SERIOUSLY, DO NOT READ ANY MORE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE RETURN OF THE KING YET. BELOW THIS PICTURE I'M GONNA LET IT RIP AND WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR RUINING ANYONE'S LOTR EXPERIENCE.
Here comes my oblogitory post on The Return of the King. (For real, turn back now, I will be giving away things you may not want to know.) I chose the picture of Samwise above because he was my favorite character when I read the books. Of course, Aragorn is the coolest, but Sam is the hero of the story for me. Sean Astin has made a perfect Sam and continues the strong performance in this conclusion of the trilogy. But before I get to the actual review of the movie I would like to memorialize a few things about reading the books.
Probably back in 1999 one of my friends was reading the books and he thought I'd enjoy them (his fantasy football team that year was The Tom Bombadils). I had never read them or The Hobbit for that matter. At Thanksgiving 2001, one of my aunt's friend's teenaged son was reading The Two Towers and I decided I'd better read the books before the movie came out that December. So I read the trilogy in one giant lumbering volume that was very cumbersome to carry around. I read it in the month before The Fellowship of the Ring came out. I'm not going to go on and on about what a mindboggling genius J.R.R. Tolkein was, but I was riveted from page one through all the appendices, family-trees, etc. When I got to The Return of the King, I was insane. When I would speak with Chrissy on the phone, I would give her updates on Frodo and Sam's progress. Emotionally, Sam's love, courage, and steadfastness blew me away. While all the storylines can be emotional, the two that really got to me were Aragorn's reluctant acceptance of his fate (more later) and Sam. I remember calling Chrissy, "You're not going to believe this, Sam is carrying Frodo up the mountain! He put him on his back and marched." I had such a strong image of these two hobbits; Frodo, the "chosen one" debilitated by the weight of his burden, being carried by his dutiful, indefatigable friend Sam. Tolkien's message became fully realized at that point for me. Or at least, what I take to be his message. It is those moments of doom and certain disaster that we me face and despite the fear, press on into the Shadow. Since Sam is my favorite character and he is the hero of the final book I've been fighting bouts of geek-like excitement for the new movie, which I finally saw today. (I'm writing "finally" but I still have seen it with in 24 hours of its opening-what a dork.)
As for the movie it was awesome. A few weeks ago Chrissy bought me a Newsweek with half the issue dedicated to the movie. I haven't opened it yet, and have averted my eyes from all reviews, most cast interviews, news stories, etc. Although I did find out that Peter Jackson chose to omit The Scouring of the Shire from the movie (it will be included on the extended DVD). Going into the movie there were scenes that I could not wait to see.
1-When Sam carries Frodo up the mountain.
2-When Eowyn slays the Nazgul-King.
3-When the Rohirrim join the fight.
4-When Aragorn accepts his fate as King of Men and receives the re-forged sword, Andúril.
I was satisfied at the portrayal of all of these. After the Nazgul tells a helmeted Eowyn that no
man can kill him, Eowyn gets the Schwarzenegger-like line "I am no man." It was as I envisioned it. Obviously all the battles scenes were as good as it gets. I'm too tired to keep this going, this is starting to sound like
"The Chris Farley Show" so I'll quote him and say "It was...awesome." Maybe I'll write another post after I see it again. And if you're really a Tolkien fan you must check
this out.