aragorn and friends head to the Black Gate, there is a moment where they’re shown Frodo’s mithril shirt and are made to believe that Frodo is dead and his quest failed. It’s not true, and their belief of this doesn’t change what happens next. It’s just another complication that weakens their motivations by having the majority of the cast throw themselves into a hopeless suicide mission, instead of being a noble sacrifice to give Frodo a chance to destroy the ring.
Some of the scenes were really fun, but didn’t fit the overall tone of the story. While of course there need to be some lighthearted scenes, otherwise this could be a very dark and depressing story at times, some of the scenes cut out broke from the overall tone of the movie without adding anything in particular. A lot of these moments happened between Legolas and Gimli, one of my favourite character duos. For example, in the wake of the Battle of Helms Deep, Gimli and Legolas have a drinking contest during the celebrations. Personally, while it was a bit of fun, I found it to be a bit of a nothing moment, and lazy humour at that. So many of the best moments in this trilogy are clever, or subtle.
Some of the scenes cut were very sweet moments, I will admit. There is this lovely moment between Aragon and Legolas at the time of Aragorn trying to recruit the army of the dead to come to the aid of Gondor in ‘The Return of the King’. In the extended edition, initially the army refuses to join them, and the trio leave the tunnels, only to find as they step outside that that the corsairs, allied with Sauron, have set multiple villages on fire. Aragorn is overwhelmed. After everything he’s done, he still feels like he’s failing, like he’s weak. He’s failing. And Legolas puts his arm around him and gives him a moment of genuine support and friendship. It’s a beautiful moment, but in the end, the dead army still joins them, and all this does is delay that. The movie provides plenty of other opportunities for interactions like these, so this scene becomes unnecessary.
In general, most of these scenes were entertaining, and were often very good in their own right. But they also often bogged down the pacing, or broke the tone for a moment that didn’t move the plot along or add anything that a dozen other scenes couldn’t achieve. Cutting these scenes, kept the story focused, the plot moving along, and me and my family engaged with what was happening. So many of these scenes were good, and either touched the heart or gave us a laugh. But in the end, because these scenes, which are perfectly good in isolation, were cut, the whole trilogy is stronger.
When it comes to editing, cutting extraneous scenes that don’t push the main plot along, or which add more complications for complications sake will always make for a better story. It can hurt to cut out scenes that are fun, or heartwarming, and goodness knows I’ve had to sacrifice more than a few of these in my own books, but in the end, it leaves the story much stronger. As ‘The Lord of the Rings’ proves, cutting these interesting, but unnecessary scenes, tightens up the plot and can leave you with a story that lingers in people’s memories for many years to come.
