El señor de los anillos
El señor de los anillos: La comunidad del anillo (película)
Película
Para muchos, sobre todo lectores de Tolkien, el tomo mejor adaptado de los tres. Contiene muchos más elementos mágicos que sus dos sucesoras, hecho que se deja notar en los pasajes narrados (la idílica Comarca, el otoñal Valle de Rivendel, la lúgubre Moria, Lothlórien...). Los dos años siguientes se estrenaron sus continuaciones (Las dos torres y El retorno del rey).
Con una cuidada producción, reflejada en aspectos excepcionales como la dirección artística, el maquillaje, o el vestuario mismo, Jackson contó con el apoyo de Andrew Leslie en la fotografía y de Howard Shore (asiduo de David Cronemberg) como compositor, entre otros.
Hay que destacar, no obstante, una acertada dirección de actores, formando un microcosmos actoral en el que todos los personajes se necesitan unos a otros. Mención especial de un espléndido Ian McKellen en el papel de Gandalf el Gris y de un sorprendente Viggo Mortensen como Aragorn, sin olvidar la sobria aportación de Sean Bean interpretando a Boromir.
Cabe también mencionar que a pesar de que la película haya sido muy buena, hay bastantes detalles que faltaron en ella. Hay muchos diálogos que están cambiados de escena. Por ejemplo: en el libro, Gandalf le cuenta a Frodo acerca de los peligros que trae el anillo en su casa en la Comarca. En la película esto sucede mientras están en la cueva
«El señor de los anillos: La comunidad del anillo» es la primera película de la trilogía. Ésta comienza narrando la existencia de 9 anillos que fueron otorgados a igual número de gobernantes que estarían bajo las órdenes de un anillo único, que pertenecía a Sauron. Bajo el poder de los anillos los ejércitos de Sauron comenzaban a conquistar la Tierra Media hasta que una alianza entre hombres y elfos partió para derrotar el ejército de Sauron, perdiendo Sauron el anillo a manos del Rey de Gondor. El anillo llegó a manos de un hobbit conocido como Gollum quien perdió luego el anillo llegando así a manos de Bilbo. Bilbo a su vez deja el anillo a su sobrino Frodo, pero advertidos por el mago Gandalf de la maldad de este anillo se decide en el concilio de Elrond que el anillo debe ser destruido. El hobbit Frodo se ofrece para llevar el anillo a su destrucción pero no podrá ir solo. Es aquí que surge la comunidad del anillo, compuesta por los hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, el mago Gandalf, el elfo Legolas, el enano Gimli y los humanos Aragorn y Boromir. Juntos comienzan su travesía para destruir el anillo.
Personajes y elenco
Personaje
Actor
Frodo Bolsón
Elijah Wood
Gandalf
Ian McKellen
Aragorn
Viggo Mortensen
Samsagaz Gamyi
Sean Astin
Galadriel
Cate Blanchett
Boromir
Sean Bean
Arwen Undómiel
Liv Tyler
Gimli
John Rhys-Davies
Meriadoc Brandigamo (Merry)
Dominic Monaghan
Peregrin Tuk (Pippin)
Billy Boyd
Legolas Hojaverde
Orlando Bloom
Saruman
Christopher Lee
Sauron
Sala Baker
Elrond
Hugo Weaving
Bilbo Bolsón
Ian Holm
Rosa Coto (Rosita)
Sarah McLeod
Celeborn
Marton Csokas
Haldir de Lórien
Craig Parker
Lurtz
Lawrence Makoare
Galardones
La película fue ganadora de cuatro Oscares en la edición de los Premios de la Academia del 2002, de un total de trece nominaciones. Estos premios fueron otorgados en las categorías de «Mejor fotografía», «Mejor banda sonora», «Efectos visuales» y «Mejor maquillaje». Las otras categorías en las cuales estuvo nominada fueron: «Mejor director», «Mejor película», «Mejor actor de reparto», «Mejor guión adaptado», «Dirección artística», «Mejor sonido», «Mejor canción original», «Mejor vestuario» y «Mejor montaje».
La película también obtuvo el logro de ser el filme mayor recaudador de ingresos durante el 2003 con un recaudo total de $860,700,000 en ingresos de taquilla. La película se encuentra actualmente en undécimo lugar entre las películas de mayor recaudo de taquilla a nivel mundial.
Las dos torres
Argumento
Disuelta la compañía y muerto Boromir, seducido por el poder maligno del Anillo, Frodo y Sam toman camino de Mordor, en donde tienen que destruir el Anillo Único, mientras que Aragorn, Gimli y Legolas persiguen a los Uruk-hai (una raza de la Tierra Media) que han secuestrado a Merry y a Pippin por orden de Saruman el Blanco.
Frodo y Sam conocen a Gollum, una criatura traicionera, que poseyó el Anillo durante alrededor de 500 años, siendo absolutamente corrompido por éste. Gollum promete que los guiará a Mordor. Por el camino tropiezan con Faramir (hijo de Dennetor, Senescal de Gondor), quien los toma prisioneros y descubre que portan el Anillo Único. En este pasaje se produce una importante divergencia con el libro, pues en la película Faramir cae en la tentación de apropiarse del Anillo y demostrar así su valor, ganando el respeto y aprobación de su padre. En el libro, por otro lado, con nobleza extrema, Faramir desecha la idea desde el principio, y libera sin más a los hobbits. En el filme, los lleva a Osgiliath, vieja y destruida ciudad del reino de Gondor en donde se combate contra las fuerzas de Sauron, para enviarlos a su padre. Sin embargo, logra darse cuenta del maligno poder del Anillo y los libera.
Aragorn, Legolas y Gimli encuentran a sus amigos en el bosque de Fangorn, hogar de los Ents, raza de árboles vivientes. En él se reencuentran con Gandalf, viejo amigo que se suponía había muerto en los abismos de las minas de Moria, luchando contra el Balrog. Gandalf ha cambiado, siendo ahora El Blanco en lugar del traidor Saruman (antes era Gandalf el Gris). Se dirigen a entrevistarse con el rey de Rohan, Theoden, viejo amigo de Gandalf. Sin embargo, éste se encuentra hechizado por Lengua de serpiente, consejero suyo que trabaja en secreto para Saruman. Bajo su influjo, desterró a su sobrino Éomer luego de la muerte de su hijo Théodred. Gandalf llega con sus amigos y logra liberarlo del embrujo, permitiéndole volver a ser dueño de sus actos.
Theoden decide refugiar a su pueblo en el Abismo de Helm, desoyendo la solicitud de Aragorn de presentar batalla contra los Uruk-hai de Saruman. En este refugio, son atacados por una fuerza de 10.000 Uruk-hai, quienes logran penetrar a la fortaleza y casi vencen a los defensores. Al final de la batalla, Gandalf, Éomer y sus jinetes llegan al rescate y aplastan a los Uruk-hai. La batalla acaba con una difícil victoria de Rohan.
Set in Middle-earth, a fantasy version of our Earth's prehistory (though this is only explicit in the book), the plot primarily follows a young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, as he inherits the One Ring from his uncle Bilbo, the most powerful weapon of the Dark Lord Sauron, thought to be lost for centuries. With the help of the Wizard Gandalf, he sets off with the Fellowship of the Ring to return the Ring to Mount Doom, the place of its forging and thus the only place where it can be destroyed. After being separated, he and his loyal companion Samwise Gamgee continue their perilous quest, whilst the rest of the Fellowship are embroiled in the War of the Ring, as the Men of Rohan, Gondor, Elves, Dwarves, Ents and even the undead battle the armies of Orcs and Trolls led by Sauron and the Wizard Saruman. Their only hope is to distract Sauron's gaze so Frodo can destroy the Ring, and so that their comrade Aragorn can return to the empty throne of the King of Gondor. But the Ring is becoming an ever-increasing burden on Frodo...
The trilogy
Cast
[edit]
The Fellowship of the Ring
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, the young Hobbit entrusted as the Ring-bearer.
Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, a gardener who becomes Frodo's loyal companion.
Ian McKellen as Gandalf, the wise Wizard who engineers much of the planning to overthrow Sauron, and undergoes death, resurrection and transformation over the course of the trilogy.
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, the heir to the throne of Gondor, he is brave and noble yet in self-doubt of his own ability and his fate to become king of Gondor, due to the failures of his ancestor to destroy the One Ring. Working as a Ranger of the North, he is also adept at healing, and as a Númenórean descendant, he is long-lived, being in his prime at 87.
Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc Brandybuck, a young Hobbit who joins the Fellowship.
Billy Boyd as Pippin, Merry's best friend and somewhat immature.
Orlando Bloom as Legolas, an Elven prince who accompanies the Fellowship.
John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, a warrior Dwarf, brave and often used as comic relief.
Sean Bean as Boromir, a Gondorian warrior and the son of its steward, who accompanies the Fellowship. He dies at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring after wrestling with the temptation of the Ring.
Others introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sala Baker portrays Sauron the Dark Lord when he still has a body. For the trilogy, he is incarnate as a flaming Eye, and his presence in the Ring is voiced by John Howard. Sauron commands a massive army and wants to retrieve the Ring that was lost in battle many years ago to restore himself to full power and security.
Andy Serkis provided the voice and motion capture movements of Gollum, once a Hobbit who found the Ring many years ago and mutates into a hideous creature, addicted to the Ring, which he calls "Precious". He now follows the Fellowship to recover what was "stolen" by Bilbo, and is forced to help by Frodo and Sam to lead them, though he is ever treacherous.
Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle. He celebrates his 111st birthday at the start of the trilogy and is writing a book of his exploits, during which he recovered the One Ring.
Christopher Lee as Saruman, the corrupted head Wizard, who wants to share power with Sauron and breeds an army of Uruk-hai within his fortress of Isengard, as well as devastating Fangorn Forest and waging war upon the Men of Rohan.
