Why no Viggo on the commentaries?

[Runk Snusgrop]

Has it even been explained why is he's not on them?

 

[Arwen's daughter]

Viggo has commented many times that he believes movies should speak for themselves and thus he opted not to record commentary for LOTR.

 

[Eryn]

I have always wanted to know this! I'm surprised at that actually- I always thought that he was probably just elsewhere and unavailable.

 

[Ainu Laire]

That sounds so much like Viggo. Thanks for the info!

 

[debo]

my freind saw him at the premiere of RotK and whan he sang The Coronation Song, another singer sang with him, I think to give him confidence.

 

[Arwen Skywalker]

This begs the question of how commentaries change your view of the story. When I first saw ROTK, I thought Denethor was simply a douchebag who was nuts. Hearing John Noble point out how tragic Denethor was made me see him in a new light. I even felt a little sorry for the guy since finding out he had a sad story. But did PJ and Co. do their jobs if I needed Noble's commentary to know a very important point about the character? What do you guys think?

However, commentary also helps people notice things in the movie that can be pretty easy to miss. Despite watching ROTK several times before, I never noticed that Sam was briefly tempted by the Ring until I heard the actors say it. Sam hesitates to give it to Frodo for a second or two when they're at Mordor. I think the writers intended it to be a subtle way of showing that Sam isn't perfect but the viewer really has to be paying attention to see it.

 

[Arwen's daughter]

I swiped this from www.viggofanbase.com, so I hope they have their references in order. [cool]

I understand that it's interesting for a movie buff to hear the director's point of view, but I'm just a believer in letting the movie speak for itself. I've supplied other materials and photographs and whatever, trying to be helpful -- I'm certainly in the extras a lot, talking about stuff. But the movie should speak for itself or not, and I think the Extended Editions so far have done that.
M E Russell, Viggo rides again
The Oregonian, 05 Mar '04

 

[Darkstone]

This begs the question of how commentaries change your view of the story. When I first saw ROTK, I thought Denethor was simply a douchebag who was nuts. Hearing John Noble point out how tragic Denethor was made me see him in a new light. I even felt a little sorry for the guy since finding out he had a sad story. But did PJ and Co. do their jobs if I needed Noble's commentary to know a very important point about the character? What do you guys think?

Often such information is given to actors in the form of "character outlines" written up by the screenwriters. Most if not all of the information is never conveyed on the screen. It's simply meant to help the actor understand his character.

The famous director Robert Aldrich took that one step further. He would actually film important expository scenes that allowed the actors to really get into and understand their characters' background and motivations. Then he would deliberately cut those scenes from the finished film.

I note virtually all the characters in LOTR have background stories that would have helped understand their motivations. For example, one would expect Hugo Weaving to have studied Elrond's background, and got a sense of the many instances of tragic loss the character had experienced throughout his long life: The loss of his parents, his foster father, his brother, his mentor, his travelling companion, his king, his friend, his wife, etc. With that in mind it is easy to see why Elrond was so forceful about not leaving his daughter to die in Middle-earth. Without that knowledge one might simply consider Elrond a grumpy old jerk.

Anyway, often screenwriters prefer to omit explanations of why their characters are as they are because they want their audience to stop and think rather than just swallow a pat answer and move on.

One might think that's why Mortensen refused to particpate in the commentaries. He didn't want to explain his character. He'd rather people understand Aragorn through the aspects of his performance.