| Release Date: 17 December 2003 (USA) Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama IMDb Rating: 8.9 Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Dominic Monaghan, Karl Urban, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Cate Blanchett, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, John Noble, Hugo Weaving, Howard Shore, Marton Csokas |
“It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing… such a little thing”
…quite prophetic words that describe such a small thing that launches one of the greatest and most epic tales of all. Cinema has long been an escape for the masses as the woes of the world surround.
In the darkness of a theater, those woes dissipate as the light of the projector flames and transport the audience to new and wondrous places. One genre has been the most unique in the way it creates another world. One film rules over said genre…asking. One franchise has defined what the fantasy genre can really do. There can only be one… and that one is The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King.
When you speak of classics, one may think back to another time in the winding road that we call film history. But some films hit the theaters and we know from that moment this film has already etched itself into our hearts and minds, living on forever.
At the beginning of the new century, cinema was changing. The CGI blockbuster began to take form as comic book movies hit big. This new style of filmmaking made it possible for one of the most ambitious projects in the history of film to take shape. Across the world in New Zealand, a Kiwi filmmaker named Peter Jackson took the reins of an undertaking that would create three of the most successful films to date. Jackson would adapt the timeless series from beloved writer J.R.R. Tolkien…Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. These books had only been adopted in animation up to this point so it was a risk to take the world of Middle Earth to the big screen. Aren’t we lucky that they took this risk?
From the shoot that almost took 300 days, three epic films were birthed and brought to theaters. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers hit theaters and became box office hits that set the tone for fantasy films for decades to come. But would they stick the landing on this epic quest? One could argue that this work is actually one giant film released in three parts (I would be one such person) but it became apparent that The Return of the King would be the boldest, largest, and riskiest undertaking.
How do you properly wrap up all the threads that make up this complex and layered epic? How do you depict one of the greatest battles ever written? How do you capture all emotion that has been built up to this point? The how is no longer relevant almost 20 years later but what matters is that it triumphantly succeeded.
Many will jest about the “50” endings that this film has but no one should argue against the beautiful catharsis that The Return of the King delivers in wrapping up this most epic quest.
There is a reason why this film tied the record with 11 Academy Award wins (shockingly doing so without a single acting nomination). Jackson created one of the most balanced films to ever be put to screen. Are there films that feature better performances? Are there films shot in a more stylish and ambitious way? You can certainly argue those points. But what is true about Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, in general, is that the films do everything so well. Jackson is able to bring enough momentum and energy to these films where the 3 hour and 20-minute runtime of its third part never feel like it drags.
The tone can be summed in a singular word that has defined the trilogy…epic. Despite this epic scale, the film never shuns the tender moments that feel so personal. The ability to balance such intimacy and grand scale is to be lauded. Jackson is responsible for directing the performances of hundreds upon hundreds of actors including dozens of named and central characters. Every one of those actors brings the needed emotion and stature to them.
Andy Serkis, in a revolutionary role, provides a complex and challenging performance that is unfairly unrecognized for the technology that helped create it.
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Viggo Mortenson, now a three-time Best Actor nominee, is given the challenge of anchoring the action and the heft of the film which proves that he has the chops to do it.
One of the most under-appreciated aspects of the film (one that egregiously was overlooked by the Academy) is the cinematography of Andrew Lesnie.
One of the most breathtaking sequences in the history of film is the lighting of the torches as the camera flies above the frozen peaks of the most beautiful mountain ranges in all of New Zealand.
My jaw still drops every time I take in these shots.
The scale is portrayed without comparison as Lesnie is challenged to capture the largest battle scene in the history of cinema. The framing is so precise that it can realize a sea of real horses while capturing a fully CGI elephant 100 feet tall. The lighting and colorization are rich and evocative. The march from Minas Morgul is honestly terrifying with its aggressive Dutch angles and rich mix of black and green.
Speaking of the effects, the CGI created in The Lord of the Rings: Return of The King almost 20 years ago still stands up against some of the best effects of today.
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The practical effects are even more outstanding through the use of incredibly detailed models. The regal sites of Minas Tirith are captured in a model that is so ambitiously rendered that it looks real. The production design, costume design, and hair/makeup are some of the best to ever be created for the screen. The one aspect that ties it all together is the layered and emotionally resonant score by Howard Shore. Who hasn’t epically walked in regular life to the triumphant theme of the Fellowship? The beauty of the Shire themes transitions into the epic crescendos of the themes of the quest.
What might just be the most challenging endeavor in front of this production was adapting the classic words of Tolkien. The screenplay has been criticized by purists for cutting entire sections of the novels (including large-scale set pieces of an invade Shire). But what Jackson and his writing partners, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, are able to create is an epic yet intimate finale that pulls all the threads from the previous two films together in a satisfying way. Each character gets their moments whether it is Sam taking his place as one of the true heroes of the story or Frodo accomplishing his perilous mission or Aragorn finally taking on the mantle that he had avoided his whole life. There are scenes that are creepy and scary (Shelob’s lair), there are moments of well-deserved levity (“It still only counts as one!”), and tear-jerking emotions (Frodo’s surprising goodbye). But this film boasts some of the most moving and inspiring speeches in the history of film.
The Return of the King would be there with just Theoden’s speech to the riders of Rohan but then there is the incredible speech delivered by King Aragorn to all of the men of Middle Earth. Those words are empowering and triumphant providing the needed motivation for any occasion.
Do you need any more convincing of the balance glory of The Lord of the Rings? Even though the films are not quite two decades old, their place on the pantheon of cinema has already been earned. In the future (and today), every fantasy fill will be compared to this epic series (whether that is fair is certainly debatable). When I sat in the theater back in 2003, I fell in love with this film. The Return of the King (along with the rest of the trilogy) has been a formative piece of my love for film.
I learned what a film can be. I learned the complexity of temptation and the human struggle. I learned this timeless lesson from one of cinema’s greatest teachers, Gandalf the Grey… “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”.