Hugo Weaving as Elrond, the Elven head of Rivendell, who helps form the Fellowship. He lacks faith in Men, but does his best to convince Aragorn to become King.
Liv Tyler as Arwen, Elrond's daughter, and she is in love with Aragorn. She gets Frodo to Rivendell and is torn on whether to leave Middle-earth for the Undying Lands, or to remain with Aragorn and become mortal.
Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, the Elven Lady of Lothlórien. She provides comfort and faith to Frodo, as well as providing gifts for the Fellowship during their travels.
Marton Csokas as Celeborn, Galadriel's husband.
Craig Parker as Haldir, an Elven archer who encounters the Fellowship.
Lawrence Makoare as Lurtz, the first of the monstrous Uruk-hai spawned by
Introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Bernard Hill as Théoden, King of Rohan. He is rendered incapable of decisions by Wormtongue and Saruman, who apparently works sorcery over him, yet when he is healed by Gandalf, he leads Rohan during the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, trying to make up for his incompetence and the death of his son, Théodred.
Miranda Otto as Éowyn, Théoden's niece. A shieldmaiden of Rohan, she wants to prove herself in battle and also falls in love with Aragorn.
Karl Urban as Éomer, Éowyn's brother and Théoden's nephew. He suspects Wormtongue of treachery, and is an accomplished rider and warrior.
Brad Dourif as Wormtongue, an insidious mole of Saruman, attempting to stop Théoden from declaring war and wants Éowyn for himself.
David Wenham as Faramir, Boromir's brother. Head of the Rangers of Ithilien, he is brave yet sensitive, trying to please his distant father, and tempted by the Ring, though more successful than his brother.
John Rhys-Davies voiced Treebeard, an Ent who protects Merry and Pippin. He is unaware of Saruman's destruction of the forests, but soon considers war.
Introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
John Noble as Denethor, father of Boromir and Faramir. However he makes his first unofficial appearance in The Two Towers extended cut. Steward of Gondor, he is opposed to Aragorn, dislikes Faramir as a "Wizard's pupil" and is grieving over Boromir so much as to ignore the threat of Sauron's army.
Lawrence Makoare plays the Witch-king of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgûl who leads the assault on Minas Tirith, Gondor's capital.
Makoare also plays Gothmog, an Orc leading the troop movements on the ground.
Paul Norell as the King of the Dead, the ancient cursed leader whom Aragorn must seek help from.
Bruce Spence as the Mouth of Sauron, the herald at the Black Gate. He only appears in the Extended Cut.
Prologue characters
Harry Sinclair as Isildur, Aragorn's ancestor. He cuts off the Ring from Sauron, but despite Elrond's insistence, he refuses to destroy it, setting the main story in motion.
Peter McKenzie as Elendil, the first King of Gondor, who is killed by Sauron. His sword Narsil is broken, and becomes an object of speculation over whether or not Aragorn will become King and reforge it.
Mark Ferguson as Gil-galad, the Elven High King who leads the
Pre-production
Peter Jackson first read the book as an 18-year-old, after seeing Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film version.
The entire film project took over eight years from start to finish. Peter Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, began enquiries about the Lord of the Rings rights in 1995 and struck a deal with copyright holder Saul Zaentz and Miramax Films the following year after production stalled on their King Kong remake. The trilogy began pre-production as a two-film deal similar to a few other projects. Then Miramax, citing budget concerns, decided to condense the project into one film, before selling it off altogether to New Line Cinema in 1998. Robert Shaye, head of New Line Cinema, immediately decided to expand the project to three films (with a budget of $270 million), famously replying to Jackson's offer, "Now Peter, who would in their right mind would make two movies?"
Screenplays
As noted, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens planned The Lord of the Rings as two films. Allegedly the first film was to end with the Battle of Helm's Deep whilst the second was more or less the finished The Return of the King. Alongside Tom Bombadil and The Scouring of the Shire, Lothlórien was also planned to be cut.
The expansion to three films certainly allowed a lot more creative freedom. In the meantime during shooting, the screenplays would undergo many transformations, due to contributions from cast looking to further explore their characters, most notably Arwen, who was originally planned as a warrior princess, reverting back to her book counterpart, who remains physically inactive in the story (though she sends moral and military support).
In order to make the story flow more on screen, Jackson has excised sequences for pacing issues, such as the encounters with Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-wights, and the Scouring of the Shire. The Fellowship of the Ring is arguably the most faithful adaptation, with the removal of Bombadil and similar scenes allowing time to remove Gandalf's encounter with Saruman from flashback and allowing a more linear ending.
The Two Towers deviates more, removing Tolkien's two-part story (one on Aragorn and company, the other on Frodo) with intercutting, and climaxing with the Battle of Helm's Deep. Jackson credited the film Zulu as an influence in structure. The Return of the King covers some of The Two Towers book's endings as well as the third volume proper.
Above all, most characters have been altered for extra drama. Aragorn, Théoden and Treebeard have added or modified elements of self-doubt, whilst Galadriel, Elrond and Faramir have been darkened. Boromir and Gollum are (arguably) relatively more sympathetic, whilst some characters such as Legolas, Gimli, Saruman and Denethor have been simplified. Some characters, such as Arwen and Éomer, have taken actions from minor characters such as Glorfindel and Erkenbrand, and generally lines of dialogue are somewhat preserved or switched around between locations or characters depending on suitability of the scenes, and overall new scenes have been added to expand on characterization.
Pre-visualisation
Jackson planned the entire trilogy during screenwriting with Christian Rivers on storyboards, beginning in August 1997 whilst writing the script, effectively creating a rough black and white 2-D version of the film. Jackson showed excerpts of the "animated" storyboards (filmed images with voices and a temporary soundtrack) to allow potential cast a view of the film's style.
To plan his visual effects sequences, Jackson also utilized a lipstick camera for the models of sets and computer animatics (learned from Industrial Light and Magic), planning the battle sequences like a real general and giving a sense of direction. This would often allow room for him to improvise for action sequences, such as the Moria staircase collapse (which was never in any script draft) [3] as well as The Two Towers last minute addition of the Destruction of Isengard.
Design
Jackson famously desired to make Middle-earth feel like a believable world, to approach the story with a historical regard for the fantasy. Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project when it was still under Miramax. Up until then, concept artists had primarily been influenced by Dungeons and Dragons in their designs. Lee worked on designs for architecture, such as the Elven realms and Minas Tirith [4] , whilst Howe primarily designed armour and the forces of evil, most notably the Barad-dûr. Famous designs of Hobbiton, Orthanc [5], Helm's Deep [6], the Black Gate [7], and John Howe's Gandalf [8] and the Balrog made it into the film. The last one inspired the opening of The Two Towers. Interestingly, Lee also painted imagery in Rivendell, such as the one of Isildur removing the One Ring from Sauron. Jackson sometimes replicated some shots from famous paintings as a nod to fans. [9] [10]
For the Orcs, WETA was keen not to rehash the design for the characters throughout the trilogy, so special designs were given to the Moria Orcs, Uruk-hai and Mordor Orcs. In particular, other monsters took elements from real animals, such as Wargs from prehistoric wolves and bears, and Shelob based on a funnel web spider. As well as monsters, the cultures of each Middle-earth race was loosely inspired by real ones. Gondor takes after Byzantium, Hobbiton and Bree after 16th-19th century England, and Rohan from Norse cultures.
Hobbiton was built a year before filming to give the impression of real growth and age with the help of the army. 48,000 props were created by WETA Workshop. 19,000 costumes were aged and worn out by 50 people (led by Ngila Dickinson) for the actors, their stunt, scale and riding doubles, all with varying stages of wear and tear, and 1000 pieces of real armour and 2000 weapons were forged, and 10,000 arrows [11]. Many prosthetics were created, such as 2,200 pairs of Hobbit feet [12], Elven and Hobbit ears, Orc and Dwarf faces and wigs and false noses.
Notable props
Notable pieces of artistry by WETA include:
A lifesize model of Sean Bean as Boromir, for his funeral boat.
A massive model of a dead mûmak (Oliphaunt).
A Treebeard animatronic.
Elven boats.
The palantíri.
Sculptured trees.
A dummy riding machine, for either horse or warg.
Three stone Trolls.
Casting
Jackson admitted that he was under no pressure to cast "big names" for the trilogy, due to the popularity of the book securing an already large audience. Popular rumours before filming included Sean Connery as Gandalf,[13] who was actually approached but declined.[14] Other rumours for Gandalf included Patrick Stewart, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Baker. Sam Neill was asked to play the role of Elrond, but turned it down because of his contractual obligations to another film — namely, Jurassic Park III.
Auditions provide an interesting insight into what could have been. Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies auditioned for Faramir and Denethor respectively, and famously Stuart Townsend was cast as Aragorn and set for filming.
Elijah Wood was the first cast member cast, on July 7, 1999.[15] Sean Astin, Ian McKellen and Ian Holm were also cast later in the month.[16]
Before filming began on October 11, 1999, the principal actors trained for six weeks in sword fighting (with the legendary Bob Anderson), riding and boating. 30 actors were trained to speak Tolkien's fictional dialects. In total, there are 114 speaking roles in the trilogy.
Filming
Principal photography for all three films was conducted concurrently in New Zealand from October 11, 1999 through to December 22, 2000. Pick-up shoots were conducted annually from 2001 to 2004. The trilogy was shot over 150 different locations [17] in the North and South Island, with as many as seven different units shooting, as well as soundstages around Wellington and Queenstown. As well as Jackson directing the whole production, other unit directors included John Mahaffie, Geoff Murphy, Fran Walsh, Barrie Osbourne, Rick Porras and any other assistant director, producer or writer available.
