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List Price: $59.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 109036
Released: August 26, 2003 |
| Our Price: $42.95 |
| Used Price: $8.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The first two films in Peter Jackson's landmark Middle Earth trilogy.
Description of The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers (Widescreen Editions) (2-Pack):
As the triumphant start of a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring leaves you begging for more. By necessity, Peter Jackson's ambitious epic compresses J.R.R. Tolkien's classic The Lord of the Rings, but this robust adaptation maintains reverent allegiance to Tolkien's creation. At 178 minutes, it's long enough to establish the myriad inhabitants of Middle-earth, the legendary Rings of Power, and the fellowship of hobbits, elves, dwarves, and humans--led by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the brave hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood)--who must battle terrifying forces of evil on their perilous journey to destroy the One Ring in the land of Mordor. Superbly paced, the film is both epic and intimate, offering astonishing special effects and production design while emphasizing the emotional intensity of Frodo's adventure. Ending on a perfect note of heroic loyalty and rich anticipation, this wondrous fantasy continues in The Two Towers.
After the breaking of the Fellowship, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power with the creature Gollum as their guide. Meanwhile, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) join in the defense of the people of Rohan, who are the first target in the eradication of the race of Men by the renegade wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) and the dark lord Sauron. Fantastic creatures, astounding visual effects, and a climactic battle at the fortress of Helm's Deep make The Two Towers a worthy successor to The Fellowship of the Ring, grander in scale but retaining the story's emotional intimacy. These two films are perhaps the greatest fantasy films ever made, but they're merely a prelude to the cataclysmic events of The Return of the King.
The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers (Widescreen Editions) (2-Pack) Reviews:
Best movie of all times! 
2007-05-13 - This is my favorite movie... Hope it will be in Blu-Ray some day.
The Two Towers are fascinating
2007-01-11 - After death, severance, separation, loss and confusion, we must regroup and recoup, rejoice and return. So let's save Gandolf first who shifts from The Grey to The White, from powerless to finally magical. The details are all accounted for in the DVD. Then the two hobbits that were captured and thought dead were only prisoners and they will manage to escape and even win the battle of the film, without anyone knowing it really. They will make friends with treeherders and they will lead the forest against the bad wizard in his tower. And then the trio man-elf-dwarf will liberate some king in some city from the power of some middle man of a wizard and lead his people and troops to a mountain citadel, and this same man and same elf and same dwarf will have the surprise to see the king of the elves and his army arrive to reinforce the humans against the orcs. Some kind of slow growing seeds of courage and commitment. Some call that love too. And the battle will start, spectacular and grandiose, and many will die on both sides and the final salvaging reinforcements will arrive under the authority of Gandolf The White. The orcs will be defeated. During that time the two lost hobbits and the treeherders will start a tree war against the malicious bad wizard in his tower with his mine and giant smithey underground at the foot of his mausoleum-spire that had provided the army of orcs with all kinds of arms, weapons and armours. And it will all go drowned and soaked, overflowed and flooded. That's how a battle is won, with some courage not to feel pain, with a lot of luck not to hear the warnings of Ms Caution, Miss Prudence and Mrs Carefulness, the three witches of passivity, and a fair dose of blindness not to see danger. And here we are with a long film for a young audience, though the audience of the first film must have aged a little and the film is becoming a lot more human. We even have several heterosexual kisses along with quite a few man-to-man embraces. Going on that way we may have a couple of weddings at the end of the third episode. And it all ends with two hobbits raiding the cellar and kitchen of the bad gloomy dangerous vicious wizard and we even find that funny, even if we are slightly worried for their waistlines. And the real end of course comes with the declaration of total trust from Sam the hobbit gardener who guards no one but cultivates friendship and Frodon the hobbit adventurer guardian of the ring and carrier of its powers to the final destruction site somewhere in hell. This episode though manages to leave monsters and other diabolical figures behind, which is good, and to emphasize more on the human qualities of all these characters. It even gets in a way marvelous for children with walking trees even if this is nothing but the rewriting of Macbeth, but Macbeth deserves many rewritings. And we recognize what is going to become one essential sign of Stephen King's Dark Tower. The main human hero in the Fellowship of the Ring, even after scattering and especially after it, is the surviving son of the long ago destroyed Northern Kingdom. He is a Ranger, a dying out category of peacemakers and justice executioners, just like Roland is a Gunslinger. But still, and that is going to last till the end I imagine, no bridge or door from this medieval fantasy world to our modern world and it is a shame. It is some kind of model for many sagas to come, but it stops short of real science-fiction when the fiction speaks of our own world through another layer of time or space.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
The Lord of the Rings
2004-01-29 - Both of these movies are incredible! With astounding special effects, music (score), cinematography, and acting 'The Fellowship of the Ring' and its sequel 'The Two Towers' are two phenomenal action/adeventure movies. Both of these movies have a good amount of action, romance, adventure, and drama to offer. But both 'Fellowship of the Ring' and 'Two Towers' aren't as good as 'The Return of the King' which is the third and last installment of 'The Lord of the Rings' movie-trilogy.
Breath-Taking Movies
2003-11-17 - I have never read author J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" or "The Lord of the Rings" book trilogy. But let me just say that I don't like to read many books. In fact, I hardly like to read books at all. What I really like to do is watch movies. And the only movies that have stunned me more than any others have are director Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy. "The Fellowship of the Ring" was a wonderful opening-movie to begin the trilogy. The Special Extended DVD Edition was even better than the original (theatrical) version by having many great extra scenes in it. "The Two Towers", on the other hand, is a spectacular movie-sequel to "Fellowship of the Ring". I am sure that the up-coming Special Extended DVD Edition of it will also be even better than the theatrical version. Both movies are stunning because they have fantastic special effects, a great music (score), and excellent cinematography to offer. The actors do a superb job on acting in the two movies. The action, adventure, drama, romance, and suspense both "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" has in them are incredible! I highly recommend that you buy these two breath-taking movies that are filled with so much fantasy and adventure. One can only know that �The Return of the King� will be a phenomenal movie to end the trilogy.
Don't cheat yourself, this is not the edition to own 
2003-10-12 - First of all, these are not the kind of movies you buy in fullscreen. They were shot too beautifully to have the edges cut off. Peter Jackson the director made full use of the entire frame in many extreme closeups that do not translate well to a fullscreen cut. Also, the fullscreen edit of the two towers has some unfortunate mistakes that leave important visual references off the screen. Note that the 2-pack widescreens are the same price.
Secondly, these are the theatrical release editions. If you like these, then there is only more to like in the extended editions, and more of Tolkien's intended story. The extended editions are aptly named as they are not your typical indulgent "director's cut", in which scrapped scenes are heedlessly tossed back in here or there and resold to make a quick buck. The extended editions of lord of the rings include fine scenes that add to the depth of the story, as well as reworked extended scenes from the theatrical version, all of which were only left out because of contractual time restraints.
I see no reason why you'd choose these abbreviated, visually truncated versions to own and cherish when you can have the movies as they were intended for about ten bucks more.
