The Lord of the Rings is one of the best fantasy and literary works ever written down. It sprang from the mind of J.R.R Tolkien, a South African born English novelist and professor. He created an entirely new world, language and culture: Middle-Earth. I am a big fan of the books and have read them quite a few times.
Now, the movies, in my opinion, have not captured Tolkien's full imagination. No one could ever achieve that. But the movie's have remained sufficiently faithful to their source material. In addition, the director (Peter Jackson), film producers, actors and actresses all put in a tremendous amount of effort into this extraordinary film work. To this day, the Lord of the Rings film trilogy has remained as one of the most entertaining and well crafted fantasy pics ever put on the screen, and, in my opinion, have supplanted a few other sci-fi or fantasy epics like Star Wars or Star Trek. And so, I have added the entire trilogy to my Significant Films list (my list of the greatest movies ever made).
I love the Lord of the Rings immensely. I have viewed the movies repeatedly, including the special extended editions (which run at nearly 4-hours length!). I think the Lord of the Rings, the books and the films, will be treasured for generations to come.
The Fellowship of the Ring
Magical, spectacular, brilliant and imaginative, the Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring the first part of the action-fantasy trilogy, just may well be the best fantasy movie since the Wizard of Oz in 1939. The Wizard of Oz was gleaming, dazzling and radiant when released to audiences back then. If corny like today, it still remains pure classic, fantasy magic. 62 years later the Fellowship of the Ring is released in similar fashion.
The Fellowship of the Ring is directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson. It’s a huge leap for him, having previously done only low-budget horror movies. Having read the book, which is 1,000+ pages, when he was a kid, Jackson had a vision. Getting a team of filmmakers together, Jackson and his team wrote a script for two movies. But when their production company, Miramax, eventually cancelled the production, Jackson moved over to New Line Cinema, who insisted that the story be released as a trilogy, as was written by the books. A very good call on their part.
All three adaptations were filmed back-to-back from 1999-2000. Jackson directed it all the way through, filming it all in his native New Zealand. He has it all well cast to.
The main character is Frodo, a little Hobbit, who is destined to destroy the legendary one Ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron before he can reclaim it and use it as an unstoppable force to rule Middle-Earth. Sauron sends his demonic servants, the Nazgul, to hunt him down and get the Ring back to Mordor. Frodo is joined on his quest by his Hobbit friends Sam, Merry and Pippin, the warrior-drifter Aragorn, the soldier Boromir, the Wizard Gandalf, the elf Legolas and the dwarf Gimli, who band together to form the Fellowship.
Each character has his own little subplot. While Frodo’s journey makes up the main plot, the subplots are surprisingly more interesting. Aragorn is actually heir to the throne of Gondor, a country of men, but chooses instead to drift out in the wilds because his descendant failed, and he feels he may too. He is helped on by Legolas and Gimli, both of whom constantly quarrel and argue with each other.
Gandalf has been betrayed by his mentor, the wizard Saruman. However, Gandalf is more concerned with guiding Frodo and saving Middle-Earth rather than claiming to be the head of the order of the Wizards. Boromir is the son of the Steward of Gondor, and fears for his people’s safety.
Jackson casts his character very well. Elijah Wood is cast as the lead Frodo. Frodo is convincing and believable as the young Hobbit, who starts off as a good ole’ peaceful young Hobbit, who is sucked into this adventure that changes his life forever. Viggo Mortensen, in his biggest role yet, is Aragorn, the ‘main co-star’. Mortensen, before filming properly began, would dress up as Aragorn and hike out into the woods to achieve the rugged look of his character. All of the other actors are all very well cast as well. British actor Ian McKellen, known also for playing the lead villain in the X-Men series later, makes a credible, authentic good wizard who is the main backbone of the good guys.
If there is one thing Jackson has done wrong with the Fellowship of the Ring, and I know that people have agreed with me on this, it’s that he can’t include everything Tolkien wrote in his novel, and yet the movie still reaches around three hours in length (even longer in the special extended version, which I think is an improved version of the original theatrical version). The filmmakers have not achieved the impossible; in fact it will be impossible to ever portray on film everything that Tolkien has envisioned. The film production values on this pic are the best out of the trilogy.
Nevertheless, the Fellowship of the Ring is pure magic, action-filled with deep moral value. Jackson has done the best he can to bring Tolkien’s epic adventure to the big screen, and he has succeeded. The Fellowship of the Ring is the story of unlikely heroes who banded together to defeat the common enemy.
A
The Two Towers
The second part of Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy trilogy of the Lord of the
Rings is the Two Towers. For some reason, I can’t get the thought of the terrorist attacks out of my mind that happened a year earlier.