Peter Jackson described the production as a defining period, in that he now divides his life into three chapters: before Lord of the Rings, during Lord of the Rings, and after Lord of the Rings. Fran Walsh described the production as "laying the track down in front of a moving train" (paraphrased). Jackson also described shooting as like organizing an army, with 2,400 people involved at the height of production. Jackson described to Empire magazine an average shooting day:
"A typical day would start at seven in the morning, have breakfast, and shoot until six or seven in the evening." [18]. As described, production was busy, with Jackson monitoring his numerous units.
The first scene filmed was the Wooded Road sequence where the Hobbits hide underneath the Ringwraith. During the first month of filming, an immediate event took place: Stuart Townsend was deemed too young to play Aragorn, and within three days Viggo Mortensen became his replacement, just in time to film the Weathertop sequence.
Sean Bean began filming in November for most of the handful of his scenes. A Christmas break followed, and filming resumed in January. Ian McKellen, fresh from filming X-Men, arrived to film scenes in Hobbiton and the Grey Havens.
Filming would continue until December 2000. Notable amongst the shoot was the three weeks of nightshooting on the set of Helm's Deep, before the set was rebuilt as Minas Tirith. Mount Ruapehu stood in for Emyn Muil and Mount Doom, Edoras was built on Mount Sunday, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields was shot in Twizel with 250 real horses. Infamously, the Battle of the Black Gate was shot at a former mine field in the Rugape Desert, with real soldiers serving as extras. 20,602 extras were used in total for the films.
As filming ended, the nine actors portraying the Fellowship got an Elven '9', bar John Rhys-Davies, who sent his scale double. Jackson and Bernard Hill got an Elven '10', and Hill and Mortensen founded the C-Bago club, the 'c' standing for an expletive.
Weather
Sometimes weather was a pain to the production crew. When some Hobbiton scenes were rescheduled to mid-Summer (January in New Zealand), an irrigation system was set up to restore the now brown fields to green, and a location for the Pelennor Fields was turned into brown by using acids from coconuts. [19] and when it snowed in on one location, the crew had to clear it up before filming started in the afternoon. Nonetheless Andy Serkis had to swim around in freezing cold water.
Accidents
The Lord of the Rings was generally a chaotic set. The most infamous on-set accidents included Sean Astin piercing his foot with a shard of glass whilst filming the ending of The Fellowship of the Ring, Viggo Mortensen breaking his toe while kicking a helmet, having his tooth knocked out while filming the Battle of Helm's Deep, and Orlando Bloom falling off his horse, breaking his ribs. Artist Alan Lee also fell off the Seat of Seeing (the structure atop Amon Hen) and broke his arm[20]. Also notable was that John Rhys-Davies developed an allergic reaction to his Dwarven make-up, describing himself as "like a bloody panda".
Cameos
Many crew members have cameos in the trilogy. Peter Jackson has one in each film: as a drunken, carrot-toting citizen of Bree (The Fellowship of the Ring); a spear-throwing defender of Helm's Deep (The Two Towers); and as the captain of a corsair ship (The Return of the King), seen in brief in the theatrical version, and longer in the extended version when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli commandeer the ship after recruiting the Army of the Dead. Though not a cameo in the traditional sense, he also served as a stand-in for Sean Astin in the shot where Samwise Gamgee steps into frame, challenging the monster Shelob, thereby giving him two different appearances in that film. There are rumours that he is a Wild Man of Dunland in the second film, though it may well be a case of mistaken identity.
His children also cameo in each film, as Hobbits, Rohirrim and Gondorians respectively. Alan Lee also cameos in the first film as one of the nine Kings of Men who become the Ringwraiths, as well as with Dan Hennah as soldiers preparing for the Battle of Helm's Deep. Christian Rivers also cameos as a Gondorian, and in the Return of the King extended cut, Howard Shore and Richard Taylor cameo as one of the celebrating Rohirrim and a Corsair attacked by the Dead Men respectively.
Pick-ups
Pick-ups were conducted from 2001 to 2003 for six weeks every year to refine each film's edit. For the first two films they often returned to sets: for the third they had to shoot around the clock in a car park full of set parts. A personal chance for cast and crew to meet again too, and during The Two Towers pick-ups, Sean Astin directed a short film entitled The Long and Short of It.
Notable scenes filmed in the pick-ups included The Two Towers flashback with Boromir, and the reshot Witch-king scenes with new helmet design in The Return of the King, with improved Orc designs and the new character of Gothmog [21]. Theoden's death was reshot just after he finished: Bernard Hill was luckily still in New Zealand [22]. Andy Serkis also had to shoot a scene in Jackson's house during post-production [23].
Amusingly, the final and only pick-up in 2004 were a few shots of falling skulls in The Return of the King as part of an additional Paths of the Dead scene. Jackson joked "that it's nice to win an Oscar before you've even finished the film". [24]
Post-production
Post-production would have the benefit for a full year on each film before their individual December releases. The Extended cuts also had a brief schedule at the start of each year to complete special effects and music.
[edit]
Editing
The first two films had 4 1/2 hour rough cuts, whilst the third film was 5 hours. To avoid pressure, Jackson hired a different editor on each film. John Gilbert worked on the first film, Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen on the second, and longtime Jackson collaborator Jamie Selkirk on the third. Daily rushes would often last up to four hours. In total, six million feet of film (over 1,800 km) was edited down to the 11 hours and 23 minutes (683 minutes) of Extended DVD running time.
Editing on the first film was relatively easygoing, with Jackson coming up with the concept of an Extended Edition later on, although after a screening to New Line they had to re-edit the beginning for a prologue [25]. The Two Towers was always acknowledged by the crew as the most difficult film to make, as "it had no beginning or end", and had the new problem of intercutting storylines appropriately and Jackson even edited the film when that part of the schedule officially ended. So much so, scenes including the reforging of Andúril, Gollum's back-story, and Saruman's demise were moved to The Return of the King, the latter controversially cut when Jackson felt it was not starting the third film effectively enough [26]. As with all parts of the third film's post-production, editing was very chaotic. The first time Jackson actually saw the completed film was at the Wellington premiere.
[edit]
Deleted scenes
Beyond the Extended Editions, many scenes still remain unused.
The famous footage of Arwen at Helm's Deep, which Jackson changed in the end for story reasons. Foreshadowing this was scenes where she and Elrond visit Galadriel at Lothlórien (seen in The Two Towers teaser trailer). The scene is edited down to a telepathic communication between Elrond and Galadriel.
Further epilogue footage, including that of Legolas and Gimli.
Plenty of dialogue from the Council of Elrond. The DVD shows Ian McKellen as Gandalf explaining how Sauron forged the One Ring.
Éowyn defending the refugees in the Glittering Caves from Uruk-hai intruders [27].
An obscure shot from the trailers of two Elven girls playing about, possibly part of a deeper back-story of the Elves.
Sauron fighting Aragorn at the Black Gate. A computer-generated Troll was placed over Sauron when Jackson felt this was inappropriate.
Further scenes between Elrond and Arwen following her decision to stay with Aragorn, presumably set after the reforging of Andúril [28].
More Arwen footage, such as a flashback scene with her first meeting with Aragorn, played by a beardless Mortensen.
Aragorn having armour put on as part of preparation for the Battle of the Black Gate (the final scene filmed during principal photography).
Éowyn and Faramir's wedding. [29]
An attack by Moria Orcs on Lothlórien. Jackson replaced this with a more suspenseful entrance into the location.
Denethor using the palantír in the White Tower, contributing to his ultimate decline and madness.
An extended battle between Gandalf and the Balrog, as the beast is extinguished in water and they battle upon the Endless Stair. [30]
[edit]
Special effects
The first film has around 540 effects shots, the second 799, and the third 1488. In total it is around 2730. The total moves up to 3420 with the Extended cuts. Over 200 visual effects artists worked on the trilogy [31]. Interestingly, despite WETA being the major stylistic force behind the films, a single scene where Arwen confronts the Black Riders was done by Digital Domain.
[edit]
CGI
Creatures such as Trolls, the Balrog, the Ents, the Fell Beasts, the Wargs, the Mûmakil and Shelob were created entirely within a computer. Treebeard had a digital face composited upon an enormous animatronic, and longshots of him are CG.
Creatures would spend months of creation and variation as sketches before approved designs were sculpted into maquettes and scanned into a computer. Animators would then rig skeletons and muscles before animation and final detailed colouring. [32] As well as creatures, WETA also created highly realistic digital stunt doubles for many miniature longshots.
[edit]
Gollum
Filming was further complicated by the use of a highly detailed photo-realistic computer-generated image serving as a lead character in Gollum — the third time this was ever done (the first being Draco from the Universal film Dragonheart, and second being Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace).
Andy Serkis "played" Gollum by providing his voice and movements on set, as well as performing within the motion capture suit. His scenes were filmed twice, with and without him. Originally Gollum was set to solely be a CG character, but Jackson was so impressed by Andy Serkis' audition tape that they used him on set as well. Gollum's CG model was also redesigned when Serkis was cast as Sméagol, Gollum's form before he is cursed by the One Ring, so as to give the impression Andy Serkis as Sméagol transforms into the CG Gollum. The original model can still be glimpsed briefly in the first film. Another problem was that the crew realized that the cast performed better in the versions of the film with Serkis. In the end, the CG Gollum was rotoscoped and animated on top of these scenes. [33]
[edit]
MASSIVE
MASSIVE was the name of a computer program developed by WETA to create automatic battle sequences rather than individually animate every soldier. Click on the main article for more information.
[edit]
Scale
Production was complicated by the use of scale doubles and forced perspective on a level never seen before in the film industry. Most props, costumes, and some entire sets had to be made twice: once regular size and once 1.38 times bigger. (Even the raw materials, such as threads in costumes, had to be manufactured at two different sizes.) Other times the cast were filmed in front of a bluescreen and composited.
