My favourite film: the lord of the rings

MY FAVOURITE FILM: THE LORD OF THE RINGS

It might not even make sense to judge these movies individually, as opposed to three parts of a single, very long, movie. So much of the emotional wallop contained in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a result of the groundwork laid in the previous installments. The Fellowship of the Ring may in fact be the best film in the trilogy, with its strong character development and well-paced introduction to Middle-Earth. But I still prefer Return of the King because of this cumulative effect — the sense that the ending of a great movie tends to be the best part. The common criticism of the film, that it’s essentially just a third act, is true. But what a third act! This is a work of symphonic majesty, with a central enormous battle that unfolds in four movements. It isn’t just a grand spectacle, either. The film’s ambitious cross-cutting unites the acts of kings and nations with the private agonies of three small individuals navigating the land of perdition.

Let’s first look at what the film accomplishes on its own, and then what it inherits from its predecessors.
The battle for Minas Tirith, in all its exhausting length, is a beauty to behold. Peter Jackson and company were clearly going for the ultimate depiction of fantasy warfare, and they succeeded. Eleven years later, nothing else compares for sheer scope and authoritative force. Rohirrim charge down a hill with thundering momentum. There are plenty of swords and arrows, but each side in the conflict also enlists the aid of gargantuan animals and even the undead. The convenient timing with which each set of reinforcements arrives on the scene may rob this sequence of suspense, but it also gives the battle a dramatic structure and rhythm. There’s no confusion about what the action of any particular moment means to the outcome. Everything is rendered skillfully. This film contains the most impressive usage of CGI I’ve ever encountered. Not only does it convincingly portray gigantic elephants sweeping aside ranks of soldiers with their tusks, it also creates arguably the most compelling character in the story.
If I didn’t find Gollum as fascinating as I do, I wouldn’t like these films nearly as much. He’s the key to the whole thing — living evidence of the ring’s malignant power, and the best example of a character torn between good and evil. After all, the general approach to character in these films is simplistic. Ugly people are villains, pretty people are heroes. Short people are comic relief, tall people bear the weight of the world on their shoulders. Gollum, while short and ugly, can display characteristics of the other categories as well. In a stellar cast, most of whom don’t get to do much in this film, Andy Serkis stands out for his pioneering motion-capture performance. Because this performance works, I’m able to buy the pomposity of the film’s climactic moments.