Movies: Lord of the Rings Trilogy (part 3)

Movies: Lord of the Rings

IMDB for movie 1, movie 2, and 3.

Score : 9/10 (technically 10, but there are a few scenes I don’t enjoy)
Year/s : 2001 ; 2002 ; 2003
Director : Peter Jackson
Country : New Zealand. USA
Language : English, Old English, Sinadrin, Quenya,

Durations: 2h58+2h59+3h20 (theatrical) / 3h28+3h43+4h11 (extended)
Total Theatrical 9h17 / extended 11h22

Writers: JRR Tolkien (books) ;  Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson   (screenplay)

The shortest review I could do about Lord of the Rings would be two words: watch it. 



But you know that I’m not going to stop at that ; by now, you are familiar with my extensive critiques, and this one is so massive that I had to split it in several parts.
Lord of the Rings is a very rich high fantasy tale, and previous attempts to adapt the book series were fast paced animated movies released in 1978 and 1980, and were far too short to tell the entire, complex story Tolkien offered the world. Indeed, no one could ever cram such detailed 1349 pages into 3 hours and 51 minutes like those two movies… which is precisely why someone just HAD to get it done. This someone is Peter Jackson, at the head of dozens of very talented people in numerous fields.

Before I go further, these are my two previous parts reviews, for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books  - part 1     and 2.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is comprised of three parts, just like the original book (or books, depending on which edition you get). Only, the movie trilogy rearranges the order scenes appear – and it works perfectly, because Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson wrote a beautiful screenplay to balance fidelity to the chapters Tolkien wrote and the cinematic experience.

Although several characters and chapters aren’t included, and several lines in the movies are delivered by different characters and different moments, these three movies are still highly faithful to the writing and I do believe Tolkien himself would have been pleased.
There are evident changes in time frames and pace in the story development, to be more dramatic and fit a movie format - but these tend to be wise decisions, mostly.
The cinematography is simply gorgeous; lighting and colors are magnificent. As filming in various beautiful locations in New Zeeland turned the landscapes into a tremendously detailed Middle Earth, I wish I could live in the green Shire or in magical Rivendell…
The special effects are stunning, and seamlessly blend with the various models built by the team and the actual landscapes.

Battle scenes are intense, engaging and long enough to convey Tolkien’s messages regarding war… yet, they aren’t overly graphic, especially in view of other Peter Jackson movies, known for their extremes.

Also present are his ecological messages, which I’m glad to say the writers didn’t forget.
The rich and perfectly fitting score was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by genius Howard Shore, giving it a personality of its own, and which stuck to my brain like a leech… hell, I even made ringtones for my smartphone out of it!

The actors and actresses deliver their lines justly and stir all kinds of emotions through the hours in which I forgot I was watching them, and not the characters. That’s how real they become.

Each went several extra miles to portray their characters, including rigorous training and some accidents during filming… not to mention speaking in the languages Tolkien had invented!
These many actors and extras all depict the various human facets, ranging from evil greed and psychopathy, to the heroic and nobble resistance.

The team at large went overboard, working with several artistic departments actually making all the weapons (no plastic there), cloths, and so on, with great attention to detail to the point of obsession (in the good sense, for the results are well worth all the efforts, and stress that Pete put on everyone…. – if you want to know all about that, watch the bonus materials! They are available on dvd and bd editions).

Lord of the Rings, is a masterpiece in regards to just about everything: the entire team has worked for several years and entertainment is guaranteed, with no boring moments.
LOTR is a PG13, with thematic elements, including warfare, despicable actions, with some scary and grotesque scenes that I could watch with no problem, but that you may think about before you stick your kids in front of it.

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A few more details…

There are several versions for each movie: the theatrical cut, and two extended editions, the first on DVDs, the last on Bluray – although Wikipedia states these are identical, this doesn’t seem to be totally true as I shall develop in ‘’LOTR-in the media’’.
I’ll compare them quickly by duration here, and give you a few links if you need to understand the differences in depth, as many new scenes made it from one edition to the next and I don’t want to plagiarize the extensive posts others have made about the topic. (Nor do I have the energy to do so, anyway, because of the shear amount of additional material). 
If you want to all all about the additions in LOTR extended cut.

After each part, I’ll indicate the theatrical edition length, followed by extended editions present on the bluray releases ; first what I’ll call ‘pure movie duration’ and then, the total with additional credits – which do have continuous music but aren’t ‘’important’’ unless you want to read the names of the many fans who paid for their names to appear…here goes
The Fellowship of the Ring > 178 minutes>208 > 228
The Two Towers >>>>>>>>>179 minutes>223 > 235
The return of the King>>>>> 200 minutes>251> 263

In spite of these enormous durations, this trilogy still couldn’t show everything from the books, and thus it is regrettable not to see certain chapters and characters more developed in written form; unless some additional scenes make it to further extra-long editions, which could very well happen, as there are apparently many hours of extra footage, according to rumours…

Principal photography for the trilogy was conducted concurrently over 438 days from October 1999 to December 2000, with pickup shots between 2001 and 2004, in over 150 locations and required 7 units for this massive undertaking. LOTR is quite unique in the sense that the entire trilogy was first fully filmed and then cut into three distinct movies, to be released yearly; a procedure Peter Jackson and his team renewed for the Hobbit trilogy, several years later.
This helped avoiding at least the issue of risking old actors’ death and replacing them (a common problem with movie sequels, such Harry Potter), and also views the characters in their proper ageing process.

But, before and after filming, the main crew worked for much longer, from research to design to preparing the matt paintings to production and post production, the lord of the rings took 8 years for the entire project to complete. You can see now why I called it such a massive undertaking!

Of note, Alan Lee and John Howe, already famous for their illustrations for Tolkien books, joined the artistic team so you’ll feel right at home.

The cast is truly huge, I’ll let you discover on wiki or imdb…

A special note goes to Andy Serkis whose appearance is digitalized using motion caption technology, which he does again for his roles in the new ‘’planet of the apes’’ movies.

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LOTR... in the media is so long that I had to make a part 4