Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - 2002

New Line Cinema/Wingnut Films - 179 min. + extras
DVD UPC # 794043635526(standard); 794043650420(extended); 794043710827(standard trilogy); 794043734724(/extended trilogy)

Principal Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Cate Blanchett, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, Karl Urban.

Principal Filmmakers: Peter Jackson, Director, Writer, Producer; Barrie M. Osborne, Producer; Tim Sanders, Producer; Fran Walsh, Writer, coproducer; Philippa Boyens, Writer; Mark Ordesky, Executive Producer; Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Executive Producers; Rick Porras, Associate Producer; Ellen M. Somers, Associate Producer; Andrew Lesnie, Director of Photography; Richard Taylor, Creature/Miniature/Armor/Special Makeup Effects Supervisor; Grant Major, Production Supervisor; Ngila Dickson, Costume Designer; Howard Shore, Composer; Jamie Selkirk, Post-Production Supervisor; John Gilbert, Editor; Michael J. Horton, Editor; Jim Rygiel, Visual Effects Supervisor; Alan Lee, Conceptual Artist/Set Decorator; John Howe, Conceptual Artist; Dan Hennah, Supervising Art Director; Peter Owen and Peter King, Makeup and Hair Design.

Censor Rating: M - Review Rating: A-

The second film in Peter Jackson's series of screen adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's internationally popular Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers literally begins where The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ended, with the Fellowship splitting into three groups as they seek to return the Ring to Mordor, the forbidding land where the powerful talisman must be taken to be destroyed. Frodo, who carries the Ring, and his fellow Hobbit Sam are lost in the hills of Emyn Muil when they encounter Gollum, a strange creature who once carried the Ring and was twisted by its power. Gollum volunteers to guide the pair to Mordor; Frodo agrees, but Sam does not trust their new acquaintance. Elsewhere, Merry and Pippin are attempting to navigate Fangorn Forrest where they discover a most unusual nemesis -- Treebeard, a walking and talking tree-shephard. Finally, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas arrive in Rohan to discover that the evil powers of Saruman have robbed King Theoden of his rule. The King's niece Éowyn believes Aragorn and his men have the strength to defeat Saruman, his henchman Wormtongue, and their minions. Éowyn soon becomes infatuated with Aragorn, while he struggles to stay faithful to the pledge of love he made to Arwen. Gandalf offers his help and encouragement as the Rohans, under Aragorn's leadership, attempt to face down Saruman's armies, but they soon discover how great the task before them truly is when they learn that his troops consist of 10,000 bloodthirsty creatures specially bred to fight to the death. -- Mark Deming - All Movie Review

The Standard Release

It is available in standard (pan & scan) and Widescreen versions. The VHS NTSC or R1 DVD version sells for about $15us. The R4 set is selling for $20nz or $20au. R2 PAL versions are selling for about 8#.

The DVD is a 2 disc set. One disc is the PG-13 cut of the 179-minute film that was seen in theatres. It is presented in a 2.35 widescreen with Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound. Differing subtitles and closed captions are added, depending upon the market and the zone.
The second disc contains over two hours of content including:
An inside look at the special extended DVD edition released in November (See below).
A 10 minute preview of Return of the King.
Emiliana Torrini "Gollum Song" music video
Sort film by Sean Astin "The Long and Short of It" + behind-the-scenes "making of"featurette.
Preview of Electronic Arts' video game
An inside look at the Special Extended DVD edition.
Some 15 additional featurettes originally created for lordoftherings.net which include:
Forces of Darkness
Sound of Middle-earth
Edoras & Rohan Culture
Creatures
Gandalf the White
Arms & Armor
Helm's Deep
Gollum: Andy Serkis, Bay Raitt

DVD-ROM Content: Exclusive online content

Six Disc Trilogy Set
A six disc Trilogy set in a slipcase, of the theatrical version of all three films, is available for about $40us, 20# or $90nz.

The Extended Release

It is in two versions. A leather-bound hardcover book style set, and a more elaborate Collector's Gift Set. Expect the 4 disc DVD set to sell for about $30us, the U.K. for 15#, in Australia for about $50au and New Zealand at $60nz. Expect the Collector's Gift Set to go for about $60us, about 30# or about $80au.

