Fan Cuts The Hobbit Trilogy Into a Single, Four-Hour Movie

[Steven Bogos]

Fan Cuts The Hobbit Trilogy Into a Single, Four-Hour Movie

If you thought Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy was entirely too long... you're not alone.

Peter Jackson's "un-streched" the trilogy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/hobbit], cutting all three Hobbit films into a single, four-hour movie.

The fan, who goes by "tolkieneditor", sat down with a copy of the book, decent versions of all three Hobbit films, and set out to make a version of the movie that is truer to Tolkien's original manuscript. Some of the more major edits include: (Warning: spoilers follow!)

The investigation of Dol Guldor sequence has been cut
The Tauriel-Legolas-Kili love triangle has also been removed
The Pale Orc subplot, while not completely cut, has been toned down
Several of the Laketown scenes have been cut, such as Bard's imprisonment and the orc raid
The prelude with old Bilbo is gone
A few of the orc skirmishes have been cut
Several of the action scenes have been tightened up, such as the barrel-ride, the fight between Smaug and the dwarves and the titular Battle of the Five Armies from the third film
Countless "filler" scenes have been cut

Tolkieneditor admits that he hasn't cut all the fat, and has left quite a few scenes un-tampered, such as Bilbo's encounter with Gollum, the spider battle, and his conversation of Smaug, because he was impressed with their portrayal.

While Tolkieneditor offers fans links to torrent his fan portrayal of the movie, we won't be linking to them here, as it is still piracy, something that The Escapist does not approve of in any way.

What do you think of The Hobbit? Did it really need to be three films?

Source: The Daily Dot [https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/]

Permalink

 

[Roofstone]

I like all the films, especially the third one. And I am rather glad they were long. I love the tolkienverse and I feel that Peter Jackson knows what he is doing competently enough, for me personally anyhow.

I am just glad I got another look into the world of middle earth, 'twas a fun ride.

 

[Fappy]

... as it is still software piracy...

IP law makes no sense to me. Anime fan subs can be distributed freely without fear of legal recourse (as far as I understand it). Isn't a completely fan re-edited film basically the same concept?

 

[Steven Bogos]

... as it is still software piracy...

IP law makes no sense to me. Anime fan subs can be distributed freely without fear of legal recourse (as far as I understand it). Isn't a completely fan re-edited film basically the same concept?

Better safe than sorry

 

[Fappy]

... as it is still software piracy...

IP law makes no sense to me. Anime fan subs can be distributed freely without fear of legal recourse (as far as I understand it). Isn't a completely fan re-edited film basically the same concept?

Better safe than sorry

Oh, I agree. There's no reason you guys should risk your asses over something as trivial as this. Most people could probably find it without much trouble anyhow.

Reminds me of that Star Wars prequel re-edit that Topher Grace made, but never distributed. Wish we could see it

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

I like all the films, especially the third one. And I am rather glad they were long. I love the tolkienverse and I feel that Peter Jackson knows what he is doing competently enough, for me personally anyhow.

I am just glad I got another look into the world of middle earth, 'twas a fun ride.

All anime fansubs are illegal it's just that the anime companies are too small to spend the money that's needed to even begin to start tackling all the fansubs. Funimamation does send takedown requests to some of the larger anime only download sites though.

 

[Fappy]

I like all the films, especially the third one. And I am rather glad they were long. I love the tolkienverse and I feel that Peter Jackson knows what he is doing competently enough, for me personally anyhow.

I am just glad I got another look into the world of middle earth, 'twas a fun ride.

All anime fansubs are illegal it's just that the anime companies are too small to spend the money that's needed to even begin to start tackling all the fansubs. Funimamation does send takedown requests to some of the larger anime only download sites though.

Doesn't that only apply to shows that have been licensed in your country though? Underwater and HorribleSubs generally only sub anime that hasn't been released to the West yet and I've never heard of either needing to pull any of their videos. Even with Crunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu we still miss out on a majority of anime airing every season without fansubs D:

 

[mjharper]

... as it is still software piracy...

IP law makes no sense to me. Anime fan subs can be distributed freely without fear of legal recourse (as far as I understand it). Isn't a completely fan re-edited film basically the same concept?

Not really. The only reason anime fansubs are cut any slack is because there isn't a local distributor who is planning to purchase and (hopefully) release the show in the West. Try doing a fansub of, say, Attack on Titan, and you won't get far. The more serious subbers recommend that you only use the fansubs until the show has an offcial distributor as well.

That's nothing like The Hobbit, which is still in cinemas worldwide, and will be receiving DVD, Blu-Ray and extended cuts over the next year, again across the world.

