Five Star Friday

There once was a time, during the "golden age" of film, when studios cranked out massive, audacious and epic "event" films -- films that were breathtaking in their scope and ambition.  I'm talking about films like The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra and Lawrence of Arabia here.  In the last few decades, though, Hollywood has moved away from such films, and though movies today all seem very expensive and visually impressive, a vast majority just don't feel as bigor as, ummm, epic.  What earn's today's FSF selection (or, rather, three selections) accolades is the fact that they marked a complete return to the feel of the classic Hollywood epic.

The Lord of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

Back in 2001, to say that I was eagerly anticipating the release of the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, would be to put it mildly.  Since I was a sprightly young lad, I have been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, and to this day, every couple of years, I take it down off the shelf to re-read it.  To be sure, I feared that the films wouldn't be able to do the book justice, but I my hopes were high given the budget the three films enjoyed, the effects that were being generated, and the love of the book that many involved with the films exhibited (though I'm sure some portion of this was just your usual Hollywood puffery.)  In the end, the movies ended up being excellent films in their own rights, but a towering achievement when taken as a whole.

So how was it that director and co-writer Peter Jackson was able to take a literary tale that the author firmly believed could never adapted to the screen and turn it into the tremendous cinematic success that it became?  Well, first and foremost, it was the story itself.  Volumes have been written about Tolkien's epic, and I need not try to add a lengthy discussion here.  Suffice it to say, Tolkien wove his high-fantasy tale around story elements that spring from every aspect of the human condition and human relationships.  There's joy and sorrow, loyalty and betrayal, strength and weakness, heroism and cowardice.  Though populated with creatures such as elves, dwarves, orcs and goblins, The Lord of The Rings explores what it means to be human in a changing world.

In addition to the story, however, Jackson made two important decisions that added immeasurably to the films. First, he chose to cast a slew of talented actors to play the story's various roles, but avoided any head-lining superstars.  Certainly any fan of film was familiar with actors such as Viggo Mortenson, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, John Rhys-Davies, and Sean Astin before The Lord of the Rings, but none had thus far been pigeon-holed into certain roles during their careers.  As such, audiences were able to let them slip into their characters without constantly thinking back to their other works, and they truly became those characters  -- especially over the 9+ hours of screen-time spread over the three films.

Second, Jackson, though he knew a certain amount of CGI would be necessary (and achieved astounding technical success with Andy Serkis' Gollum), still spent incredible amounts of time, attention and resources on making his Middle-Earth seem real through the wide-spread use of actual, physicaleffects. When it was time to film in "The Shire," Jackson made it out of the New Zealand countryside.  When Jackson needed a vicious looking orc, he wrapped a towering actor in prosthetics and ultra-realistic looking make-up.  When he needed the fortress of Helm's Deep, he built it in a quarry.  As a result, The Lord of the Rings felt real, despite being set in a fantasy world.  Contrast that with the roughly contemporaneously released Star Wars Episodes I-III, which each felt like they were at least 50% cartoon.

I could go on, and on, and on -- probably for as long as the total playing time of the three special edition extended-cut DVD sets sitting on the shelf above my TV -- but I won't.  Suffice it to say, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is the most impressive cinematic achievement during my lifetime, and it will probably hold that title for a very long time.

Comments

[Brett]

Indeed -- it was epic in a way that I think George Lucas might have wanted for his prequel trilogy, but Jackson's vision and ideas, drawing from those of Tolkien, could hit that particular mark in a way that the short-sighted and shallowly-talented Lucas never really could...

[Allison]

Good selection. Funny/sad story about the films. A few weeks ago I was at the Kennedy Center in DC to see a play and during the intermission, the two older guys sitting behind me were having a chat about movies. One guy said he just saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy and "nothing really happened in those movies." What!?!