[edit]
"Big-atures"
Big-atures is the nickname for miniatures for WETA, so dubbed for their massive size by any person's scale. Most sets were constructed to allow compositing with the models and matte paintings. Notable examples include the Argonath, Minas Tirith, the tower and caverns of Isengard, Barad-dûr, the trees of Lothlórien and Fangorn Forest and the Black Gate. A interesting example of digital compositing is the Pelennor Fields, which was created by compositing different areas of New Zealand to form a digital arena.
The miniatures unit worked more than any other special effects crew, working over a 1000 days. Often they held parties to celebrate each landmark, such as 666. Their final shot was one of Orthanc for the third films extended cut in early 2004. [34]
Also, to create the destruction of the Barad-dûr, one WETA employee spent his Christmas 2002 break building it in the computer, ready for its destruction in The Return of the King.
[edit]
Digital grading
To give a "painterly" look to the films, cinematographer Andrew Lesnie worked on every scene within the computer to strengthen colours and add extra mood and tone to the proceedings. Gold was tinted to Hobbiton, whilst cooler colours were strengthened into Lothlórien, Moria and Helm's Deep. He also notably drained colour from Sean Bean's face during his death scene.
[edit]
Music
Main article: Music of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
Howard Shore composed the trilogy's music. The soundtrack is primarily the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and many talents such as Ben Del Maestro, Enya, Renee Fleming, Sir James Galway, Annie Lennox and even actors Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler (extended cut only) and director Peter Jackson (for a single gong sound in the second film) contributed to the score.
Shore composed a main theme for the Fellowship rather than many different character themes, and it's strength and weaknesses in volume are depicted at different points in the trilogy. On top of that, individual themes were all given to represent different cultures. Infamously, the amount of music Shore had to write for the third film every day increased dramatically to around seven minutes. [35]
[edit]
Sound
Sound technicians worked hard to find the right sounds: Fran Walsh provided the Nazgûl scream, and ironically a Mumakil roar came from the beginning and end of a Lion's. Real screams and a horse neigh are within the mix of Sauron's fall. Technicians were also keen to not allow battles to fall into "sonic mud". Different elements are focused upon with the whim of Jackson's direction.
They often went to extreme lengths. 10,000 New Zealand Cricket fans were hired to provide the sound of the Uruk-hai army in The Two Towers with Jackson acted as commander within a single cricket break. During The Return of the King post-production, they had to contend with building work.
[edit]
Pre-release
The online promotional trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was first released on April 27, 2000 and shattered records for download hits, registering 1.7 million hits in the first 24 hours of its release. [citation needed] The trailer used a selection from the soundtrack for Braveheart, among other cuts.
In 2001, 24 minutes of footage from the trilogy, primarily the Moria sequence, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, to great reception. [36] The showing also included an area designed to look like Middle-earth. A full description of the footage can be found here: [1]
Fans first received a preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the end of the theater showings of Fellowship of the Ring. [37] A promotional trailer was later released. The trailer contained some music re-scored from the film Requiem for a Dream [38].
The promotional trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was debuted exclusively before the New Line Cinema film Secondhand Lions on September 23, 2003. [39]
All three trailers contain some materials that were later removed from the theatrical release of the films. (For example, in the Two Towers trailer, there was a shot of Éomer holding a spear that was never used. In the Return of the King trailer, Elrond tells his daughter Arwen that he cannot protect her any longer, a scene that was entirely removed from the theatrical and extended editions.)
Each film had many premieres around the World, with Official "World" premieres in London, Paris and Wellington for each film respectively. The Wellington premieres were often the most spectacular, with dedicated fans lining the streets as well as statues of the Cave Troll, Gollum reaching for the Ring and the Witch-king on his steed respectively. For the first film, Wellington changed its name to Middle-earth for a single day.
[edit]
Releases
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released December 19, 2001. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation of 2001.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released December 18, 2002 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won the Hugo Award, this time in the new split category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released December 17, 2003, and won all 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2003. This film also won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Each successive film made more money at box offices worldwide than the last; the reverse of what normally happens to a film series. Each were released onto standard two disc edition DVDs containing previews of the next film. The success of the theatrical cuts brought about Extended Editions, with new editing, added special effects and music. They were issued as follows:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, November 12, 2002.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, November 18, 2003.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King December 14, 2004.
More than two hours' bonus footage has been added to the Trilogy which now makes the total over 11 hours of film. As well as the standard 4 disc releases, each Extended Edition also received a Collectors Edition box. The first film contained bookends based on the Argonath, the second came with a statue of Gollum, dubbed Sméagol (as the other bookend named Gollum available for a pre-order at a limited time), and the third having a model of Minas Tirith, with Minas Morgul available for order for a limited time. They have also played at movie theaters, most notably for a December 17, 2003 marathon screening culminating in a midnight screening of the third film.
On August 28 2006 both versions were put together in a 'branching' version plus a new feature-length documentary by Costa Botes.
[edit]
Public and critical response
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is widely and currently considered to be the most popular and is verified to be the currently highest grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, evidenced by its earning close to $3-billion (US), besting other notables such as the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises. The film trilogy also set a record for the total number of Academy Awards won, tallying a total of seventeen Oscars. Critical acclaim has commonly hailed the trilogy as "the greatest films of our era", and "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal."[44]. In particular, performances from Ian McKellen [45], Sean Astin [46], Sean Bean, Andy Serkis and Bernard Hill stood out for many, and special effects for the battles and Gollum were praised. In particular, The Return of the King became the most popular film, being marketed later on DVD as the trilogy's "crowning jewel".
Reactions to changes in the movie trilogy from the book
While the movies were generally liked by readers and non-readers alike, some of the former have decried, with varying levels of strength, certain changes made in the adaptation, including changes in tone and themes;[49][50][51] various changes made to characters such as Aragorn, Arwen, Denethor and Faramir, as well as to the main protagonist Frodo himself;[51] changes made to events (such as the Elves participating at the Battle of Helm's Deep, and Faramir taking the hobbits to Osgiliath);[52] and the deletion of the next to the last chapter of Tolkien's work, "The Scouring of the Shire",[53] a part he felt thematically necessary. For example, Wayne G. Hammond, a noted Tolkien scholar, has said of the first two films:
"I find both of the Jackson films to be travesties as adaptations... faithful only on a basic level of plot... Cut and compress as necessary, yes, but don't change or add new material without very good reason... In the moments in which the films succeed, they do so by staying close to what Tolkien so carefully wrote; where they fail, it tends to be where they diverge from him, most seriously in the area of characterization. Most of the characters in the films are mere shadows of those in the book, weak and diminished (notably Frodo) or insulting caricatures (Pippin, Merry, and Gimli)... [T]he filmmakers sacrifice the richness of Tolkien's story and characters, not to mention common sense, for violence, cheap humor, and cheaper thrills... [S]o many of its reviewers have praised it as faithful to the book, or even superior to it, all of which adds insult to injury and is demonstrably wrong..."[49][54]
The trilogy's defenders assert that it is a worthy interpretation of the book, most changes stemming from Jackson's desire to make the story more appealing to a modern audience; connected to this is their perceived need for developing characters further.[55] It is important to note that many who worked on the trilogy are fans of the book,[56] including Christopher Lee, who alone among the cast had actually met Tolkien in person,[57] and Boyens once noted that no matter what, it is simply their interpretation of the book.[58] Jackson once said that to simply summarise the story on screen would be a mess, and nonetheless, "it is still pretty cool".[59] In any case, the films proved popular with critics from general audiences (i.e. non-readers).[60][61][62] Other fans also claim that despite any changes, they do not matter within the context of stand-alone films, and nonetheless they serve as a tribute to the book and yet appeal to those who have not read it, and even lead some to. The Encyclopedia of Arda's Movie Guide states:
"It seems appropriate to end with a word of acknowledgement of Peter Jackson and everyone else associated with the movie version of The Lord of the Rings. Though of course they haven't come close to the scope and intricacy of the original story - that would be quite impossible - what they have produced is still nothing less than a masterpiece. The film-makers, and of course Peter Jackson in particular, have to be admired merely for having the courage to take on such an immense challenge, let alone to produce such an exceptional result. The complete story of The Lord of the Rings is probably unfilmable, but Peter Jackson has come closer than anyone could have imagined possible."[63]
[edit]
Is it a trilogy?
Because the films were shot together and then edited into three separate films released theatrically over a span of three successive years, a significant number of fans and critics have come to regard the trilogy as a single film. They argue that similar to the book, which was intended as a single work, but was first released in three parts for marketing and budget reasons (leading to the common but erroneous label of "trilogy"), Jackson's trilogy is one long 10-hour film. When Time magazine placed the trilogy in its top 100 list it was done under a single heading. While this grouping into a single entity is debated it is not unusual as Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue was originally released as ten separate short films with intersecting themes and characters but now is regarded by majority critics as a single work. Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy is also grouped together quite often.
The character development, continuity, look and feel of all three films are regarded by its fans as seamless and consistent and that unlike other trilogies where sequels often stand apart, each entry is completely dependent on the earlier and successive entry and cannot exist on its own. This is one of the reasons why critics have regarded the Oscar sweep of the third film as a proxy award. Recently, when coming top of an Australian film poll, the trilogy was regarded as one.
Legacy
The release of the films saw a surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works, vastly increasing his impact on popular culture.[65]
Alongside the Harry Potter films, the trilogy has also renewed interest in the fantasy film genre. Following the success of the trilogy, Peter Jackson was given the chance to finally remake King Kong in 2005. Around the same time, fellow New Zealand director Andrew Adamson began The Chronicles of Narnia film series, credited by many to be stylistically influenced by The Lord of the Rings, being also shot in New Zealand and having art direction from WETA, as well as its own extended edition.
