March 7, 2004

An Agreement and a Special Praise
Bob Praz

I fully agree with Frodo_Lives and many others: ROTK was by far the most powerful and emotional movie of the trilogy. It is the one movie, out of all the ones in my memory, that I will watch countless times simply because of the incredible acting and heart-braking (or heart-pounding) passion. The battles were awesome and spectacular, but it doesn't compare to the emotional aspect of the movie, which I think outshines everything else (as it should be).
I agree with everyone who's praised the scene of the Ride of the Rohirrim on the Pelennor Fields: without a doubt the most exciting cinematic moment I've ever experienced. To me, Bernard Hill brought the best performance in the whole trilogy, at least for a supporting character. I say this in the sense that his character truly felt like the character in the book, despite his occasional "bitter" moments. The only other actor who delivers a similar performance is Sir Ian McKellen, who easily deserves an Oscar for FOTR and ROTK (if TTT suffered, it's because there wasn't enough of Gandalf!).
Then there's the Mount Doom sequence at the climax of the movie, which I think is the by far the best part of the entire trilogy. Sean and Elijah's performances were wonderful, not to mention Gollum's, and the soundtrack brings you both to tears and to the edge of your seat.
That basically sums up what I have to say about the best scenes, because much has already been said by others in better words than my own.

Finally, I have to comment on Peter Jackson's great job, along with that of all his team. You can say all you want about the "poor" quality of the book-to-film adaptation, but the Return of the King, despite its differences from the book's plot and its few flaws (which I'll discuss some other time, probably), is absolutely true to the themes of LotR. The ending of the movie alone shows that PJ and company wanted to stay true to Tolkien's spirit; because, frankly, no film director that wasn't devoted to the book would have ever incorporated the twenty-minute denouement of the hobbits' return to the Shire and the Grey Havens. The movie felt like it should have ended right after Aragorn's coronation at Minas Tirith, because by then the plot is wrapped up and the audience wants to go home (or to the bathroom). But PJ recognized, quite rightly, that one of the most important chapters of the story takes place after the War of the Ring. Finally, the fact that the very end of the film is the same as that of the book makes you feel that the movie trilogy, in essence, is the same as Tolkien's novel: it's simply a wonderful tale with a beginning and an end like all others. It’s not really the specific path of the plot that matters, it’s what the story brings to you.
Not to say that ROTK doesn’t have its weaknesses, and some parts (shall we say...Denethor’s demise?) do gnaw at my appreciation of the movie, but most of the important moments of the book are there, in one form or another.
That’s all for now. Praise you if you took the trouble to read this whole article.