LORD OF THE RING: RETURN OF THE KING
BY MOHD FADZAL
PART 1
DETAILS
Title - Lord Of The Ring: Return Of The King
Running time - 201 minutes / 230 (minutes extended)
Genre - Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Ratings - M Classified movies in Australia.
Release Date December 17th in the US and 26th December 2003 in Australia
Directed by - Peter Jackson
Based on - J.R.R Tolkien Lord Of The Ring: Return Of The King Novel.
Screenplay by - Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens.
Cinematography by Andrew Lesnie
Film Editing by Jamie Selkirk
Produced by
1. Peter Jackson
2. Michael Lynne
3. Mark Ordesky
4. Barrie M. Osborne
5. Rick Porras
6. Jamie Selkirk
7. Robert Shaye
8. Fran Walsh
9. Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein
Produced by - Production Companies
1. New Line Cinema (United States)
2. WingNut Films (New Zealand)
3. Lord Dritte Productions Deutschland Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG (Denmark) (in association with)
4. The Saul Zaentz Company (United States) (licensor) (d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises)
Main Cast and Crews
1. Alexandra Astin - Elanor Gamgee
2. Sean Astin - Sam
3. Sean Bean - Boromir
4. Cate Blanchett - Galadriel
5. Orlando Bloom - Legolas
6. Billy Boyd - Pippin
7. Bernard Hill - Theoden
8. Ian Holm - Bilbo
9. Lawrence Makoare - Witch King/Gothmog
10. Ian McKellen - Gandalf
11. Dominic Monaghan - Merry
12. Viggo Mortensen - Aragorn
13. John Noble - Denethor
14. Paul Norell - King of the Dead
15. John Rhys-Davies - Gimli
16. Andy Serkis - Gollum/Smeagol
17. Harry Sinclair - Isildur
18. Joel Tobeck - Orc Lieutenant 1
19. Liv Tyler - Arwen
20. Hugo Weaving -Elrond
21. David Wenham - Faramir
22. Elijah Wood - Frodo
23. Alan Howard - The Ring (voice)
24. Sala Baker - Orc/Sauron
25. Brad Dourif - Grima Wormtongue (extended edition)
26. Christopher Lee - Saruman (extended edition)
Bibliographical Interview
I have browse through the Internet and found hundreds of Interview from the films website itself to other website available.
1. <http://www.lordoftherings.net/legend/interviews/>Interview of main cast and crew taken from film website
2. <http://www.filmstew.com/Content/Features/Details.asp?Pg=1&ContentID=7520>With Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood
3. <http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/035/035889p1.html>With Sir Ian McKellen.
4. <http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/317/317105p1.html>With Richard Taylor.
5. <http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/393/393444p1.html>With Billy Boyd
6. <http://romanticmovies.about.com/cs/lordoftherings3>With multiple cast and crew
7. <http://www.filmstew.com/Content/DailyNews/Details.asp?ContentID=7930&Pg=1>With Bill Tendreau
8. <http://www.filmstew.com/Content/Features/Details.asp?Pg=1&ContentID=7544>With multiple cast and crew
9. <http://www.filmstew.com/Content/ReviewsViews/Details.asp?Pg=1&ContentID=7825>With Howard Shore
Internet Review
Since this critical review is based on a film with 400 million dollars of gross profit, there is no doubt that hundreds of reviews are available over the Internet. With 268 reviews alone in <http://www.imdb.com/>www.imdb.com , this film definitely has gain huge reputation among the masses. Below are the shortcuts taken among hundreds other reviews.