The use of motion capture was used for characters in King Kong and I, Robot, and currently there is talk of Jackson and company doing an adaptation of The Hobbit, which MGM wishes to make in co-operation with New Line, although Jackson is not signed on. In non-filmic terms, tourism for New Zealand is up, possibly due to its exposure in the trilogy, with the tourism industry in the country waking up to an audience's familiarity
Película
Para muchos, sobre todo lectores de Tolkien, el tomo mejor adaptado de los tres. Contiene muchos más elementos mágicos que sus dos sucesoras, hecho que se deja notar en los pasajes narrados (la idílica Comarca, el otoñal Valle de Rivendel, la lúgubre Moria, Lothlórien...). Los dos años siguientes se estrenaron sus continuaciones (Las dos torres y El retorno del rey).
Con una cuidada producción, reflejada en aspectos excepcionales como la dirección artística, el maquillaje, o el vestuario mismo, Jackson contó con el apoyo de Andrew Leslie en la fotografía y de Howard Shore (asiduo de David Cronemberg) como compositor, entre otros.
Hay que destacar, no obstante, una acertada dirección de actores, formando un microcosmos actoral en el que todos los personajes se necesitan unos a otros. Mención especial de un espléndido Ian McKellen en el papel de Gandalf el Gris y de un sorprendente Viggo Mortensen como Aragorn, sin olvidar la sobria aportación de Sean Bean interpretando a Boromir.
Cabe también mencionar que a pesar de que la película haya sido muy buena, hay bastantes detalles que faltaron en ella. Hay muchos diálogos que están cambiados de escena. Por ejemplo: en el libro, Gandalf le cuenta a Frodo acerca de los peligros que trae el anillo en su casa en la Comarca. En la película esto sucede mientras están en la cueva
«El señor de los anillos: La comunidad del anillo» es la primera película de la trilogía. Ésta comienza narrando la existencia de 9 anillos que fueron otorgados a igual número de gobernantes que estarían bajo las órdenes de un anillo único, que pertenecía a Sauron. Bajo el poder de los anillos los ejércitos de Sauron comenzaban a conquistar la Tierra Media hasta que una alianza entre hombres y elfos partió para derrotar el ejército de Sauron, perdiendo Sauron el anillo a manos del Rey de Gondor. El anillo llegó a manos de un hobbit conocido como Gollum quien perdió luego el anillo llegando así a manos de Bilbo. Bilbo a su vez deja el anillo a su sobrino Frodo, pero advertidos por el mago Gandalf de la maldad de este anillo se decide en el concilio de Elrond que el anillo debe ser destruido. El hobbit Frodo se ofrece para llevar el anillo a su destrucción pero no podrá ir solo. Es aquí que surge la comunidad del anillo, compuesta por los hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, el mago Gandalf, el elfo Legolas, el enano Gimli y los humanos Aragorn y Boromir. Juntos comienzan su travesía para destruir el anillo.
Personajes y elenco
Personaje
Actor
Frodo Bolsón
Elijah Wood
Gandalf
Ian McKellen
Aragorn
Viggo Mortensen
Samsagaz Gamyi
Sean Astin
Galadriel
Cate Blanchett
Boromir
Sean Bean
Arwen Undómiel
Liv Tyler
Gimli
John Rhys-Davies
Meriadoc Brandigamo (Merry)
Dominic Monaghan
Peregrin Tuk (Pippin)
Billy Boyd
Legolas Hojaverde
Orlando Bloom
Saruman
Christopher Lee
Sauron
Sala Baker
Elrond
Hugo Weaving
Bilbo Bolsón
Ian Holm
Rosa Coto (Rosita)
Sarah McLeod
Celeborn
Marton Csokas
Haldir de Lórien
Craig Parker
Lurtz
Lawrence Makoare
Galardones
La película fue ganadora de cuatro Oscares en la edición de los Premios de la Academia del 2002, de un total de trece nominaciones. Estos premios fueron otorgados en las categorías de «Mejor fotografía», «Mejor banda sonora», «Efectos visuales» y «Mejor maquillaje». Las otras categorías en las cuales estuvo nominada fueron: «Mejor director», «Mejor película», «Mejor actor de reparto», «Mejor guión adaptado», «Dirección artística», «Mejor sonido», «Mejor canción original», «Mejor vestuario» y «Mejor montaje».
La película también obtuvo el logro de ser el filme mayor recaudador de ingresos durante el 2003 con un recaudo total de $860,700,000 en ingresos de taquilla. La película se encuentra actualmente en undécimo lugar entre las películas de mayor recaudo de taquilla a nivel mundial.
Las dos torres
Argumento
Disuelta la compañía y muerto Boromir, seducido por el poder maligno del Anillo, Frodo y Sam toman camino de Mordor, en donde tienen que destruir el Anillo Único, mientras que Aragorn, Gimli y Legolas persiguen a los Uruk-hai (una raza de la Tierra Media) que han secuestrado a Merry y a Pippin por orden de Saruman el Blanco.
Frodo y Sam conocen a Gollum, una criatura traicionera, que poseyó el Anillo durante alrededor de 500 años, siendo absolutamente corrompido por éste. Gollum promete que los guiará a Mordor. Por el camino tropiezan con Faramir (hijo de Dennetor, Senescal de Gondor), quien los toma prisioneros y descubre que portan el Anillo Único. En este pasaje se produce una importante divergencia con el libro, pues en la película Faramir cae en la tentación de apropiarse del Anillo y demostrar así su valor, ganando el respeto y aprobación de su padre. En el libro, por otro lado, con nobleza extrema, Faramir desecha la idea desde el principio, y libera sin más a los hobbits. En el filme, los lleva a Osgiliath, vieja y destruida ciudad del reino de Gondor en donde se combate contra las fuerzas de Sauron, para enviarlos a su padre. Sin embargo, logra darse cuenta del maligno poder del Anillo y los libera.
Aragorn, Legolas y Gimli encuentran a sus amigos en el bosque de Fangorn, hogar de los Ents, raza de árboles vivientes. En él se reencuentran con Gandalf, viejo amigo que se suponía había muerto en los abismos de las minas de Moria, luchando contra el Balrog. Gandalf ha cambiado, siendo ahora El Blanco en lugar del traidor Saruman (antes era Gandalf el Gris). Se dirigen a entrevistarse con el rey de Rohan, Theoden, viejo amigo de Gandalf. Sin embargo, éste se encuentra hechizado por Lengua de serpiente, consejero suyo que trabaja en secreto para Saruman. Bajo su influjo, desterró a su sobrino Éomer luego de la muerte de su hijo Théodred. Gandalf llega con sus amigos y logra liberarlo del embrujo, permitiéndole volver a ser dueño de sus actos.
Theoden decide refugiar a su pueblo en el Abismo de Helm, desoyendo la solicitud de Aragorn de presentar batalla contra los Uruk-hai de Saruman. En este refugio, son atacados por una fuerza de 10.000 Uruk-hai, quienes logran penetrar a la fortaleza y casi vencen a los defensores. Al final de la batalla, Gandalf, Éomer y sus jinetes llegan al rescate y aplastan a los Uruk-hai. La batalla acaba con una difícil victoria de Rohan.
Set in Middle-earth, a fantasy version of our Earth's prehistory (though this is only explicit in the book), the plot primarily follows a young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, as he inherits the One Ring from his uncle Bilbo, the most powerful weapon of the Dark Lord Sauron, thought to be lost for centuries. With the help of the Wizard Gandalf, he sets off with the Fellowship of the Ring to return the Ring to Mount Doom, the place of its forging and thus the only place where it can be destroyed. After being separated, he and his loyal companion Samwise Gamgee continue their perilous quest, whilst the rest of the Fellowship are embroiled in the War of the Ring, as the Men of Rohan, Gondor, Elves, Dwarves, Ents and even the undead battle the armies of Orcs and Trolls led by Sauron and the Wizard Saruman. Their only hope is to distract Sauron's gaze so Frodo can destroy the Ring, and so that their comrade Aragorn can return to the empty throne of the King of Gondor. But the Ring is becoming an ever-increasing burden on Frodo...
The trilogy
Cast
[edit]
The Fellowship of the Ring
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, the young Hobbit entrusted as the Ring-bearer.
Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, a gardener who becomes Frodo's loyal companion.
Ian McKellen as Gandalf, the wise Wizard who engineers much of the planning to overthrow Sauron, and undergoes death, resurrection and transformation over the course of the trilogy.
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, the heir to the throne of Gondor, he is brave and noble yet in self-doubt of his own ability and his fate to become king of Gondor, due to the failures of his ancestor to destroy the One Ring. Working as a Ranger of the North, he is also adept at healing, and as a Númenórean descendant, he is long-lived, being in his prime at 87.
Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc Brandybuck, a young Hobbit who joins the Fellowship.
Billy Boyd as Pippin, Merry's best friend and somewhat immature.
Orlando Bloom as Legolas, an Elven prince who accompanies the Fellowship.
John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, a warrior Dwarf, brave and often used as comic relief.
Sean Bean as Boromir, a Gondorian warrior and the son of its steward, who accompanies the Fellowship. He dies at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring after wrestling with the temptation of the Ring.
Others introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sala Baker portrays Sauron the Dark Lord when he still has a body. For the trilogy, he is incarnate as a flaming Eye, and his presence in the Ring is voiced by John Howard. Sauron commands a massive army and wants to retrieve the Ring that was lost in battle many years ago to restore himself to full power and security.
Andy Serkis provided the voice and motion capture movements of Gollum, once a Hobbit who found the Ring many years ago and mutates into a hideous creature, addicted to the Ring, which he calls "Precious". He now follows the Fellowship to recover what was "stolen" by Bilbo, and is forced to help by Frodo and Sam to lead them, though he is ever treacherous.
Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle. He celebrates his 111st birthday at the start of the trilogy and is writing a book of his exploits, during which he recovered the One Ring.
Christopher Lee as Saruman, the corrupted head Wizard, who wants to share power with Sauron and breeds an army of Uruk-hai within his fortress of Isengard, as well as devastating Fangorn Forest and waging war upon the Men of Rohan.
Hugo Weaving as Elrond, the Elven head of Rivendell, who helps form the Fellowship. He lacks faith in Men, but does his best to convince Aragorn to become King.
