okieinexile
Well-Known Member
By Bobby Neal Winters
Let me get out of the way in the first paragraph my only negative comment about The Return of the King. It is long. At three-and-a-half hours, it is not a movie but a lifestyle choice. However, the question then comes, "How would you shorten it?" and I don't have an answer. It is like going to a man who has a dozen children and telling him that his family is too big. Which ones do you get rid of? None. You live with them all, enjoy every one, and thank God they were all born.
In the entire three-and-a-half hours, I cannot find a nanosecond that should be removed. Like the children in a large family, each of the parts of the movie has something wonderful about it. In this it is like its predecessors The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I have held off reviewing this trilogy of films until now because I wanted to see it all wrapped up before I wrote anything. Now that the final pieces are in place it seems like so much that I can only scratch around at the surface. Indeed, there has been a library of commentary written on the trilogy, and I despair of adding anything new to that.
J.R.R. Tolkien was a religious man who had been part of translating The Jerusalem Bible and converting C.S. Lewis to Christianity. While one can enjoys the books and the movies without knowing this, it added a new level to my enjoyment. Some things that you might want to look out for—but that I will not discuss today—are the times characters are saved by water, the images of the Virgin Mary that are used, and various and sundry Christ-like characters.
For my part, I was taken by how weakness is use throughout. I love the quote by the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." This is a verse that Tolkien must have been well acquainted with because the heroes of the story are hobbits, creatures that are half as tall as a man, about the size of first graders. One would not choose to create an army of first graders.
In addition to this, there is a scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, the second film, where the good wizard Gandalf has been imprisoned by the evil wizard Saruman on the top of a high tower, and his life is saved by a message he sends through a moth.
Also, at the very beginning of the first movie we see that Sauron, the personification of evil they are fighting, is dispatched during his previous manifestation by a sword that has been shattered. Strength made perfect in weakness, indeed.
The final trio of ring-bearers also is worthy of watching. This is composed of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Frodo, played by Elijah Wood, is the focus of the story as it is his burden to carry to One Ring through the evil land of Mordor to Mount Doom, the place where it was forged and the only place it can be destroyed. Sam is his loyal friend and comrade who symbolizes all that is good in plain, ordinary folk. While the Ring has little direct effect on him, it slowly wears away at the somewhat more aristocratic Frodo. Gollum is the most fascinating of the three, however.
He is a loathsome character whose corruption we see at the very beginning of The Return of the King. It would be very easy to dismiss him as worthless as indeed Sam does, but Frodo, who himself feels the corrupting influence of the Ring, does not. All three of these characters are needed to carry the Ring to its final destruction, but it is the filthy, disgusting, corrupted Gollum who saves the world at the end. This final scene is something that says more in being played out than I could possibly explain.
At last, I feel that I would be remiss if I do not comment on the strong female characters included in this trilogy of films. There are only three with speaking parts, but those three are powerful and complex. Arwen and Galadriel are featured more prominently in the first two films than in the last, while Eowyn, who was introduced in the second movie, is more visible in the third. While these movies are fantasies, one might argue that these portrayals of women are more realistic than commonly available in contemporary popular cinema.
In The Return of the King, Arwen, the elf princess, consciously chooses to die, to give up immortality, in order to bear a child, which is something that does happen but we don't often see spelled out, and Eowyn, the heroic princess of Rohan, does all of the fighting the men do while having to wag a child-sized hobbit around.
As I say, there has been a library of books written on The Lord of the Rings, and in the end most people will go see The Return of the King because it is a great adventure movie, but there is more. Sit back, get popcorn but no drink, and enjoy, because it is a long, beautiful ride.
Let me get out of the way in the first paragraph my only negative comment about The Return of the King. It is long. At three-and-a-half hours, it is not a movie but a lifestyle choice. However, the question then comes, "How would you shorten it?" and I don't have an answer. It is like going to a man who has a dozen children and telling him that his family is too big. Which ones do you get rid of? None. You live with them all, enjoy every one, and thank God they were all born.
In the entire three-and-a-half hours, I cannot find a nanosecond that should be removed. Like the children in a large family, each of the parts of the movie has something wonderful about it. In this it is like its predecessors The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I have held off reviewing this trilogy of films until now because I wanted to see it all wrapped up before I wrote anything. Now that the final pieces are in place it seems like so much that I can only scratch around at the surface. Indeed, there has been a library of commentary written on the trilogy, and I despair of adding anything new to that.
J.R.R. Tolkien was a religious man who had been part of translating The Jerusalem Bible and converting C.S. Lewis to Christianity. While one can enjoys the books and the movies without knowing this, it added a new level to my enjoyment. Some things that you might want to look out for—but that I will not discuss today—are the times characters are saved by water, the images of the Virgin Mary that are used, and various and sundry Christ-like characters.
For my part, I was taken by how weakness is use throughout. I love the quote by the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." This is a verse that Tolkien must have been well acquainted with because the heroes of the story are hobbits, creatures that are half as tall as a man, about the size of first graders. One would not choose to create an army of first graders.
In addition to this, there is a scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, the second film, where the good wizard Gandalf has been imprisoned by the evil wizard Saruman on the top of a high tower, and his life is saved by a message he sends through a moth.
Also, at the very beginning of the first movie we see that Sauron, the personification of evil they are fighting, is dispatched during his previous manifestation by a sword that has been shattered. Strength made perfect in weakness, indeed.
The final trio of ring-bearers also is worthy of watching. This is composed of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Frodo, played by Elijah Wood, is the focus of the story as it is his burden to carry to One Ring through the evil land of Mordor to Mount Doom, the place where it was forged and the only place it can be destroyed. Sam is his loyal friend and comrade who symbolizes all that is good in plain, ordinary folk. While the Ring has little direct effect on him, it slowly wears away at the somewhat more aristocratic Frodo. Gollum is the most fascinating of the three, however.
He is a loathsome character whose corruption we see at the very beginning of The Return of the King. It would be very easy to dismiss him as worthless as indeed Sam does, but Frodo, who himself feels the corrupting influence of the Ring, does not. All three of these characters are needed to carry the Ring to its final destruction, but it is the filthy, disgusting, corrupted Gollum who saves the world at the end. This final scene is something that says more in being played out than I could possibly explain.
At last, I feel that I would be remiss if I do not comment on the strong female characters included in this trilogy of films. There are only three with speaking parts, but those three are powerful and complex. Arwen and Galadriel are featured more prominently in the first two films than in the last, while Eowyn, who was introduced in the second movie, is more visible in the third. While these movies are fantasies, one might argue that these portrayals of women are more realistic than commonly available in contemporary popular cinema.
In The Return of the King, Arwen, the elf princess, consciously chooses to die, to give up immortality, in order to bear a child, which is something that does happen but we don't often see spelled out, and Eowyn, the heroic princess of Rohan, does all of the fighting the men do while having to wag a child-sized hobbit around.
As I say, there has been a library of books written on The Lord of the Rings, and in the end most people will go see The Return of the King because it is a great adventure movie, but there is more. Sit back, get popcorn but no drink, and enjoy, because it is a long, beautiful ride.
