The sun has been a daemon here lately, it’s reached 45 Celsius with the humidity…I’ve seen small trees burst into flame…or so I’m told.
I received a FedEx package in the mail yesterday and was worried about its contents, they were in the hot, black, metallic mailbox for over 5 hours and I was convinced whatever it was…it had to have melted.
I ripped open to package to see a plan gold CD in a small, transparent jewel case, the text on the CD read ‘Changing Seasons: WIDESCREEN’. I knew this was the FOTR DVD.
Anything associated with PJ’s LOTR movie project down in New Zealand was coded with the word ‘Jamboree: A Boy Scout Movie’ to avoid theft or duplication. Even to the point that signs pointing trucks to movie sets were labelled ‘JAMB’.
I knew ‘Changing Seasons’ was the same deal, wouldn’t you want to slip something into your pocket if it was labelled ‘LOTR: WIDESCREEN’? I popped this little DVD into my machine and instantly the words ‘Lord of the Rings’ bleed onscreen. How cool was that!
The menus for the feature DVD can only be described as elegant, much like the official site there is nothing forced down your throat, Howard Shore’s award winning score is used to great effect on the main menu. When you go into sub-menus, clips from the film are shown in a small ‘porthole’ like screen in the middle, and all the menu items surround it.
The movie transfer is of the highest quality, much like any other recent DVDs, the colors are sharp the scenes are crisp and sound quality is excellent.
I went over to a friend’s house to show her the film, with the main screen on it makes an impressive display, one by one her family stopped by and were interested. They all knew about the film and asked me repeatedly ‘Oh this is out now?’ so anticipation is high even among non-ringers!
I’m planning on showing the film to a complete novice who hasn’t seen it at all, and knows nothing of Tolkien, I’ll be very interested to gauge her reaction to the DVD!
Unfortunately I was NOT privy to the special features on the second disk; there is a media blackout on that right now. But we’ll all experience that DVD in a few months!
Take a look at these screencaps we posted a while ago from Ringer Spy Das Chupa [More]
Anything else you would like to know about? Send me your questions right here! [Xoanon@theonering.net]
Some questions that have popped up:
I have a question that would hopefully lead to advice for people with the same situation. My television set is square and an early 1990 model. I am hung up on which version to choose: widescreen or fullscreen? Seeing as you have seen the widescreen version, how is it? Do you think it would look okay on a square screen?
Xoanon: Widescreen is always the way to go, are you seriously considering cutting off an entire 1/3 of the film? Trust me, in the spirit of Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago…get it widscreen and don’t miss a thing!
Does it translate well to the small screen?
I’d have to say that on some levels it is even better on the small screen. Of course only SOME, there is nothing compared to sitting in a packed cinema with surround THX sound.
But I did find that some of the high action, fast moving CGI scenes are blurry on the silver screen. This doesn’t happen on the television, I have a nice 36 inch screen and it looked great.
You mention that the transfer is very nice, and what I’m wondering is if there is any pixelization that you noticed, especially in the darker/smoke/fog scenes?
I didn’t notice any pixelation during any darker scenes like Moria or Bree. I do know what you mean by the pixelated images, but there was none that I could see.
Have the continuity errors in Boromir’s death scene been erased from the DVD transfer? Such as:
Orcs falling down before they’ve been hit.
“Dead” orc actors raising their heads and looking around, not realising that they’re still in the shot.
Boromir’s disappearing arrows.
Aragorn possibly wearing sneakers when he kisses Boromir’s forehead.
Some of these continuity errors are simply not what they look like…much like the sneaker thing…so to answer your question…no, everything is exactly the same…sneakers?
Must know, what are the chapter names, small thing but very curious to know what they are.
Chapter Headings:
1 Prologue: One Ring To Rule Them All…
2 The Shire
3 Very Old Friends
4 A Long Expected Party
5 Farewell Dear Bilbo
6 Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe
7 The Account Of Isildur
8 The Shadow Of The Past
9 Saruman The White
10 A Shortcut To Mushrooms
11 Bucklebury Ferry
12 At The Sign Of The Prancing Pony
13 The Nazgul
14 The Spoiling Of Isenguard
15 A Knife In The Dark
16 The Caverns Of Isenguard
17 Flight To The Ford
18 Rivendell
19 Many Meetings
20 The Fate Of The Ring
21 The Sword That Was Broken
22 The Evenstar
23 The Council Of Elrond
24 Bilbo’s Gifts
25 The Ring Goes South
26 The Pass Of Caradhras
27 Moria
28 A Journey In The Dark
29 Balin’s Tomb
30 The Bridge Of Khazad-Dum
31 Lothlorien
32 The Mirror Of Galadriel
33 The Fighting Uruk-hai
34 Farewell to Lorien
35 The Great River
36 Parth Galen
37 The Breaking of the Fellowship
38 The Departure of Boromir
39 The Road Goes Ever On…
40 Credits
Harry Knowles on his site said the DVD corrected the “flaw” of the car kicking up dirt in the background. (I saw the film 4 times and never caught it. Regardless, I am glad they fixed it.)
One thing I did catch on my 4th viewing — and you can correct me if I’m mistaken — is the part where the Black Riders (Nazgul) are following Arwen & Frodo over the river. When the Riders come to the river’s edge, the close-ups have the horses feet in the water, followed by frames where the feet are out of the water. I love the film so much, and I grimaced when I saw it.
As far as I know there WAS never any car there…and the smoke you see is from a Hobbit chimney…and yes it’s still there. I’ve no idea what Harry Knowles is looking at…or not looking at. And no….they haven’t touched anything else regarding ‘mistakes’.
As one of the ‘hearing impaired’ I rely entirely on closed captioning and have been disappointed in some recent things. or instance there is no captioning on the National Geographic movie special DVD , although there is on tape. Can you check the closed captioning?. It probably means you have to watch the movie again.
This is a great question, I unfortunately neglected to mention this in my first review. I’ve just checked out the captioning and it is in a VERY readable ‘Arial’ type font…bold as well.
Anything else you would like to know about? Send me your questions right here! [Xoanon@theonering.net]