Liv Tyler as Arwen, Elrond's daughter, and she is in love with Aragorn. She gets Frodo to Rivendell and is torn on whether to leave Middle-earth for the Undying Lands, or to remain with Aragorn and become mortal.
Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, the Elven Lady of Lothlórien. She provides comfort and faith to Frodo, as well as providing gifts for the Fellowship during their travels.
Marton Csokas as Celeborn, Galadriel's husband.
Craig Parker as Haldir, an Elven archer who encounters the Fellowship.
Lawrence Makoare as Lurtz, the first of the monstrous Uruk-hai spawned by
Introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Bernard Hill as Théoden, King of Rohan. He is rendered incapable of decisions by Wormtongue and Saruman, who apparently works sorcery over him, yet when he is healed by Gandalf, he leads Rohan during the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, trying to make up for his incompetence and the death of his son, Théodred.
Miranda Otto as Éowyn, Théoden's niece. A shieldmaiden of Rohan, she wants to prove herself in battle and also falls in love with Aragorn.
Karl Urban as Éomer, Éowyn's brother and Théoden's nephew. He suspects Wormtongue of treachery, and is an accomplished rider and warrior.
Brad Dourif as Wormtongue, an insidious mole of Saruman, attempting to stop Théoden from declaring war and wants Éowyn for himself.
David Wenham as Faramir, Boromir's brother. Head of the Rangers of Ithilien, he is brave yet sensitive, trying to please his distant father, and tempted by the Ring, though more successful than his brother.
John Rhys-Davies voiced Treebeard, an Ent who protects Merry and Pippin. He is unaware of Saruman's destruction of the forests, but soon considers war.
Introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
John Noble as Denethor, father of Boromir and Faramir. However he makes his first unofficial appearance in The Two Towers extended cut. Steward of Gondor, he is opposed to Aragorn, dislikes Faramir as a "Wizard's pupil" and is grieving over Boromir so much as to ignore the threat of Sauron's army.
Lawrence Makoare plays the Witch-king of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgûl who leads the assault on Minas Tirith, Gondor's capital.
Makoare also plays Gothmog, an Orc leading the troop movements on the ground.
Paul Norell as the King of the Dead, the ancient cursed leader whom Aragorn must seek help from.
Bruce Spence as the Mouth of Sauron, the herald at the Black Gate. He only appears in the Extended Cut.
Prologue characters
Harry Sinclair as Isildur, Aragorn's ancestor. He cuts off the Ring from Sauron, but despite Elrond's insistence, he refuses to destroy it, setting the main story in motion.
Peter McKenzie as Elendil, the first King of Gondor, who is killed by Sauron. His sword Narsil is broken, and becomes an object of speculation over whether or not Aragorn will become King and reforge it.
Mark Ferguson as Gil-galad, the Elven High King who leads the
Pre-production
Peter Jackson first read the book as an 18-year-old, after seeing Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film version.
The entire film project took over eight years from start to finish. Peter Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, began enquiries about the Lord of the Rings rights in 1995 and struck a deal with copyright holder Saul Zaentz and Miramax Films the following year after production stalled on their King Kong remake. The trilogy began pre-production as a two-film deal similar to a few other projects. Then Miramax, citing budget concerns, decided to condense the project into one film, before selling it off altogether to New Line Cinema in 1998. Robert Shaye, head of New Line Cinema, immediately decided to expand the project to three films (with a budget of $270 million), famously replying to Jackson's offer, "Now Peter, who would in their right mind would make two movies?"
Screenplays
As noted, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens planned The Lord of the Rings as two films. Allegedly the first film was to end with the Battle of Helm's Deep whilst the second was more or less the finished The Return of the King. Alongside Tom Bombadil and The Scouring of the Shire, Lothlórien was also planned to be cut.
The expansion to three films certainly allowed a lot more creative freedom. In the meantime during shooting, the screenplays would undergo many transformations, due to contributions from cast looking to further explore their characters, most notably Arwen, who was originally planned as a warrior princess, reverting back to her book counterpart, who remains physically inactive in the story (though she sends moral and military support).
In order to make the story flow more on screen, Jackson has excised sequences for pacing issues, such as the encounters with Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-wights, and the Scouring of the Shire. The Fellowship of the Ring is arguably the most faithful adaptation, with the removal of Bombadil and similar scenes allowing time to remove Gandalf's encounter with Saruman from flashback and allowing a more linear ending.
The Two Towers deviates more, removing Tolkien's two-part story (one on Aragorn and company, the other on Frodo) with intercutting, and climaxing with the Battle of Helm's Deep. Jackson credited the film Zulu as an influence in structure. The Return of the King covers some of The Two Towers book's endings as well as the third volume proper.
Above all, most characters have been altered for extra drama. Aragorn, Théoden and Treebeard have added or modified elements of self-doubt, whilst Galadriel, Elrond and Faramir have been darkened. Boromir and Gollum are (arguably) relatively more sympathetic, whilst some characters such as Legolas, Gimli, Saruman and Denethor have been simplified. Some characters, such as Arwen and Éomer, have taken actions from minor characters such as Glorfindel and Erkenbrand, and generally lines of dialogue are somewhat preserved or switched around between locations or characters depending on suitability of the scenes, and overall new scenes have been added to expand on characterization.
Pre-visualisation
Jackson planned the entire trilogy during screenwriting with Christian Rivers on storyboards, beginning in August 1997 whilst writing the script, effectively creating a rough black and white 2-D version of the film. Jackson showed excerpts of the "animated" storyboards (filmed images with voices and a temporary soundtrack) to allow potential cast a view of the film's style.
To plan his visual effects sequences, Jackson also utilized a lipstick camera for the models of sets and computer animatics (learned from Industrial Light and Magic), planning the battle sequences like a real general and giving a sense of direction. This would often allow room for him to improvise for action sequences, such as the Moria staircase collapse (which was never in any script draft) [3] as well as The Two Towers last minute addition of the Destruction of Isengard.
Design
Jackson famously desired to make Middle-earth feel like a believable world, to approach the story with a historical regard for the fantasy. Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project when it was still under Miramax. Up until then, concept artists had primarily been influenced by Dungeons and Dragons in their designs. Lee worked on designs for architecture, such as the Elven realms and Minas Tirith [4] , whilst Howe primarily designed armour and the forces of evil, most notably the Barad-dûr. Famous designs of Hobbiton, Orthanc [5], Helm's Deep [6], the Black Gate [7], and John Howe's Gandalf [8] and the Balrog made it into the film. The last one inspired the opening of The Two Towers. Interestingly, Lee also painted imagery in Rivendell, such as the one of Isildur removing the One Ring from Sauron. Jackson sometimes replicated some shots from famous paintings as a nod to fans. [9] [10]
For the Orcs, WETA was keen not to rehash the design for the characters throughout the trilogy, so special designs were given to the Moria Orcs, Uruk-hai and Mordor Orcs. In particular, other monsters took elements from real animals, such as Wargs from prehistoric wolves and bears, and Shelob based on a funnel web spider. As well as monsters, the cultures of each Middle-earth race was loosely inspired by real ones. Gondor takes after Byzantium, Hobbiton and Bree after 16th-19th century England, and Rohan from Norse cultures.
Hobbiton was built a year before filming to give the impression of real growth and age with the help of the army. 48,000 props were created by WETA Workshop. 19,000 costumes were aged and worn out by 50 people (led by Ngila Dickinson) for the actors, their stunt, scale and riding doubles, all with varying stages of wear and tear, and 1000 pieces of real armour and 2000 weapons were forged, and 10,000 arrows [11]. Many prosthetics were created, such as 2,200 pairs of Hobbit feet [12], Elven and Hobbit ears, Orc and Dwarf faces and wigs and false noses.
Notable props
Notable pieces of artistry by WETA include:
A lifesize model of Sean Bean as Boromir, for his funeral boat.
A massive model of a dead mûmak (Oliphaunt).
A Treebeard animatronic.
Elven boats.
The palantíri.
Sculptured trees.
A dummy riding machine, for either horse or warg.
Three stone Trolls.
Casting
Jackson admitted that he was under no pressure to cast "big names" for the trilogy, due to the popularity of the book securing an already large audience. Popular rumours before filming included Sean Connery as Gandalf,[13] who was actually approached but declined.[14] Other rumours for Gandalf included Patrick Stewart, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Baker. Sam Neill was asked to play the role of Elrond, but turned it down because of his contractual obligations to another film — namely, Jurassic Park III.
Auditions provide an interesting insight into what could have been. Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies auditioned for Faramir and Denethor respectively, and famously Stuart Townsend was cast as Aragorn and set for filming.
Elijah Wood was the first cast member cast, on July 7, 1999.[15] Sean Astin, Ian McKellen and Ian Holm were also cast later in the month.[16]
Before filming began on October 11, 1999, the principal actors trained for six weeks in sword fighting (with the legendary Bob Anderson), riding and boating. 30 actors were trained to speak Tolkien's fictional dialects. In total, there are 114 speaking roles in the trilogy.
Filming
Principal photography for all three films was conducted concurrently in New Zealand from October 11, 1999 through to December 22, 2000. Pick-up shoots were conducted annually from 2001 to 2004. The trilogy was shot over 150 different locations [17] in the North and South Island, with as many as seven different units shooting, as well as soundstages around Wellington and Queenstown. As well as Jackson directing the whole production, other unit directors included John Mahaffie, Geoff Murphy, Fran Walsh, Barrie Osbourne, Rick Porras and any other assistant director, producer or writer available.
Peter Jackson described the production as a defining period, in that he now divides his life into three chapters: before Lord of the Rings, during Lord of the Rings, and after Lord of the Rings. Fran Walsh described the production as "laying the track down in front of a moving train" (paraphrased). Jackson also described shooting as like organizing an army, with 2,400 people involved at the height of production. Jackson described to Empire magazine an average shooting day:
"A typical day would start at seven in the morning, have breakfast, and shoot until six or seven in the evening." [18]. As described, production was busy, with Jackson monitoring his numerous units.
