The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy vs. The Making Of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy

[Marsellus_H 118]

This one came up in the latest poll forum, discussing the merits of making-offs. The idea was originally Threshold's. We are talking about one of the most important film trilogies vs. a trilogy of documentaries that was meant to be a fun making-of of the film trilogy to end all film trilogies, but turned out to be damn entertaining and reveiling about the making of the Peter Jackson epic and of fims in general, sort of a pocket-film-school, and also setted "visiting New Zealand (not that knock-off, that is middle earth) before I die" on top of every bucket list of everybody that was around 2003 in between 10 and 30 years old. So many things have been written about both trilogies, that it's kind of hard to get a grasp on the phenomenon that the Lord Of The Rings as film and as meta-film was and continues to be. Have fun discussing the merits of these trilogies in the comment section below.

 

P.S: trilogy.

[Muthsarah 124]

This is a thing? Like a stand-alone documentary? Not just a LotR DVD supplementary material...thing?

 

I'm Googling this, and I'm just finding some hour long videos, not like a real documentary film. Links?

[dog_in_space 4]

I'm just really confused about OP's phrasing of...well...everything. Something about a LoTR trilogy and something about documentaries.

[Threshold 93]

Well, I know Amy has already recorded a LOTR episode with my podcast guru Joanna Robinson- so there probably won't be a versus- but I absolutely agree with the idea that the making of is just as terrific as the films themselves.

This is a thing? Like a stand-alone documentary? Not just a LotR DVD supplementary material...thing?

 

I'm Googling this, and I'm just finding some hour long videos, not like a real documentary film. Links?

Yeah, that might be the main issue- they're all segmented, I'm not quite sure if there is one big documentary that's easily accessible without being split.

[Muthsarah 124]

I remember liking the DVD extras on the FotR and TTT DVDs that I own a lot more than the movie themselves...

 

...which is a story in itself...

 

...but whatever. I ended up liking the behind-the-scenes stuff more than the movies themselves, even though I liked the first two movies plenty well, the FIRST time I saw them. And only then.

 

A behind-the-scenes documentary of ANY film...put up for The Canon. Very interesting.

 

How would i vote the LotR movies themselves? I would abstain, even though I've seen them all. I felt...impressed. But I just don't enjoy them. Can't get over the changes. Yeah, I know the books, and I knew them pre-2002. I'm a one-a-them nerd. Whatevs. But the DVD supplementals made me feel all kindsa good that the films themselves didn't. I won't say I'd vote the documentaries over the films. For one thing, the films aren't remotely re-watchable, at least in my experience. But then again, their imitators have made royal asses of themselves trying to copy the formula (Alice in Wonderland.....REAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLY???!!!!!!). Which at least speaks for their influence, which lasted for YEARS. They are a one/three-off, but they cast a long shadow. For whatever they made of the text, a once-thought-of unfilmable work, they made into a proper blockbuster series, and so doing, they inspired Hollywood to hurt itself trying to copy it. So negative legacy, maybe, but, from what I hear, a generation-defining work?

 

And The Hobbit sucked, both parts I saw. Couldn't even follow up on them. And sure, the Star Wars rip-offs sucked too, but.......Star Wars is still endlessly re-watchable. I guess is all it boils down to.

 

Basically, I'm open to giving a LotR behind-the-scenes doc a totally fair shake. But are they seriously only DVD extras, or do they exist as a thing? Because if they ain't no thing, they just don't count. A 2-3 hour doc about making one of the biggest, most complicated film series ever? Awesome. But I've seen the docs on the first two movies. More watchable than the films themselves, but they ain't exactly a thing. So unless there's a version ready-to-watch...they're just supplemental. Not a full-on thing that can be considered a work for the ages.