1. <http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=8378&s=Reviews>http://www.urbancinefile.com.au
2. <http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8404>http://efilmcritic.com
3. <http://homevideo.about.com/od/dvdreviewslong/fr/pkReturnKingDVD.htm>http://homevideo.about.com
4. <http://romanticmovies.about.com/cs/lordoftherings3/a/lotr3rv121603.htm>http://romanticmovies.about.com
5. <http://www.boxofficecritic.com/reviewsdetail.asp?id=18&pageno=1>http://www.boxofficecritic.com
6. <http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=105465>http://www.channel4.com
7. <http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8404&reviewer=128>http://www.efilmcritic.com
8. <http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8404&reviewer=198>http://www.efilmcritic.com
9. <http://www.film-critiques.com/LOTR3_1.html>http://www.film-critiques.com
10. <http://www.filmfocus.co.uk/review.asp?ReviewID=2>http://www.filmfocus.co.uk
11. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/12/11/lord_of_rings_return_of_king_2003_review.shtml>http://www.bbc.co.uk
12. <http://www.reel.com/movie.asp?MID=132249&buy=closed&PID=10113650&Tab=reviews&CID=18#tabs>http://www.reel.com
Online presence
Lord Of The Ring trilogy has its own website which I found very helpful in assisting me to do research on the films. Details of the cast and crews, interviews, synopsis of each trilogy, behind the scenes, inside the effects, latest news, culture, locations, trailers and video categories are all available in the website. The layout of the website really resembles the theme of the film which bring user closer to the film. Apart from the film website, <http://www.imdb.com/>www.imdb.com and <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/>www.boxofficemojo.com
Also offer a great deal of information such as box office figures, newsgroup reviews and release date.
Research Method
My research method prior to collect information on this film has been done through online. I have gained information via two sources, one is through viewing the film on DVD and secondly for details information I have used the Internet. By using search engines such as Google Australia at <http://www.google.com.au/>www.google.com.au and yahoo at yahoo.com to narrow down my information as accurate as possible, informations seems fairly easy to come by. These films have gained so much reputation among the masses that it is almost impossible to say there is no information available on the Internet at all. The film has its own website and that makes it more convenience for users to have direct information. The films too had won many prestigious awards to date and below are a number of awards they have collected since its release date.
Awards and Recognitions
Award
Result
Year
Category
Academy Awards Oscar
Won
2004
1. Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
2. Best Costume Design
3. Best Director
4. Best Editing
5. Best Make up
6. Best Music, Original Score
7. Best Music, Original Song
8. Best Picture
9. Best Sound
10. Best Visual Effects
11. Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
AFI Awards
Won
2004
1. Best Foreign Film
Golden Globe Awards
Won
2004
1. Best Director Motion Picture
2. Best Motion Picture Drama
3. Best Original Score Motion Picture
4. Best Original Song Motion Picture
Grammy Awards
Won
2005
1. Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
2. Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
MTV Movie Awards
Won
2004
1. Best Action Sequence
2. Best Movie
Empire Award UK
Won
2004
1. Best British Actor
2. Best Film
3. Scene of the Year
Box Office figures
According to <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=returnoftheking.htm>http://www.boxofficemojo.com, Return Of The King sets an impressive $1, 118, 888, 979 of total lifetime gross worldwide. To some, however, this figures is not surprising as the film managed to collect $34, 450, 834 on the first day it hits the cinema. And that is for US alone. A more detail breakdown of box office figures can be found <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=returnoftheking.htm>here.
PART 2
Plot, synopsis and own commentary
In this final episode of Lord Of The Ring trilogy, Sauron's has moves his Orcs to Minas Tirith and take siege over the capital of Gondor. Its aim is to end the existence of men and rule middle earth once and for all. Minas Tirith, the once great kingdom is now only govern by a fading steward and is desperately in need of its honorable king. Aragorn now carries all the burden of the middle earth on his broad shoulders, in the midst of the final battle united and the host of darkness gathering, Gandalf resist on losing and fight his way to rally Gondor's army who sees no hope in their faith. Rohan's great King, King Theoden, who joins forces to battle against the greatest middle earth war, accompanies Gandalf. However, the unmerciful army of Mordor could not be undone, nevertheless they fight their way to their last breath with one thing in mind, distraction. They realize that Frodo and Sam have made their way to Mount Doom, the only place where the ring can be undone and with Sauron unaware of that, distraction is the most effective way to keep Frodo and Sam's path clear. Frodo and Sam gets closer and closer to Mount Doom, and even with only few miles away from the tip of the mountain, Frodo gets too exhausted that Sam had to carry him. It is such a great burden for a hafling to carry but the journey must go on for there is too many lives depend on him. Gollum appears to distract them on their final steps to Mount Doom, Sam had too fight with Gollum who couldn't resist the power of the ring, whilst Frodo struggles to crawl to the top of the mountain. As Frodo reach the tip of Mount Doom, he changes his mind unexpectedly, he realizes how the ring can transform him into a great ruler of middle earth and shall be call The Lord Of The Ring. In the final moment, Gollum manage to overpower Sam and quickly sneak his way towards Frodo. There he found Frodo and they both fought over the ring, not knowing Sauron had sent one of his ghost riders over to bring back the ring to him. Gollum manage to grab the ring of Frodo, overjoyed he lost his balance and slips into Mount Doom together with the ring. The ring is cast and so does Gollum. In conclusion, Lord Of The Ring: Return Of The King ends the epic trilogy with answers relating to all question brought forward prior to the first two installment The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers. It is also a lesson for us to learn even the smallest creature among men can save the world with high determination and strong will.
