The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1950’s. It consisted of three books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the Ring. In 1997, Peter Jackson won the right to film the trilogy the Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson would film three movies that ended up winning 17 academy awards. The plot of the movie revolves around a small hobbit that is given the burden to take an all powerful ring and destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom. While the small hobbit is completing this task the human race is at war with the evil creatures called the orcs and uraki. The three movies deliver a deep plot, great action and special effects which all lead up to one of the best science fiction movies to date.
Peter Jackson didn’t have to worry about the story because J.R.R. Tolkien had already written it. He focused on bringing her world to life and convincing the audience that every scene and living creature did exist. Peter Jackson filmed most of the three movies in New Zealand and England. He recreated many of the cities and towns seen in the movie to capture the audience that they are truly in the Shire or at the white City Minas Tirith. When it comes down to the story Peter Jackson does not disappoint. Claudia Puig, writer and movies critic of USA Today quotes, “The films tell a classic story that espouses the virtues of love, hard work and compassion and decries greed, deceit and abuse of power in a mighty struggle against temptation and the corrupting forces of power.”(Puig, Claudia). In the first movie, Peter Jackson introduces the main villain, Sauron who creates an all powerful ring from his hatred and lust for power. He is destroyed by Isildur, son of the King of the Last Alliance of men, and is given the opportunity to destroy the ring but the greed of man clouds his judgment and he keeps it. The ring is later recovered by Gollum and later by Biblo Bagins and he gives it to Frodo one of the main characters. As the movies progress the power of the ring takes a toll on Frodo just like it did to his uncle Bilbo and Gollum. By the third movie, Frodo has deep burn marks around his neck signifying the burden of having the ring. Peter Jackson clearly mirrors J.R.R. Tolkien’s plot of the story and the movie Return of the King is awarded the Academy Award for Best Writing.
In the first movie, Peter Jackson wants to capture the audience and he successfully accomplished it by starting off with a huge battle on the slope of Mount Doom where the Last Alliance of Men and Elves fight against the Evil Sauron and his orcs. The first movie focused more on introducing the characters and developing the journey that Frodo and the Fellowship must take. The second movie doesn’t disappoint either there are several small battles in throughout the movie but the one that stands out is the siege on Helms Deep. The humans and elves must defend themselves with their army of 500 against an army of over 10,000 fully armored and powerful Uraki. The sword fights and arrows piecing the Uraki deliver great amounts of action scenes. But even with this 30 minute battle it can not compare to the battle of the Pelennor Fields which is shown in the last film. Margaret A. McGurk calls the Battle of Pelennor Fields, “The battle scenes are mighty conflagrations, marvelously choreographed to balance live action with computer-generated figures and backgrounds.”(McGurk, Margaret). A full on assault of over 200.000 orcs fight and nine Ringwraiths with their dragon beasts against the Minas Tirith the last city of Gondor and the 6,000 horse army of Rohan coming from the North. Siege towers, catapults, battering rams and trolls are used to penetrate into the first level of Minas Tirith. The battle continues through the night and at dawn the 6,000 army of Rohan come to aid Gondor. The Rohan army charges the orcs head on and they are able to drive the orcs back to the river. When the battle looks like its won, over 20 oliphaunts, massive elephants, appear and blow through the Rohan army. The tides turn and the battles looks like the orcs will win with their oliphants, but from the south Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas arrive with the Dead Men of Dunharrow who are dead spirits that betrayed Gondor and will be set free if they come back and fight for Gondor again. The Dead Men clean out the orcs from Minas Tirith and all the oliphants with a single blow. The action yet again unforgiving making it one of the best battle scenes. Without a doubt, all three of the movies won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Tying in with the action the special effects in all three movies did not disappoint. All of the evil villains were fictional and Peter Jackson is able to balance the costumes and make up with the computer graphics. He never overpowers either of them which make all three movies very realistic. William Arnold, Seattle Post-intelligence movie critic says, “…film that marvelously satisfies the zeitgeist's thirst for epic and optimistic fantasy, and serves as the best possible showcase for the exploding art of cinematic digital effects.”(Arnold, William). Peter Jackson does close ups of the Uraki and Orcs and each of them are uniquely different all the way to the teeth and eyes. Peter Jackson brought the demon creature the Balrog to life with computer graphics and it looked stunning when it fought against Gandalf. The siege of Minas Tirith was perfectly executed when trebuchets and catapults launched their huge projectiles to each other. The Ringwraiths were on dragon like beasts that swarmed Minas Tirth, destroying the trebuchets and using its talons to grab several soldiers and drop them several hundred feet. The special effects are mind blowing specially when seen in theaters from the screeches of the Ringwraiths to the volley of arrows hitting the Uraki at the siege of Helms Deep. Peter Jack makes these three movies come to life.
It has been a long journey from the filming of the Fellowship of the Ring to the finishing of the Return of the King.
Works Cited
Arnold, William. "Lord! We Love This Movie." Seattle News, Sports, Events, Entertainment | Seattlepi.com - Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 24 Feb. 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2010
McGurk, Margaret A. "'Return of the King' Rules." Enquirer.Com. 13 Dec. 2007. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.
Puig, Claudia. "USATODAY.com - With Third Film, 'Rings' Saga Becomes a Classic." News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. 24 Feb. 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2010.
