ROTK: A Review
Some Obsessions Are Less Harmful Than Others....My Precious
Like certain wines and enlightened women and men, some things just keep getting better and better. The third time is most definitely a charm with Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy and final installment Return of the King. Coming in at a surprisingly evenly paced yet whopping three hours and 20 plus minutes, don't blink or leave your seat because there is always something to miss. Unlike TTT, the third movie starts with a flutter, not a bang, recalling with mystic creepiness, the toxic allure of the ring and Gollum's origins (played on screen by the charming Andy Sirkis as a long forgotten hobbit of another Age). For hard core Ringers this surprise opening gives depth and substance to a story that has long been swirling around The Fate Of Middle Earth and wiping out as many Orcs as possible. This story began with a Hobbit and darn if it isn't going to end that way. That humble beginning aside, Jackson and crew pull up their cinematic sleeves and get to work in earnest; the Fate of Middle Earth, two Hobbits aside, also now rests in the war scarred hands of a few chosen yet weary battlemates: Aragorn, the regal yet ever humble king in waiting, Legolas, Elvin smooth and deadly as ever; Gemili, gruff and still getting some of the best lines of the movie. Hobbits Merry and Pippin come into their own and the epic continues and reunites the group as they head, in various ways, to Gondor and the biggest battle ever seen on the big screen.
Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam and Gollum claw, stumble and trudge their way into the heart of Mordor, the audience feeling the weight of the journey increase with every step. The ring is not only getting heavier and harder to resist, but the sweet, pink cheeked Frodo continues to metamorphose into a mere shadow of himself, another Gollum in the making if ever there was one. It's hard to watch the fresh, clean appeal of Elijah Woods deteriorate into the filthy, obsessed junkie that he becomes but he plays it so passionately well, the perfect unraveled foil to Sean Astin's stalwart Sam.
Speaking of Astin, one has come to expect outstanding performances from the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Bernard Hill, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, but just as the Hobbits come into their own via Tolkien's vision, so does Astin, turning in his finest performance to-date. The emotional turmoil and strength of conviction of Sam, so deeply and profoundly exposed by Astin, takes this actor from supporting role status to Hollywood heavy weight. His raw appeal as the Hobbit who goes to the very bowels of hell for the love of his friend, is as heart wrenching as it is devastating. While continue to root for Sirkis to get a supporting role nod from the Academy, we are also now certain that Astin should be nominated as well. With Frodo coming undone, the story line is carried, in so many ways, by Astin's deeply moving portrayal of Samwise Gamgee. Forever has Astin transformed the vision of Sam . Like Tolkien's vision of Hobbits, Astin sort of sneaks up on you and by the end of the ROTK, you cannot imagine Middle Earth, or the trilogy, without him.
Other supporting actors continue to round out the action in Middle Earth; David Wenham as the broken hearted Faramir, yearning for his father's love; John Nobel as the Shakespearian-esque, powerful yet unstable Denethor (whom we hope to see unravel more eloquently in the extended version of ROTK); shimmering Miranda Otto as the lovesick Eowyn; Karl Urban as Eomer and regal Bernard Hill as the doomed but brave King Theoden. Missing from the story line is the sweet love story that emerges between wounded in more ways than one, warriors Eowyn and Faramir. We are putting in our vote that one in the extended version of the DVD as well.
Finally, most missing from the story, or cut as the press would have us all believe, is the final downfall of Saurman played with evil relish by the classic Christopher Lee. We remain uncertain why moment or two of the Ring's final undoing, bubbling on and on in the lava of Mount Doom, couldn't have been trimmed in favor of giving Lee is final moment on the screen. All we can hope is that Jackson gives Lee his full screen time in the extended version as he was sorely missed in this final installment.
Not missing was a nanosecond of thrilling special effects, lavish costumes, make-up breaktaking cinemaphotography....it is no wonder that critics and former naysayers alike are screaming Oscars all around. WETA and team have earned each and every one of them. Everyone else in the movie biz should just go home, at least this time around. As promised in TTT, wait for, hope for, dread the spectacle, The Battle To End All Cinematic Battles, The Battle of The Pellenor Fields. As promised, it makes The Battle of Helm's Deep look like a junior high practice session for second stringers. Nothing has ever come close on the big screen and perhaps, given the scope of the movie and the storyline, nothing ever will. The charge of the doomed men on horseback, thundering down the field, brings tears to the eyes of viewers. To their death these men go, all just to give Frodo perhaps a few more precious moments toward his own evil fate and the fiery caverns of Mount Doom. The emotional impact of this is only to be topped by the ensuring confrontation of the dwindled band of surviving warriors at The Black Gate. Hopelessly outnumbered, completely encircled by The Enemy, Aragorn brings to the story his finest moment when he turns away from the evil of Sauron to face his friends and, with a quiet conviction and goodness that cannot be broken by any Ring, declares softly to his friends, "For Frodo," as all turn and charge to their (certain) collective deaths. Watch and see who follows most closely on his heels, a surprise albeit brief moment that speaks volumes yet again about the courage and fortitude of Hobbits.
As with any magical masterpiece, all good things must come to an end, with the last 30 minutes of the movie devoted to tying up loose ends, much along the lines that Tolkein did (mimus the scouring of The Shire). Good triumphs over evil but not without cost, dear, dear, bittersweet cost. As Frodo himself put it, some hurts cannot be healed and so it goes with our friends in Middle Earth. Aragorn gets the girl but she gives up her immortality in the process. Sam and the wiser, grown-up Hobbits all return to the Shire but are changed, different somehow. Sam marries lovely Hobbit girl Rosie Cotton, just like in the book and, just like in the book, ends up losing the one thing that is most precious to him. Frodo cannot, scarred Ring bearer that he was, stay in Middle Earth and, along with the last remnants of the Elves and Gandalf, must leave for shores beyond. Bittersweet as this moment is, Tolkien --- and Jackson --- find a way to remind us all that life goes on and our part in this tale must end so that others may continue. We then must leave Middle Earth, voyeurs for three wondrous movies, all the sadder and grateful that we got to share, if just for a glorious moment, Jackson's enthralling version of Tolkien's enduring literary masterpiece. Leaving the theatre and returning to the flawed earth that we mere mortals must inhabit, there is a moment, perhaps just a twist of ironic cinematic fate, where viewers heave a sigh of relief and think to themselves, "Well, I'm back."
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