Like its predecessor, which was undoubtedly one of the best films of 2001 and the best fantasy film in a long, long time, the Two Towers is played out in a brilliant, epic and sweeping motion. It still doesn’t surpass the Fellowship of the Ring in any particular way.
Frodo and Sam continue their journey to the land of Mordor to destroy the One Ring before its evil creator Sauron can use it for evil to conquer Middle-Earth. Meanwhile, the other Hobbits Merry and Pippin are taken care of by the Ents, the oldest beings on Middle-Earth who live in Fangorn Forest. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli ride to help King Theoden of Rohan defend his country against the traitorous wizard Saruman, who has built and unleashed an army of goblins to assist Sauron in conquering Middle-Earth.
Frodo and Sam meet up with the hobbit turned nasty little creature Gollum, who once had the Ring and hates it yet loves it at the same time. Gollum agrees to guide the Hobbits to Mordor.
The Two Towers, like the other two films, were filmed back-to-back from 1999-2000, and then released in respective years. The Fellowship of the Ring ended off with a cliffhanger. The Two Towers feels neither as a conclusion to its predecessor, nor as a build-up to the final part of the trilogy, the Return of the King. Instead, it makes up for this by being its own adventure in medias res, that tests the heroes for their upcoming battle with Sauron.
The Two Towers has it all, from bands of heroes struggling on to vast armies battling it out. But throughout it all, it’s the Ring that’s the main subject, and constantly toys with the mind of Frodo, making him weary and fatigued.
Aragorn again is struggling with himself, as he cannot feel he cannot become King of Gondor, but nevertheless leads Rohan alongside Theoden in battle.
The entire focus of the movie is on the story, the plot and the characters. It never deviates away from this aspect, and never gets lost in becoming a crazy and wild adventure.
We have the same actors as before, with a few additions. Bernard Hill is the aging Theoden who leads Rohan in yet another war. Miranda Otto is Eowyn, Theoden’s niece and Karl Urban is Eomer, Theoden’s nephew.
The film contains a lot of memorable characters and sequences. The Ents (walking tree people), the oldest beings on Middle Earth, are some of the most loveable characters in the entire trilogy. The character of Gollum, though a nasty villain, was created entirely from CGI effects, and the results are so realistic looking. The climactic Battle of Helm’s Deep is one of the best battle sequences ever put on screen.
The movie ends in another cliffhanger, similar to the first movie; the Return of the King wraps it all up.
Jackson started the Lord of the Rings from humble beginnings, and it has been expanded into a massive epic exploit.
A-
The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings dramatic story comes to a conclusion in the Return of the King. A powerful, superb climax, the Return of the King actually gives us an ending rather than another cliffhanger like previously. In any case, the Return of the King swept the Oscars for films of 2003, including Best Picture of the Year.
Peter Jackson uses even more special effects here; the CGI shots in the Return of the King have doubled since they were used in the Fellowship of the Ring. Nevertheless, the Return of the King is visually stunning, a spectacular awe-sight for the eyes.
Frodo and Sam, still guided by the nasty Gollum, have come very close to Mt. Doom. However, even though Saruman has been defeated, Sauron has thousands of orcs, goblins, creatures (including giant elephants) and his demons who obey him without question, the Nazgul. Unleashing himself upon Middle-Earth, total war has begun. As Gondor’s capital, Minas Tirith, lies under siege but fights back under Gandalf, who lead the Gondorians in a fierce yet hopeless battle. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Theoden and Eomer lead Rohan’s victory to go save Gondor, before it’s too late, culminating in a massive battle that will decide the fate of Middle-Earth.
And through it all, it all lies upon Frodo, the Ring still tempting him and his long journey taking a toll on him both physically and mentally. But his trusty friend Sam never gives up on him. Sam sees through Gollum, who is good on the outside but bad on the inside, and works cleverly to pit Frodo and Sam against each other.
The main centerpiece of the film is the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, which takes up a good 1/3 of the film in which all of the armies, good and bad, meet in front of Minas Tirith and battle it out to the death.
Jackson’s team have done a rare accomplishment; all three films have been mostly faithful adaptations, all through which the actors have never gotten tired of their jobs, and have fulfilled their roles.
No other movie trilogy has done it as well as this—they have come close, but not exactly spot on.
The special effects are amazing; the visuals striking. If Star Wars was just as great in this way, it didn’t fully have the moral deepness that remains the constant theme.
When J.R.R Tolkien wrote the books, they were instant bestseller hits and are considered the best fantasy works in history. While the movies most likely have not fully taken in what Tolkien had envisioned in his mind (that would be impossible), the Return of the King is a true-to-life, concluding adventure that ends the Lord of the Rings with full satisfaction.
The Lord of the Rings story will be remembered and treasured forever. The Return of the King is a superb, satisfied and powerful conclusion to that story.
A
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