The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Directed by Peter Jackson

Opened nationwide 12/17/2003

3.5 *

For Frodo, Sam , and the rest of the fellowship, only just over a year has passed since they have gone there and back again. But for us the intrepid moviegoers who have followed along their adventures, it has been 24 months since Peter Jackson started us on the three-picture journey through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. However, unlike such other third parts as Return of the Jedi, The Godfather: Part III, or The Matrix Revolutions, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is not the worst of three, but rather the best with adapter Jackson saving plenty of surprises and spectacle for those who have stuck it out (which judging from the early box office returns includes a sizable percentage of the globe’s movie-going population).

With so much sheer wonder on display in the first two parts, even the most optimistic of viewers could have anticipated a letdown with the wind-down, but there is no such disappointment. The fellowship, torn asunder at the end of the first movie, continues on the separate paths begun in the second. For Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Gandalf (Ian McKellan), there are more walled cities needing defending in the escalating battles between humans and the bestial Orc armies. While ring-bearer Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and longtime companion Sam (Sean Astin) have the more directed, but less enviable task of depositing the titular ring in a magic volcano (pity they are not pitching all DVD copies of The Ring in same volcano, but that is a separate fight).

Viggo Mortensen is given the real significant acting job here as the eponymous king. Little more than the good-looking window dressing in the first two chapters, we now see him in full force, the brave leader every inch a king. Miranda Otto as the warrior daughter also has some great scenes as Eowyn, daughter of Theoden (Bernard Hill). The annoying Andy Serkis, the virtual Gollum, gets some actual face time as Jackson and co-screenwriter Frances Walsh, finally detail his character’s back-story.

As the last written of Tolkien’s trilogy (and published in the ‘50s), the novel as an allegory of World War II is most strongly on view here. The blitz-like battles between humans and orcs directly parallel the Hun hordes in the early days of the war with a dragon Luftwaffe and 80-foot tall pachyderms as mammoth tanks. As some humans argue neutrality rather than common defense, one can hear the echoes of European appeasement. The lads returning to the shire and shelter of its pub sit alone in silence unable to make those outside the fellowship understand what they have endured as the price of freedom and goodness.

The era of grand, epic storytelling so rarely seen in the movies these days is on grand display in Jackson’s work. In days of old, we could thrill to the work of Akira Kurosawa and David Lean, while modern audiences have to endure the quick-cutting claustrophobia of the likes of Michael Bay. Battle scenes in the third Matrix seem repetitive, tedious, and overly-long. The battles here are sweeping and distinctive and filmed with such an easy-going competency that one wonders why every director cannot do it this well.

Peter Jackson has given us grandeur, sweeping vistas, hero-laden stories, and a tri-part classic that should be thrilling audiences for quite a time to come. This third part of The Lord of the Rings makes for an appropriate time to congratulate Peter Jackson for what he has achieved—the creation of a great film series sure to be considered one of the classics of all time.

–Bill Henry

Related Reading:

Attack of the 'B' Movie Posters (The Illustrated History of Moves Through Posters Series Vol. 14)

Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies

Juno Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Fellowship of the Ring Movie Soundtrack Piano, Vocal, and Chords (The Lord of the Rings) (Pvg)

The Film Club: A Memoir