With The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King turning twenty years old, there is no better time to return to Middle-Earth and reflect on one of the best trilogies in cinema history.
In my 9th grade English course, I was assigned to read The Hobbit, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, by my instructor, Mr. Bufton. I was already an avid reader then, primarily focused on the works of Stephen King, John Grisham, and Tom Clancy. You know, the adult books.
I considered this old fantasy novel as just another needless requirement, taking me away from the truly important novels of the time. Imagine my surprise when The Hobbit started my obsession with all things Middle-earth.
I told Mr. Bufton that this may have been the best book I ever read.
“If you liked this, you would love Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.”
I read all three books in the span of two weeks. Then I read them again.
During Christmas break of my junior year of high school, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in theaters.
Was this film going to work? I didn’t care. I just wanted to see my favorite books on screen. I drove a few of my coworkers to the theater during opening weekend. We were mesmerized.
Worldbuilding at its Best
One of the hallmarks of Tolkien’s work is his meticulous worldbuilding. Tolkien would describe everything in minute detail: character outfits, comprehensive landscapes, and crumbling ruins of times past. All of it was crammed into the books, yet adding these details only enhanced the story told. Such was Jackson’s Middle-Earth. Each of these films’ set designs fully commits to the beauty and the doom of Middle-Earth and its inhabitants.
When you see The Shire in The Fellowship of the Rings, Lothlórien in The Two Towers, or The white city of Gondor in The Return of the King, it feels like you are truly in a fantasy world. Nothing matches Peter Jackson’s masterful work, proven by the franchise’s numerous recognitions and awards for cinematography, art direction, and visual effects.
Fantastical special effects bring to life the Balrog, Nazgûl, and Shelob, but the crowning achievement was the motion capture rendering of Gollum. Andy Serkis, a talented theater actor with various roles in film and television, had the daunting task of bringing Gollum to life using this new technology. Serkis’ Gollum is now one of the most recognizable characters in film history.
Andy Serkis has gone on to achieve great success using this technology, with his role as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes (2011-2017) trilogy being his most recognizable role outside of Middle-Earth. Surprisingly, he still hasn’t been recognized by the academy for his motion capture acting.
Jackson didn’t cut corners with makeup and costume design, either. The orcs and the Uruk-hai were the stuff of nightmares. You can see Peter Jackson’s background in horror shining through these evil servants of Sauron.
Even the costumes, from the tattered rags of Strider to the elvish royal robes of Arwen, made this new world tangible. This was especially true during large-scale battles. Over 20,000+ extras were involved in the trilogy, each given the same treatment in the makeup chair. This made a legion of orcs terrifying, an army of men inspiring, and the clashes between the two exhilarating.
You knew you were watching a movie, but it didn’t feel like a movie. The Lord of the Rings felt like something much more magical.
Knowing When to Cut
Peter Jackson showed tremendous discernment in what part of the story needed axing. Many Lord of the Rings superfans were left wondering where Tom Bombadil was. Why wasn’t the Grey Ward present? Why wasn’t Bilbo at the Council of Elrond?
Adding every detail for a book adaptation is great for streaming shows but can be deadly for films. Sam singing sad songs by the campfire is great in the books, but how annoyed would the audience have been if Peter Jackson forced Sean Astin to belt a tune every ten minutes?
The Return of the King was released during my first year of college. I went with some friends to the midnight release, knowing we would be up into the wee hours of the morning watching the 3+ hour film. It was ok. I took a nap beforehand.
This was before online ticket ordering, so fans had to stand in line an hour before the run time in hopes of getting a ticket to the packed theater (remember packed theaters?). By the third film, The Lord of the Rings was a phenom. The franchise earned nearly 3 billion dollars, not including physical media sales.
The Lord of The Rings sets the Stage
The Lord of the Rings was the precursor for things to come. The trilogy made it cool to love stories formerly reserved for nerds and geeks. The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe all followed. Each property had varying success; none would have the universal adoration that The Lord of the Rings achieved. Even Peter Jackson returned to Middle-Earth a decade later with a second trilogy. The Hobbit trilogy, though serviceable, would not reach the heights of the original.
Even so, Jackson can rest easy. He and his team of talented actors, visual effect artists, and production designers achieved something incredible during their year and a half in New Zealand. They gave the millennial generation our Wizard of Oz, our Planet of the Apes, our Star Wars. It gave me a reason to convince co-workers to see a movie that wasn’t full of explosions and one-liners. It elicited cheers and tears at three in the morning from a theater packed with college students. Even with the magic of movies, those moments are few and far between.