Living in Germany, I am constantly annoyed by IP shenanigans and region-locked media from other countries. I'm fed up with importing anime from the States and it being held by the import authorities like it might be illegal drugs or something, and not being able to play an uncensored version of Wolfenstein. But anime fansubs and major movie releases are completely separate cases, I feel.

 

[kael013]

[quote/]Tolkieneditor admits that he hasn't cut all the fat, and has left in a few scenes that weren't in the book, such as Bilbo's encounter with Gollum, the spider battle, and his conversation of Smaug, because he was impressed with their portrayal.[/quote]

Wait, the riddle-off, the fight that gave Sting its name, and the conversation where Bilbo shows what a guile hero he is weren't in the book!? What edition did Tolkieneditor use, because I just looked through mine (revised edition) and those scenes are in there. In fact, they were pretty decently adapted; not perfectly, but very close (except for the spider battle, that was stretched out a tad too long).

 

[busterkeatonrules]

Having tried and failed three times to read the book version of Lord of the Rings, I never bothered too much with the movies either. However, I greatly enjoyed reading The Hobbit, and have actually seen all three Hobbit movies back-to-back at my local theater.

I say that the Hobbit movies are so incredibly well-made that I really didn't notice any of the expected discomfort of sitting on my ass in a cramped seat in a packed theater staring through a pair of 3D-glasses for a good nine hours. Plus, as I was familiar with the basic story, it was great fun to see an expanded and elaborated version of it - and, for that matter, of Middle-Earth itself!

That said, to those who have previously seen the complete LotR - trilogy, this may well be a different matter...

None the less: Anyone who wants the 'pure' Hobbit - experience, can always go read the book! The movie trilogy is Jackson's vision every bit as much as Tolkien's, and when Jackson puts in that kind of effort and does such an excellent job, the end result deserves nothing but the outmost respect.

 

[Fappy]

... as it is still software piracy...

IP law makes no sense to me. Anime fan subs can be distributed freely without fear of legal recourse (as far as I understand it). Isn't a completely fan re-edited film basically the same concept?

Not really. The only reason anime fansubs are cut any slack is because there isn't a local distributor who is planning to purchase and (hopefully) release the show in the West. Try doing a fansub of, say, Attack on Titan, and you won't get far. The more serious subbers recommend that you only use the fansubs until the show has an offcial distributor as well.

That's nothing like The Hobbit, which is still in cinemas worldwide, and will be receiving DVD, Blu-Ray and extended cuts over the next year, again across the world.

Living in Germany, I am constantly annoyed by IP shenanigans and region-locked media from other countries. I'm fed up with importing anime from the States and it being held by the import authorities like it might be illegal drugs or something, and not being able to play an uncensored version of Wolfenstein. But anime fansubs and major movie releases are completely separate cases, I feel.

I suppose that makes sense. Still, I can't help but feel such strict IP regulations do nothing but impede artistic expression. There has to be some kind of middle-ground somewhere.

 

[uchytjes]

... as it is still software piracy...

IP law makes no sense to me. Anime fan subs can be distributed freely without fear of legal recourse (as far as I understand it). Isn't a completely fan re-edited film basically the same concept?

Its complicated in relation to anime fan subs. For instance, its not (AFAIK) illegal to distribute the subs themselves but it is illegal to distribute the anime (provided that it hasn't been licensed for release in the area being distributed to). Think of it like Rifftrax, where they are free to distribute the audio file that is to played over the movie but can't distribute the movie itself.

Now, as to why anime tends to be carefree about fan distribution is because most are too small to be able to put up a fight.

 

[JayRPG]

Trying to make the movies more like the book is nonsensical.

Tolkien himself knew that the original Hobbit he wrote no longer fit into his broader universe.

He made several revisions himself, and did start to completely re-write the entire book, though abandoned after only a few chapters, they can be read in the histories of middle-earth), the chapters he did write though were already the same length as the original hobbit book... so even JRR Tolkien wanted to beef up the prequel to LotR.

Jackson adapted the hobbit to film to fit in with his lord of the rings adaption. Tolkien did it in reverse, and never truly made the Hobbit cohesive to the massive universe he created.

The complaining about Legolas being in it is what really gets me though, if you have read the Silmarillion, it is obvious that Legolas was in mirkwood at the time of the Hobbit, he was there, with his father. He may not have been quite as accomplished as he was portrayed in Jackson's adaption, but at the time he was still somewhere in the region of 3000 years old and past the age of Elf maturity.

 

[Dimitriov]

Oh thank Christ. This might be a version I could actually watch.

