LONG LIVE
THE KING
by Mark Netter

Maybe it's because it actually has an ending. Maybe it's because we've been with the characters for so long, we're just happy to hang with them one last time. Maybe it's because Peter Jackson and company have had two movies to practice on, two more years to finalize their reshoot system, enough time to finally perfect the special effects technology. In any case, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is easily the best entry in the trilogy, abundant in visual and narrative rewards, overwhelming in construction, an extremely satisfying conclusion to the landmark series. If there's a downside, it's that ROTK threatens to make the first two features, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, seem like mere prologue. Sure, there is much more resonance to enjoy if you have experienced the first two, but viewers can probably still "get" this movie if they haven't. (Although it helps in particular to have seen Fellowship - even in the second book itself, the battle of Helms Deep seems like dress rehearsal.)

ROTK opens ingeniously with an "origin" moment: how Smeagol first found that nasty ring and turned into Gollum, the wizened CGI demon with the morals of a three-year old (both incarnations played by Andy Serkis, who similarly stole the show in 24-Hour Party People). It even improves on the novel's climax, if only by playing out the moments more completely.

For the few, the proud, the uninitiated, this granddaddy of all fantasy stories tells of the quest by Frodo Baggins, a sweet little guy from a race of bucolic, undersized humans called hobbits, to destroy a ring of unspeakable power. Frodo's got to take it back where it came from, the fiery Mount Doom, which happens to be in the same gated community for bad guys where the evil Lord Sauron lives, he who needs the ring to complete his ruinous global takeover. Along the way Frodo attracts some friends to help him save the world, but by then the armies of evil are so strong that he must make the most perilous part of his trek with only his small-town buddy Sam at his side, guided by the treacherous Gollum who's still looking for his angle to get the ring back. The rest of the heroes are on a parallel mission, amassing whatever armies of good they can to beat back the invading hordes in a series of increasingly dire battles.

The books upon which the movies are based were written by English academic J.R.R. Tolkien during and around the years of World War II, and first published in the mid-1950's. They achieved a huge worldwide audience, by one estimation six million readers over half a century, and garnered handy counter-culture cache during the mind-expanding 1960's. The primary achievement of director/co-writer Peter Jackson is in having executed a remarkably successful adaptation of a great literary work. (Even critics of fantasy as a literary genre must at least allow that LOTR is both a noted and well-loved work.) Preserving Tolkien's classical vision without coming off corny or ponderous in a dramatic setting is something of a feat, and although the lengthy end credit roll is surely filled with invaluable contributors, it all comes down to a profound meeting of two imaginations, fifty-odd years apart. J.R.R. Tolkien's literary inspiration inextricably leads to the flowering of Peter Jackson's cinematic talent, and the result as it climaxes here is both gripping and sublime. Among the acheivements of the films is a convincing sense of journey, on foot over great distances, and it's one of the aspects that elevates them above other blockbuster fantasy trilogies like Star Wars and The Matrix, assuring ROTK a Best Picture Oscar as salute to the whole enterprise.

The secret of this installment, and because of it the collected resonance of the series, is that Jackson and fellow screenwriters Frances Walsh and Philippa Boyens have made this movie most squarely about the nature of character. While that theme was implicit if unresolved in the first two, ROTK is really about how the strength (or weakness) of an individual's character is ultimately revealed in response to the siren call of evil, the scrupulous demands of honor, and the turning points of history. The three anchors - Elijah Wood as the diminutive ringbearer Frodo; Ian McKellen as magic grandpa Gandolph, both blessing the action and taking his share; and Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, titular leader of men who's just emerged from a life in the wilderness; handle their respective calls with admirable commitment and deft handling of code. In the two main plots, Frodo earns his sadness and Aragorn grows to fill his crown.

But the left-field surprise, possibly even for fans of the books, is how the heart of this picture belongs to Sam, with Sean Astin in the role. Sam grapples unfavorably with arch-enemy Gollum, battles a giant unholy creature, and goes the whole nine yards to try and seal the ring's fate when all the other players are prostrate on the field. While his subservience previously made him seem naïve, almost dim, here his "Mister Frodo" code of address rises to a code of character that means more than service, rather an informed steadfastness. As if a reward for having to play the most cloying moments of the first two features, Astin runs with the opportunity, and his performance is so unexpectedly skillful, that no one should be surprised if he makes the nomination lists. While the other major characters move forward with implicit destiny, Sam more than any of them is making every step his choice, and the most touching moments may be his well-earned growth of confidence as the curtain comes down.

And a long curtain it is, a full twenty minutes after the main plot has finally been dispatched. Some mainstream reviews may squawk, but if it's 10% of this movie, it's closer to 4% of the overall work, give or take an Extended Edition DVD. Although your bladder may be begging for mercy, the moments are all poignant enough, hitting the key dramatic posts of the novel's close. While the three films generally have the boyish good sense to play down the mushy parts, here the story becomes genuinely affecting, and only the most Talmudic Tolkienites should feel shortchanged on the closure front.

Aside from the abundant narrative values, including Jackson's astounding success in cross-cutting sometimes six planes and locations of contemporaneous plots without losing the audience, ROTK is, not incidentally, the state-of-the-art action flick of the day. You may not come out focusing on this element because the story is so engrossing -- and unlike many action/effects movies the most impressive graphics or cinematic shot references aren't screaming, "Look at me!" in a soulless void. Yet, while there's clearly an untopped level of computer generated effects, they seem more masterful than in the previous Rings features (themselves no slouches), more seamless, less distracting and more fantastic. The battles are stronger and clearer than before, the action less cutty. One bravura sequence featuring svelte elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom) seems head-and-shoulders above anything executed in the earlier films and left our audience bursting into applause. The massing of armies is more staggering than ever, the corkscrew city of Minas Tirith is breathtakingly realized, and its siege is simply dazzling. ROTK's psycho-archetypal menagerie includes warty giants, primordial elephants, and terrifying dragons, and you can't get enough of them. And in a respite from all the creatures of the flesh - men, orcs, monsters - with stunning success, the filmmakers bring to life the very dead themselves.

There is certainly more to be written about ROTK than any review can cover, and more analysis of the series to be undertaken once it is fully digested, hopefully not just by Tolkien geeks or periodical critics, but by cinema theorists who may have something to say about form and structure. With imagery that draws from classic artists like Albrecht Dürer, Maxfield Parrish and Auguste Rodin as much as German expressionism and Art Nouveau (especially as practiced in 1920's and 1930's Hollywood), the movies both call upon and redefine some part of our collective unconscious.

Now here's the long view, from a movie-goer's standpoint: these three films will enjoy an extremely long life theatrically, no matter what the ultimate DVD distribution figures may be. There is so much grandeur, so much visual and narrative sweep and detail, that parents will want their children and grandchildren to experience it just as they did, and they'll come along for the ride. Like the Walt Disney-era animated Disney features and the 20th anniversary Star Wars re-release, The Lord of the Rings will retain the ability to return to theaters every few decades, with surprising strength. Like a promise fulfilled, The Return of the King seals the deal, with elegance and power.

©2003 Mark Netter
CineScene