With so many prestigious awards, it is almost near impossible for me to say that this film is not one of my favorites. Peter Jackson's final episode of the Lord Of The Ring trilogy is definitely the most outstanding films I have watch so far, from the use of CG and the great score of music accompanying each battle scene is simply stunning. Hats off to Peter Jackson. On the beginning of the film, Peter Jackson chose to show the history behind Smeagol, who become overly obsessed over the ring and chose to isolate himself deep into the forest. Years go by and the great power of the ring has turned him into an hideous, skeletal creature Gollum. One of the strong elements that attract more and more audiences to watch Return Of The King, In my opinion is how Peter Jackson cleverly accommodate each scene which, as the movie goes along, gradually explains the audience the story, history of the characters in the film. Audiences would go 'ahh, that's why' or 'OK, now I get it' because in this episode Peter Jackson chose to fill up all slots left by the first two episodes. For most of us however, the breathtaking scenery of Shire and Middle earth, the overly stretched battle scene and the story itself is simply irresistible leaving behind all the crucial piece of the film. Return Of The King also appears to be the longest among all three episode, with duration over 3 hours and 20 minutes, combined with utter perfect use of special effects burlesque, specifically for Gollum and the thousands army on the background during battle scene, fans of special effects will definitely be more than pleased. Another remarkable work of Peter Jackson, which I personally like, is the battle of Minas Tirith. Face the facts, with massive number of army, overly huge elephant stampeding through the battlefield, loud screams of Urukhai,, arrows and huge rocks flying all over the place what more can you ask for a fantasy movie. Particularly, the scene where we see ghost of the cursed mountains, which sweeps away Orcs in flashes of green colour in leaves such great impact to audiences, as we wouldn't expect it to happen, not at the very last minute. Heroic is how Aragorn is portrayed in this episode, he had fought against the battle of Minas Tirith and he brave himself to face the Ghost of the Cursed Mountain, he healed those were injured during the battle particularly Faramir. Gandalf the Grey holds a bigger role in this episode, after transforming himself to Gandalf the White, the old men now mostly uses his beautifully crafted white walking stick each time he counter the enemy, Legolas on the other hand, more known for his orderly and neat appearances had swap a face to face fights with more accurate arrow strikes. He didn't leave quite an impact on this episode compared to the first two, however, audiences, especially girls, drop jaws watching Legolas hiking effortlessly on to the elephant like animal. Alongside that, Peter Jackson too did give other less important character a share amount of screen time on this final episode for example, Bilbo Baggins, King Theoden and Eowyn. Each of the characters arises along the lines of the story at a perfect timing which at the end makes sense of who is who. Credit must also be given to the films music scores, with such wonderful and brilliant originality; Lord Of The Rings really puts orchestra one step further in movie chapters.