The 214 min. (approx.) length version of the film is on two of the discs, with optional audio commentaries by director, writers, design and production team and more than 30 cast and crew participants. The other two discs contain hours of original content including multiple documentaries and design/photo galleries with thousands of images:

Adapting the book into a screenplay & planning the film
Designing and inspiration for locations in Middle-earth
Storyboards to pre-visualization
Weta Workshop visit - sculptors in action as they create the weapons, armor, creatures and miniatures for the film.
Atlas of Middle-earth: Tracing the journey of the Fellowship.
An interactive map of New Zealand highlighting the location scouting process.
Sending Actors to battle - preparation for sword fighting.
Principal photography: Stories from the set
Digital effects including motion capture and "Massive"
"Bigatures" - A close-up look at the detailed miniatures used
Post-production - editing it all together
Sound Edsign demonstration
Galleries of art and slideshows with commentaries by the artists.

The standard set is 2.35 widescreen, with Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and Surround sound. It contains approximately 40 additional minutes of scenes incorporated into the film.

The Collector's Gift Set includes a collectable Gollum polystone statue created by Sideshow Weta and a bonus DVD on Weta Workshop and how the Gollum statue was created.

Twelve Disc Trilogy Set

A Trilogy packaging of the Extended editions, in slipcase, is available for about $80us, 30#, $100au or $95nz. It contains the same material as the separate four-disc expanded edition versions of the three features.

SOUNDTRACK ON AUDIO CD

Click for Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers CD Details

REVIEWS

Ebert and Roeper Video Review

DVDFile Extended Edition Review

Moria Review

Dominic Corry review at TVNZ

Metacritic consolidated reviews

DVD Compare's Review

DVD Compare's Ext. Ed. Review

Urban Cinefile Review - Theatrical Version

Urban Cinefile Review - Extended Edition

Michaeldvd Region 4 Reviews of Standard Edition

Michaeldvd Region 4 Reviews of Extended Edition

All Movie Guide Review

IMDB viewer reviews - 2297 articles

Movie Review Query - 321 articles

rec.arts.movies.reviews

OFFLINE REVIEW SOURCES

Film comment, v.39no.1(Jan/Feb.2002), p.73
New Yorker, v.78no.41(Jan.6 2003), p.91
New Zealand herald, Dec.21, 2002, p.E10
North and south, issue 203(Feb.2003), p.100
Sight and sound, v.13, issue 2( Feb.2003), p.49
Sunday star-times, Dec.22, 2002, p.D2
Waikato times, Dec.18, 2002, p.1,3; Dec.24, 2002, p.19

TRAILER AND OTHER TITLE RELATED LINKS

17 trailers at IMDB

Peter Jackson on Charlie Rose - Feb. 22, 2002

The One Ring Net

Official Lord of the Rings Website

The boxoffice numbers - worldwide

AWARDS - As of JULY 2003

Academy Awards Oscars USA

Best Sound Editing
Best Visual Effects

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films - 2002

Saturn Awards for:
Best Fantasy Film
Best Costume
Best Makeup
Best Supporting Actor

Art Directors Guild

Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Fantasy Film

British Academy Awards

Audience Award -
BAFTA Film Award Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects -
Best Costume Design

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

BFCA Award: Best Digital Acting Performance for "Gollum".

Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association Awards

Best Director

Empire Awards, UK

Best Film

Golden Satellite Awards

Special Achievement award for outstanding motion picture ensemble.

Golden Trailer Award

The Two Towers "sacrifice" trailer.

Hollywood Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Awards

Feature character hair styling
Feature Character Make-up
Feature Special Make-up Effects

Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists

Silver Ribbon for best dubbing

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards

KCFCC Award Best Director - Peter Jackson

Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards

Sierra Award
Best Editing
Best Costume Design - Ngila Dickson
Best Director - Peter Jackson
Best Visual Effects - Richard Taylor (III)

MTV Movie Awards

Best Movie
Best on-screen team.
Best Virtual Performance for Gollum.

Online Film Critics Society Awards

Best Director
Best Editing
Best Ensemble
Best Picture
Best Sound
Best Visual Effects

Visual Effects Society - VES Awards

Best Character Animation in a live action motion picture
Best Compositing
Best Effects Art Direction
Best Models and Miniatures
Best performance by an acter in an effects film
Best Special Effects
Best Effects Photography
Best Visual Effects in an effects driven picture

Young Artist Awards

Best Family Dramatic Feature Film

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