my understanding of the extended edition was that it wasn't necessaraly the "directors cut" of the movie. I'm pretty sure that Jackson stated that the theatrical cut of the film WAS the directors cut. The extended edition is the "for you LOTR geeks out there who can sit through a three hour and fourty minutes of film" cut. (I'm not knocking it at all...I know it may sound that way, but I am not making fun of the run length). I've yet to pick it up (due to a matter of too little time to sit through a full 3:40 of film.)

My point is that my understanding was that this was the cut of the film made explicity for the LOTR fans out there...of which Jackson was one. The theatrical cut was the cut he submitted to the theaters with very little comprimise (with the exception of the gift giving scene...which was edited out for pacing issues). The theatrical cut is the cut Jackson made with the knowledge that everyone in the world would see it...and couldn't sit through EVERYTHING that he wanted to put in. Cutting a film down is part of film making, deciding what goes and what stays is in the directors hands. It's when you are forced to cut things that are out of your hands and then decide to re-release the film with your original intent and artistic interpretation that a Directors cut is given to a film.

A true "director's cut" happens when the director submits the film that he wanted to make, and then has to edit it in order to satisfy either the studios...er..discomfort with the film (see Batman Beyond's directors cut), time constraints (see the Abyss director's cut), the ratings board (see the directors cut of Robocop...it's original cut would have recieved an X rating due to excessive violence.)

In some cuts...I actually prefer the theatrical cut over the directors cut. For esample: "Army of Darkness Directors Cut"...what the $#&^ was that ending...and come on. "I'm not that good". It HAS to be "Good, Bad...I'm the guy with the gun." Geeze Sam, even a hick in ND knows that.
Or the "Blade Runner Directors Cut" WTF? The film just stops, and that crap with the Unicorn "vision" to me had nothing to do with a side plot, but rather just Scott trying to drop a camio scene from "Legend" into this film in order to get some extra cash for that project. BLECH.

Anyway...Tust to clarify.

Not making fun, just saying this isn't a directors cut, as it is an "exted cut" made for Tolkenites.