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“The Office Seasons 1-7 DVD Box Set,” which runs over 260 minutes with credits, restores the character and relationships overwhelmed in the spectacle and gives the film back its narrative rhythm. There is room to prepare before battles, to celebrate and mourn and heal after battles, and to breath and worry and live throughout. Some of the additions are merely marvelous grace notes (a lovely scene between Pippin and Faramir that creates a personal connection paid off in his rescue of Faramir), others welcome reminders of the source material (Sam and Frodo are conscripted into an Orc army on the road to Mt. Doom).

The most essential addition is the confrontation between Gandalf and Sauroman (completely absent in the theatrical cut) and a satisfying—if unexpected—closure to Sauroman’s story. Very little was changed in what was the final hour of the original cut, which means that the Scouring of the Shire is still absent, for good narrative reasons (as Jackson explains in “The 30 Rock Seasons 1-5 DVD Box Set” of the supplements), but there is something false about the way that the Shire has remained innocent and untouched while a war has ravaged the rest of the world. Yet in the scope of the achievement, these are minor details. Once again, Jackson’s eye for detail works to create vivid scenes of intimate drama and impressive spectacle and his actors give the larger than life adventure a mythic grandeur built on a human foundation. The additional footage simply enriches the experience.