The first scene filmed was the Wooded Road sequence where the Hobbits hide underneath the Ringwraith. During the first month of filming, an immediate event took place: Stuart Townsend was deemed too young to play Aragorn, and within three days Viggo Mortensen became his replacement, just in time to film the Weathertop sequence.
Sean Bean began filming in November for most of the handful of his scenes. A Christmas break followed, and filming resumed in January. Ian McKellen, fresh from filming X-Men, arrived to film scenes in Hobbiton and the Grey Havens.
Filming would continue until December 2000. Notable amongst the shoot was the three weeks of nightshooting on the set of Helm's Deep, before the set was rebuilt as Minas Tirith. Mount Ruapehu stood in for Emyn Muil and Mount Doom, Edoras was built on Mount Sunday, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields was shot in Twizel with 250 real horses. Infamously, the Battle of the Black Gate was shot at a former mine field in the Rugape Desert, with real soldiers serving as extras. 20,602 extras were used in total for the films.
As filming ended, the nine actors portraying the Fellowship got an Elven '9', bar John Rhys-Davies, who sent his scale double. Jackson and Bernard Hill got an Elven '10', and Hill and Mortensen founded the C-Bago club, the 'c' standing for an expletive.
Weather
Sometimes weather was a pain to the production crew. When some Hobbiton scenes were rescheduled to mid-Summer (January in New Zealand), an irrigation system was set up to restore the now brown fields to green, and a location for the Pelennor Fields was turned into brown by using acids from coconuts. [19] and when it snowed in on one location, the crew had to clear it up before filming started in the afternoon. Nonetheless Andy Serkis had to swim around in freezing cold water.
Accidents
The Lord of the Rings was generally a chaotic set. The most infamous on-set accidents included Sean Astin piercing his foot with a shard of glass whilst filming the ending of The Fellowship of the Ring, Viggo Mortensen breaking his toe while kicking a helmet, having his tooth knocked out while filming the Battle of Helm's Deep, and Orlando Bloom falling off his horse, breaking his ribs. Artist Alan Lee also fell off the Seat of Seeing (the structure atop Amon Hen) and broke his arm[20]. Also notable was that John Rhys-Davies developed an allergic reaction to his Dwarven make-up, describing himself as "like a bloody panda".
Cameos
Many crew members have cameos in the trilogy. Peter Jackson has one in each film: as a drunken, carrot-toting citizen of Bree (The Fellowship of the Ring); a spear-throwing defender of Helm's Deep (The Two Towers); and as the captain of a corsair ship (The Return of the King), seen in brief in the theatrical version, and longer in the extended version when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli commandeer the ship after recruiting the Army of the Dead. Though not a cameo in the traditional sense, he also served as a stand-in for Sean Astin in the shot where Samwise Gamgee steps into frame, challenging the monster Shelob, thereby giving him two different appearances in that film. There are rumours that he is a Wild Man of Dunland in the second film, though it may well be a case of mistaken identity.
His children also cameo in each film, as Hobbits, Rohirrim and Gondorians respectively. Alan Lee also cameos in the first film as one of the nine Kings of Men who become the Ringwraiths, as well as with Dan Hennah as soldiers preparing for the Battle of Helm's Deep. Christian Rivers also cameos as a Gondorian, and in the Return of the King extended cut, Howard Shore and Richard Taylor cameo as one of the celebrating Rohirrim and a Corsair attacked by the Dead Men respectively.
Pick-ups
Pick-ups were conducted from 2001 to 2003 for six weeks every year to refine each film's edit. For the first two films they often returned to sets: for the third they had to shoot around the clock in a car park full of set parts. A personal chance for cast and crew to meet again too, and during The Two Towers pick-ups, Sean Astin directed a short film entitled The Long and Short of It.
Notable scenes filmed in the pick-ups included The Two Towers flashback with Boromir, and the reshot Witch-king scenes with new helmet design in The Return of the King, with improved Orc designs and the new character of Gothmog [21]. Theoden's death was reshot just after he finished: Bernard Hill was luckily still in New Zealand [22]. Andy Serkis also had to shoot a scene in Jackson's house during post-production [23].
Amusingly, the final and only pick-up in 2004 were a few shots of falling skulls in The Return of the King as part of an additional Paths of the Dead scene. Jackson joked "that it's nice to win an Oscar before you've even finished the film". [24]
Post-production
Post-production would have the benefit for a full year on each film before their individual December releases. The Extended cuts also had a brief schedule at the start of each year to complete special effects and music.
[edit]
Editing
The first two films had 4 1/2 hour rough cuts, whilst the third film was 5 hours. To avoid pressure, Jackson hired a different editor on each film. John Gilbert worked on the first film, Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen on the second, and longtime Jackson collaborator Jamie Selkirk on the third. Daily rushes would often last up to four hours. In total, six million feet of film (over 1,800 km) was edited down to the 11 hours and 23 minutes (683 minutes) of Extended DVD running time.
Editing on the first film was relatively easygoing, with Jackson coming up with the concept of an Extended Edition later on, although after a screening to New Line they had to re-edit the beginning for a prologue [25]. The Two Towers was always acknowledged by the crew as the most difficult film to make, as "it had no beginning or end", and had the new problem of intercutting storylines appropriately and Jackson even edited the film when that part of the schedule officially ended. So much so, scenes including the reforging of Andúril, Gollum's back-story, and Saruman's demise were moved to The Return of the King, the latter controversially cut when Jackson felt it was not starting the third film effectively enough [26]. As with all parts of the third film's post-production, editing was very chaotic. The first time Jackson actually saw the completed film was at the Wellington premiere.
[edit]
Deleted scenes
Beyond the Extended Editions, many scenes still remain unused.
The famous footage of Arwen at Helm's Deep, which Jackson changed in the end for story reasons. Foreshadowing this was scenes where she and Elrond visit Galadriel at Lothlórien (seen in The Two Towers teaser trailer). The scene is edited down to a telepathic communication between Elrond and Galadriel.
Further epilogue footage, including that of Legolas and Gimli.
Plenty of dialogue from the Council of Elrond. The DVD shows Ian McKellen as Gandalf explaining how Sauron forged the One Ring.
Éowyn defending the refugees in the Glittering Caves from Uruk-hai intruders [27].
An obscure shot from the trailers of two Elven girls playing about, possibly part of a deeper back-story of the Elves.
Sauron fighting Aragorn at the Black Gate. A computer-generated Troll was placed over Sauron when Jackson felt this was inappropriate.
Further scenes between Elrond and Arwen following her decision to stay with Aragorn, presumably set after the reforging of Andúril [28].
More Arwen footage, such as a flashback scene with her first meeting with Aragorn, played by a beardless Mortensen.
Aragorn having armour put on as part of preparation for the Battle of the Black Gate (the final scene filmed during principal photography).
Éowyn and Faramir's wedding. [29]
An attack by Moria Orcs on Lothlórien. Jackson replaced this with a more suspenseful entrance into the location.
Denethor using the palantír in the White Tower, contributing to his ultimate decline and madness.
An extended battle between Gandalf and the Balrog, as the beast is extinguished in water and they battle upon the Endless Stair. [30]
[edit]
Special effects
The first film has around 540 effects shots, the second 799, and the third 1488. In total it is around 2730. The total moves up to 3420 with the Extended cuts. Over 200 visual effects artists worked on the trilogy [31]. Interestingly, despite WETA being the major stylistic force behind the films, a single scene where Arwen confronts the Black Riders was done by Digital Domain.
[edit]
CGI
Creatures such as Trolls, the Balrog, the Ents, the Fell Beasts, the Wargs, the Mûmakil and Shelob were created entirely within a computer. Treebeard had a digital face composited upon an enormous animatronic, and longshots of him are CG.
Creatures would spend months of creation and variation as sketches before approved designs were sculpted into maquettes and scanned into a computer. Animators would then rig skeletons and muscles before animation and final detailed colouring. [32] As well as creatures, WETA also created highly realistic digital stunt doubles for many miniature longshots.
[edit]
Gollum
Filming was further complicated by the use of a highly detailed photo-realistic computer-generated image serving as a lead character in Gollum — the third time this was ever done (the first being Draco from the Universal film Dragonheart, and second being Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace).
Andy Serkis "played" Gollum by providing his voice and movements on set, as well as performing within the motion capture suit. His scenes were filmed twice, with and without him. Originally Gollum was set to solely be a CG character, but Jackson was so impressed by Andy Serkis' audition tape that they used him on set as well. Gollum's CG model was also redesigned when Serkis was cast as Sméagol, Gollum's form before he is cursed by the One Ring, so as to give the impression Andy Serkis as Sméagol transforms into the CG Gollum. The original model can still be glimpsed briefly in the first film. Another problem was that the crew realized that the cast performed better in the versions of the film with Serkis. In the end, the CG Gollum was rotoscoped and animated on top of these scenes. [33]
[edit]
MASSIVE
MASSIVE was the name of a computer program developed by WETA to create automatic battle sequences rather than individually animate every soldier. Click on the main article for more information.
[edit]
Scale
Production was complicated by the use of scale doubles and forced perspective on a level never seen before in the film industry. Most props, costumes, and some entire sets had to be made twice: once regular size and once 1.38 times bigger. (Even the raw materials, such as threads in costumes, had to be manufactured at two different sizes.) Other times the cast were filmed in front of a bluescreen and composited.
[edit]
"Big-atures"
Big-atures is the nickname for miniatures for WETA, so dubbed for their massive size by any person's scale. Most sets were constructed to allow compositing with the models and matte paintings. Notable examples include the Argonath, Minas Tirith, the tower and caverns of Isengard, Barad-dûr, the trees of Lothlórien and Fangorn Forest and the Black Gate. A interesting example of digital compositing is the Pelennor Fields, which was created by compositing different areas of New Zealand to form a digital arena.