It's mostly the retarded bullshit with Tau- MARYSUEFANFICELFGIRL that needed to be cut anyway. That part's inclusion was beyond stupid, as was all the additional bullshit with Saruman et al.

Oh, and if anyone is feeling argumentative, I have no problem with the movie being different than the book (it's a different medium obviously). It's just that those differences shouldn't make the movie worse or stupider.

Or totally change the tone or morals presented by the author, because that's just plain rude. It's in fact why I hate fanfics. If you want to tell your own story you ought to have the decency not to steal someone else's work and dress it up as your own.

The complaining about Legolas being in it is what really gets me though, if you have read the Silmarillion, it is obvious that Legolas was in mirkwood at the time of the Hobbit, he was there, with his father. He may not have been quite as accomplished as he was portrayed in Jackson's adaption, but at the time he was still somewhere in the region of 3000 years old and past the age of Elf maturity.

As someone who complains vehemently about the Hobbit movies, I'll just say that personally I have never had any problem with Legolas being there. Of course he would have been. I do have a problem with him stealing the show and Peter Jackson constantly trying to portray him as the most BAMF in Middle Earth whenever possible.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

They only stretched it out to three because of the money they knew they'd make. A single four hour movie, while not as profitable, would have been more enjoyable.

 

[Olas]

Like I said, 2 movies would be best. Unless 4 hours seems like a reasonable length for a movie? I could easily see it working as a 2 act structure.

And honestly I don't think the movies are that bad as is either, everyone has their own idea of what the perfect edit would be, I'm sure some people would miss the "filler" that Jackson created for his version of the films.

 

[CoffeeOfDoom]

[quote/]Tolkieneditor admits that he hasn't cut all the fat, and has left in a few scenes that weren't in the book, such as Bilbo's encounter with Gollum, the spider battle, and his conversation of Smaug, because he was impressed with their portrayal.

Wait, the riddle-off, the fight that gave Sting its name, and the conversation where Bilbo shows what a guile hero he is weren't in the book!? What edition did Tolkieneditor use, because I just looked through mine (revised edition) and those scenes are in there. In fact, they were pretty decently adapted; not perfectly, but very close (except for the spider battle, that was stretched out a tad too long).[/quote]

If you actually read what Tolkieneditor said (https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/) he says:

"...it should be noted that Bilbo?s key scenes?the encounter with Gollum, the battle against the Mirkwood spiders, and the conversation with Smaug?have not been tampered with, since they proved to be excellent adaptions (in no small part due to Freeman?s performance), and serve to refocus the film on Bilbo?s arc"

So yeah, Steven Bogos dun goofed.

 

[jackpipsam]

Third film isn't even out on dvd/blu-ray or digital yet.

So basically it's a pirated version.

As cool as this sounds and some kudos to the person, I can't support this.
Sorry.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

I like all the films, especially the third one. And I am rather glad they were long. I love the tolkienverse and I feel that Peter Jackson knows what he is doing competently enough, for me personally anyhow.

I am just glad I got another look into the world of middle earth, 'twas a fun ride.

All anime fansubs are illegal it's just that the anime companies are too small to spend the money that's needed to even begin to start tackling all the fansubs. Funimamation does send takedown requests to some of the larger anime only download sites though.

Doesn't that only apply to shows that have been licensed in your country though? Underwater and HorribleSubs generally only sub anime that hasn't been released to the West yet and I've never heard of either needing to pull any of their videos. Even with Crunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu we still miss out on a majority of anime airing every season without fansubs D:

It does not matter whether it's been licensed or not if the creators are not getting paid it's illegal and horriblesubs does plenty of licensed shows. If it's on crunchyroll it's licensed and any horribsubs version is illegal.

 

[Littaly]

I've kind of been waiting for a fan-edit. I think somewhere out there there is an edit of those three movies that is the perfect Hobbit adaptation.

The Hobbit Trilogy is in many ways really impressive, the problem is not that they screwed up up anything from the book, but that they added in a bunch of stuff and proceeded to screw that up instead.

I don't mind that they added in stuff that wasn't in the book (I liked almost all the changes Lord of the Rings made to the story), the problem is so much of it turned out so bad. The love triangle was corny and lacked any depth whatsoever, the foreshadowing of Sauron's return (which I was kind of looking forward to) was clumsy and clashed with the tone of the rest of the movie and Legolas, while it makes sense for him to make an appearance, is taking up way too much space without there being any real call for it.

Ultimately I think they are much better movies than they feel like, and hopefully in the future I will appreciate them more ^^