Peter Jackson quoted "The people who have watched the first two movies have stuck with us, and everyone is waiting now to get to the last one, including us, the filmmakers." (<http://www.theonering.net/features/newsroom/files/rotk_prod_notes.html#17>http://www.theonering.net/features/newsroom/files/rotk_prod_notes.html#17) He continues to explain further on the challenges he faces during the final process of the film. From the very beginning of developing the film until the first release of the third episode, Peter Jackson has grant everything he had in order to make Lord Of The Rings a reality. He adds "It was like an immense jigsaw puzzle that we had to somehow fit together and end up with something that felt like it was worthy of the title The Lord of the Rings, and yet still worked as a movie," Jackson comments. Richard Taylor gives his personal views on the journey of the film "In some ways, this large group of people that helped Peter bring Middle-earth to life in the form of these films have been on their own journey, leaving the Shire innocent in some ways, a little cautious, not quite sure of what was out beyond the edge-but journeying on with faith in each other, and really climbing to the peaks and through the deepest valleys." (<http://www.theonering.net/features/newsroom/files/rotk_prod_notes.html#17>http://www.theonering.net/features/newsroom/files/rotk_prod_notes.html#17) Return Of The Kings had made a worldwide impact on box office films including Australia. On its first day release in Australia, the movie pulled in 5.268 million dollar making it the biggest box office of all time leaving behind Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, released in 1999, with box office figures of $2.6 million. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone achieved $2.7 million. On a total gross figure, Return Of The King had collected 49,331,621AUD, which is not surprising to see why it has granted Best Foreign Film at the Australian Film Industry last year. The Australian audiences anticipates the movies just like any other country around the world, its rather fair to say that it has grew a reputation among Australian audiences despite having close geographical location from where the movie was done which, I assume, makes the neighboring country proud in some ways. John Brennan from Sydney said, "The scenes are just magic, there were really no disappointments, it was fabulous. The whole family, all 10 of us, came down to see it and we loved it." He continues, "It was so good. My favorite characters are Aragorn and Frodo. [But] I'm sad that this was the last of the films, the end of the story," (<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/27/1072308730615.html?from=storyrhs>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/27/1072308730615.html?from=storyrhs) according to 16-year-old Nick Verhels from Hobart who watched the film on the first day of release "It was brilliant, by far the best trilogy ever" (<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/27/1072308730615.html?from=storyrhs>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/27/1072308730615.html?from=storyrhs) Believe it or not , this final episode of Lord Of The Ring broke its own box office release record from The Two Towers that earned 5.23 million AUD on its opening day, and that, now, tells me and the rest of the world that Australian had responded very well on this film directed by New Zealander, Peter Jackson.
Film director Peter Jackson first movie debut didn't really hit the market very well, Bad Taste (1897), for example was a below average horror movie about a flash eating alien, he later on directed Meet The Feebles in (1989), a comedy about puppet show that went totally wrong and finally Heavenly Creatures (1994), a movie set on the 1950's in New Zealand concerning teenagers obsession, friendship and imagination. This film subsequently gains Peter Jackson attention among Hollywood director he is today. To date Peter Jackson had work in over 100 films with different roles namely, special effects, filmography, writer, director, producer and even make up effects
Peter Jackson currently working on his new movie called King Kong which now undergoing postproduction stage. Elijah Wood who played Frodo Baggin son the other hand, had work with plentiful film directors and none of them were with Peter Jackson, among recent movie starring Elijah Wood are as follows, Try Seventeen in 2002, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind in 2004, Hooligans in 2005, and an upcoming movie called Happy Feet in 2006. Sir Ian McKellen who played Gandalf the White is a man that needs no introduction in Hollywood films. He begins his acting career since 1965 and had starred in many chart topping, box offices movies such as X-Men part 1 and 2, and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy itself. Viggo Mortensen who played Aragorn, King of Arathorn, had also starred in many Hollywood films such as 28 days in 2000 and Hidalgo in 2004. Lord Of The Rings cinematographer Andrew Lesnie has made a long way to this day before gaining reputation as a well known cinematographer, to date he had work 29 films and apparently had agreed to work with Peter Jackson new movie 'King Kong' this year. He has helped Peter Jackson achieve the best cinematography in two out of three Lord Of The Ring episodes granting The Best Cinematography Awards at the Academy Awards USA.
Return Of The King is without a doubt a fantasy fiction film at its best, Peter Jackson had came with an ideal fantasy film that everyone hope will emerge again in the future. The film has raised a lot of reviews over the years, mainly positive ones, not only that it has hit top-notch box office figures worldwide including Australia. Australian audiences have voted this film to be the best foreign film awards at the Australian Film Institute Awards, which publicly says audience of Australian cinema, is more than happy to welcome more fantasy films such as this. In order to support my arguments, lets look at figure scale, Star Wars, First Episode: The Phantom Menace collected 2.6 million AUD, while Harry Potter collected 2.7 million AUD on their first day release in Australia, as opposed to Lord Of The Ring Return Of The King which ironically breaks its own box office record release for The Two Towers with 5.288 million AUD. In a nutshell, each of these films were considered under fantasy film, accompanied by action and adventure at some point and had made record breaking release in Australia on first day release. Enough said.