The miniatures unit worked more than any other special effects crew, working over a 1000 days. Often they held parties to celebrate each landmark, such as 666. Their final shot was one of Orthanc for the third films extended cut in early 2004. [34]
Also, to create the destruction of the Barad-dûr, one WETA employee spent his Christmas 2002 break building it in the computer, ready for its destruction in The Return of the King.
[edit]
Digital grading
To give a "painterly" look to the films, cinematographer Andrew Lesnie worked on every scene within the computer to strengthen colours and add extra mood and tone to the proceedings. Gold was tinted to Hobbiton, whilst cooler colours were strengthened into Lothlórien, Moria and Helm's Deep. He also notably drained colour from Sean Bean's face during his death scene.
[edit]
Music
Main article: Music of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
Howard Shore composed the trilogy's music. The soundtrack is primarily the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and many talents such as Ben Del Maestro, Enya, Renee Fleming, Sir James Galway, Annie Lennox and even actors Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler (extended cut only) and director Peter Jackson (for a single gong sound in the second film) contributed to the score.
Shore composed a main theme for the Fellowship rather than many different character themes, and it's strength and weaknesses in volume are depicted at different points in the trilogy. On top of that, individual themes were all given to represent different cultures. Infamously, the amount of music Shore had to write for the third film every day increased dramatically to around seven minutes. [35]
[edit]
Sound
Sound technicians worked hard to find the right sounds: Fran Walsh provided the Nazgûl scream, and ironically a Mumakil roar came from the beginning and end of a Lion's. Real screams and a horse neigh are within the mix of Sauron's fall. Technicians were also keen to not allow battles to fall into "sonic mud". Different elements are focused upon with the whim of Jackson's direction.
They often went to extreme lengths. 10,000 New Zealand Cricket fans were hired to provide the sound of the Uruk-hai army in The Two Towers with Jackson acted as commander within a single cricket break. During The Return of the King post-production, they had to contend with building work.
[edit]
Pre-release
The online promotional trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was first released on April 27, 2000 and shattered records for download hits, registering 1.7 million hits in the first 24 hours of its release. [citation needed] The trailer used a selection from the soundtrack for Braveheart, among other cuts.
In 2001, 24 minutes of footage from the trilogy, primarily the Moria sequence, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, to great reception. [36] The showing also included an area designed to look like Middle-earth. A full description of the footage can be found here: [1]
Fans first received a preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the end of the theater showings of Fellowship of the Ring. [37] A promotional trailer was later released. The trailer contained some music re-scored from the film Requiem for a Dream [38].
The promotional trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was debuted exclusively before the New Line Cinema film Secondhand Lions on September 23, 2003. [39]
All three trailers contain some materials that were later removed from the theatrical release of the films. (For example, in the Two Towers trailer, there was a shot of Éomer holding a spear that was never used. In the Return of the King trailer, Elrond tells his daughter Arwen that he cannot protect her any longer, a scene that was entirely removed from the theatrical and extended editions.)
Each film had many premieres around the World, with Official "World" premieres in London, Paris and Wellington for each film respectively. The Wellington premieres were often the most spectacular, with dedicated fans lining the streets as well as statues of the Cave Troll, Gollum reaching for the Ring and the Witch-king on his steed respectively. For the first film, Wellington changed its name to Middle-earth for a single day.
[edit]
Releases
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released December 19, 2001. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation of 2001.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released December 18, 2002 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won the Hugo Award, this time in the new split category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released December 17, 2003, and won all 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2003. This film also won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Each successive film made more money at box offices worldwide than the last; the reverse of what normally happens to a film series. Each were released onto standard two disc edition DVDs containing previews of the next film. The success of the theatrical cuts brought about Extended Editions, with new editing, added special effects and music. They were issued as follows:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, November 12, 2002.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, November 18, 2003.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King December 14, 2004.
More than two hours' bonus footage has been added to the Trilogy which now makes the total over 11 hours of film. As well as the standard 4 disc releases, each Extended Edition also received a Collectors Edition box. The first film contained bookends based on the Argonath, the second came with a statue of Gollum, dubbed Sméagol (as the other bookend named Gollum available for a pre-order at a limited time), and the third having a model of Minas Tirith, with Minas Morgul available for order for a limited time. They have also played at movie theaters, most notably for a December 17, 2003 marathon screening culminating in a midnight screening of the third film.
On August 28 2006 both versions were put together in a 'branching' version plus a new feature-length documentary by Costa Botes.
[edit]
Public and critical response
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is widely and currently considered to be the most popular and is verified to be the currently highest grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, evidenced by its earning close to $3-billion (US), besting other notables such as the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises. The film trilogy also set a record for the total number of Academy Awards won, tallying a total of seventeen Oscars. Critical acclaim has commonly hailed the trilogy as "the greatest films of our era", and "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal."[44]. In particular, performances from Ian McKellen [45], Sean Astin [46], Sean Bean, Andy Serkis and Bernard Hill stood out for many, and special effects for the battles and Gollum were praised. In particular, The Return of the King became the most popular film, being marketed later on DVD as the trilogy's "crowning jewel".
Reactions to changes in the movie trilogy from the book
While the movies were generally liked by readers and non-readers alike, some of the former have decried, with varying levels of strength, certain changes made in the adaptation, including changes in tone and themes;[49][50][51] various changes made to characters such as Aragorn, Arwen, Denethor and Faramir, as well as to the main protagonist Frodo himself;[51] changes made to events (such as the Elves participating at the Battle of Helm's Deep, and Faramir taking the hobbits to Osgiliath);[52] and the deletion of the next to the last chapter of Tolkien's work, "The Scouring of the Shire",[53] a part he felt thematically necessary. For example, Wayne G. Hammond, a noted Tolkien scholar, has said of the first two films:
"I find both of the Jackson films to be travesties as adaptations... faithful only on a basic level of plot... Cut and compress as necessary, yes, but don't change or add new material without very good reason... In the moments in which the films succeed, they do so by staying close to what Tolkien so carefully wrote; where they fail, it tends to be where they diverge from him, most seriously in the area of characterization. Most of the characters in the films are mere shadows of those in the book, weak and diminished (notably Frodo) or insulting caricatures (Pippin, Merry, and Gimli)... [T]he filmmakers sacrifice the richness of Tolkien's story and characters, not to mention common sense, for violence, cheap humor, and cheaper thrills... [S]o many of its reviewers have praised it as faithful to the book, or even superior to it, all of which adds insult to injury and is demonstrably wrong..."[49][54]
The trilogy's defenders assert that it is a worthy interpretation of the book, most changes stemming from Jackson's desire to make the story more appealing to a modern audience; connected to this is their perceived need for developing characters further.[55] It is important to note that many who worked on the trilogy are fans of the book,[56] including Christopher Lee, who alone among the cast had actually met Tolkien in person,[57] and Boyens once noted that no matter what, it is simply their interpretation of the book.[58] Jackson once said that to simply summarise the story on screen would be a mess, and nonetheless, "it is still pretty cool".[59] In any case, the films proved popular with critics from general audiences (i.e. non-readers).[60][61][62] Other fans also claim that despite any changes, they do not matter within the context of stand-alone films, and nonetheless they serve as a tribute to the book and yet appeal to those who have not read it, and even lead some to. The Encyclopedia of Arda's Movie Guide states:
"It seems appropriate to end with a word of acknowledgement of Peter Jackson and everyone else associated with the movie version of The Lord of the Rings. Though of course they haven't come close to the scope and intricacy of the original story - that would be quite impossible - what they have produced is still nothing less than a masterpiece. The film-makers, and of course Peter Jackson in particular, have to be admired merely for having the courage to take on such an immense challenge, let alone to produce such an exceptional result. The complete story of The Lord of the Rings is probably unfilmable, but Peter Jackson has come closer than anyone could have imagined possible."[63]
[edit]
Is it a trilogy?
Because the films were shot together and then edited into three separate films released theatrically over a span of three successive years, a significant number of fans and critics have come to regard the trilogy as a single film. They argue that similar to the book, which was intended as a single work, but was first released in three parts for marketing and budget reasons (leading to the common but erroneous label of "trilogy"), Jackson's trilogy is one long 10-hour film. When Time magazine placed the trilogy in its top 100 list it was done under a single heading. While this grouping into a single entity is debated it is not unusual as Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue was originally released as ten separate short films with intersecting themes and characters but now is regarded by majority critics as a single work. Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy is also grouped together quite often.
The character development, continuity, look and feel of all three films are regarded by its fans as seamless and consistent and that unlike other trilogies where sequels often stand apart, each entry is completely dependent on the earlier and successive entry and cannot exist on its own. This is one of the reasons why critics have regarded the Oscar sweep of the third film as a proxy award. Recently, when coming top of an Australian film poll, the trilogy was regarded as one.
Legacy
The release of the films saw a surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works, vastly increasing his impact on popular culture.[65]
Alongside the Harry Potter films, the trilogy has also renewed interest in the fantasy film genre. Following the success of the trilogy, Peter Jackson was given the chance to finally remake King Kong in 2005. Around the same time, fellow New Zealand director Andrew Adamson began The Chronicles of Narnia film series, credited by many to be stylistically influenced by The Lord of the Rings, being also shot in New Zealand and having art direction from WETA, as well as its own extended edition.
The use of motion capture was used for characters in King Kong and I, Robot, and currently there is talk of Jackson and company doing an adaptation of The Hobbit, which MGM wishes to make in co-operation with New Line, although Jackson is not signed on. In non-filmic terms, tourism for New Zealand is up, possibly due to its exposure in the trilogy, with the tourism industry in the country waking up to an audience's familiarity
posted by Marysela Zamora @ 4:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home