I have long followed self-imposed rules for my life, most of them arbitrary, one of which being that I need to read the source material before seeing film adaptations of books. While movies have the advantage of visualizing scenery and demonstrating how names are pronounced, books don’t have a time constraint to explore history and can provide further context without interrupting the story. Film adaptations are made to stand alone, but having read the books often completes the picture that the films are trying to create.
I tried to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” twice growing up, both times to no avail. The sentences rambled on, the point got lost in the convoluted language, I read an entire page dedicated to describing a forest, and for the first time, I couldn’t get through a novel. If I couldn’t even get through the prequel, how was I supposed to read the main series, “The Lord of the Rings”?
As a “read the books first” loyalist, watching the movies was out of the question – until I realized that I have free will and the only person holding me back was myself, and thus a LotR movie marathon began.
The total (theatrical) series runtime is about 9.25 hours, but I was shocked to find that they held my attention as well as three-hour movies could. They’re paced really well, shifting between members of the fellowship of the ring (roll credits) as they play their parts in the destruction of the One Ring.
I knew that these movies were huge both critically and culturally, but I had no idea what to expect going into them. Not only did the series win 475 awards, but “The Return of the King” is tied for the most decorated film in Oscars history with “Titanic” and “Ben-Hur.” They’re critically acclaimed, yes, but damn, they’re also a really fun watch.
The characters are the heart of the franchise – or rather, the insanely stacked cast. The actors have great chemistry together while also delivering incredible standalone performances.
Elijah Wood’s only job as Frodo Baggins was to stare at everyone with his giant blue eyes and look scared, and by God, he delivered a fantastic performance. It would not be difficult to convince me that this poor man actually made the 13-month trek to Mordor. The terror in his magnificent baby blues was palpable.
Wood’s chemistry with Sean Astin’s Samwise Gamgee is impossible to ignore. From the beginning, Sam rides for Frodo. Did he accidentally get sucked into a suicide mission? Maybe. Is he going to see it through in order to save his friend Mr. Frodo? Hell yeah. These two spend three movies staring into each other’s eyes and literally following each other into hell. Sam is the only reason Frodo made it to Mordor without plunging headfirst into a ring-induced madness and allowing Sauron to kill everyone.
From the mouth of Astin himself, “I think Sam and Frodo should have kissed.”
It brings me joy to know that Astin and Wood were leaning into shipping culture and enjoyed making these movies – the rest of the cast clearly did, too.
Gandalf was not only the (arguably) most iconic of Sir Ian McKellen’s roles, but probably one of the most enjoyable, as well. I cannot imagine how much fun it must have been to dress in long flowing robes, hold a staff, and haul ass through an open field on horseback. It was glorious to watch.
Orlando Bloom’s only job was to hit the smolder, drop sick one-liners, and pull stunt moves out of his ass. Not a single character in “The Lord of the Rings” is hitting stunts like Legolas – and none of them are important to the plot or his character. I would bet real money that Bloom asked to do more stunts, and the crew let him do whatever he wanted. That is the only explanation I can think of for why Legolas has these insane gymnastic tricks while everyone else has normal fighting sequences. That isn’t to say they took away from my viewing experience; if anything, the ridiculous stunts made me love the movies even more.
Anyone who has ever seen LotR (apparently) knows about Viggo Mortensen breaking his toe when his Aragorn kicks a helmet in “The Two Towers,” so I will say no more than my genuine reaction: “no wonder they left that in, it’s a great scene.” I also feel that it is important to note that Aragorn is incredibly hot.
The other thing that everyone knows about, having seen the films or not, is Gollum. What I personally didn’t know, however, was how tragic of a character he actually was. He started off as a hobbit, was driven into madness by the One Ring, killed one of his friends, and spent the next 500 years alone and naked in a cave arguing with his two(?) personalities. He even forgot his name along the way – Frodo and Sam figured out his real identity.
I feel like I am required to share how insane Andy Serkis’ performance as Gollum is. Not only is the CGI incredible for 2002, but Serkis revolutionized how the industry uses face acting and body recognition to create a lifelike character out of thin air.
And then there’s Sean Bean as Boromir. Why does he always die at the end of the first installment? Although technically Boromir died first, to me, it’s Ned Stark all over again.
The most enchanting aspect of the entire franchise is the hobbits themselves. I don’t want to know what kinds of special effects the crew used to shrink the actors down to 4 feet tall, mostly because I adore how funny they look running around Middle Earth. Partially due to their size and partially due to their lazy, unadventurous nature, the rest of the fellowship treats the hobbits equivalent to children. I don’t think any of the four hobbits in the fellowship ride a horse alone at any point in the series. If I had a dollar for every time I pointed at my TV and said, “look how little they are!” I would be rich; I love the hobbits.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. It was helpful to have friends with insider information, like that of Mortensen breaking his toe, so that I knew some of the gossip going into each movie. Despite breaking my rule and watching the movies without having read the books, “The Lord of the Rings” was easy to follow, wildly entertaining, and incredibly well done. I highly recommend this series to anyone looking for an easy-to-watch movie marathon.