2003 / 201 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

Well, my friends, this marks the end of an era. The last “Lord of the Rings” film has arrived and that means that I will have nothing to look forward to next December. (Once you get beyond the age of 12, Christmas just means more socks and that you have to do a lot of shopping for people with whose wants you are unfamiliar.) Over the past three years, “Lord of the Rings” has become something of a holiday. It’s always on a Wednesday near the end of December and it’s even accompanied by certain traditions, at least between my friends and I. Each year, we have smuggled pudding into the first showing of “Lord of the Rings”. Don’t ask me how this got started; I’m no longer even sure. All I know is that when we saw “Fellowship” I somehow had some pudding in the pocket of my trenchcoat, two servings of pudding, actually: one for me, and one for my friend Ben. The next year, we made a point of bringing pudding to “The Two Towers”. And this year, to commemorate the last of the three films, we brought more pudding than we could even eat. We were even accompanied by a third person, and we still had more than enough pudding for all three of us. Some people like to celebrate their “Lord of the Rings” day on the day itself. Me? I like to do it the night before, the way some people open their presents on Christmas Eve or get drunk at Noon on New Years Eve (okay, I don’t know anyone who does that one, but it sounds like fun, doesn’t it?). I celebrated “Fellowship” on Opening Day, but that was because I had no idea that it would be so great, that it would make me an instant convert to its world. By “Two Towers”, I was a slathering fool who had seen “Fellowship” in the theater seven times (my own personal record). Thus, I had a ticket for the Midnight show on the Tuesday night before traditional “Lord of the Rings” Day. I did the same this year as well. I even took the night off of work for it. Doubtless, many of you will call me pathetic for these antics, and I’m not going to argue that. You naysayers do have a pretty good point. But the quality of the films is what has gotten me so excited. “Lord of the Rings” Day is so special to me because, unlike other holidays, you know that you won’t be disappointed. Once I had seen “Fellowship of the Ring”, well, I knew that I wouldn’t be getting socks.

You see, if movies were wristwatches, “Return of the King” would be a fine Swiss watch that kept immaculate time whereas a movie like “The Matrix Reloaded” would be a shitty Seiko that needed to be wound a hell of a lot. “Return of the King” finally proves something I have suspected ever since I saw the first “Lord of the Rings” film: this is a better trilogy than the “Star Wars” trilogy. Yes, the ORIGINAL “Star Wars” trilogy. Now, bear with me here. Compare the character of Obi Wan Kenobi with the character of Gandalf. I’ll grant you that Alec Guinness was a better actor (of that there is no dispute). But Gandalf is the richer of the two characters. Both characters are wise and magical and majestic. But Gandalf is the only one enriched with moments of doubt and fear and pain and inescapable humanity. Gandalf is wise and powerful, but he can also be wrong. He can be hurt. And he has doubts. He doesn’t have all the answers and he doesn’t pretend to. And that is what makes him such a powerful character. That’s just a single character, mind you. Compare Frodo to Luke Skywalker. There is no comparison. Compare Gimli and Legolas to Threepio and Artoo. Okay, Artoo may kick ass, but if I had to put up with either Threepio or Legolas, well, I think any of us would know whom to choose.

Now, given, George Lucas does not have the benefit of great source material like Peter Jackson has, but that just means Jackson had further to fall. He had more people to disappoint if he did things wrong. Look how many people Lucas has disappointed with his “prequels”. But forget all that, for a moment, and simply judge this film on its own terms. The entire trilogy has seamlessly crafted a fantasy environment more engrossing and fascinating and just plain inhabitable than most of the ones that movies have treated us to before. Like Lucas at the top of his game, Jackson has used a vast army of craftspeople and creative minds to conjure magical worlds of fantasy before our very eyes. He has captured the essence of these timeless stories and distilled them onto the screen in each of these three movies and he has done so particularly well in this one. Not only that, but he has managed to bring everything to completion in a more satisfactory manner than any trilogy in recent memory. There isn’t a particularly weak link movie in this saga (and, by the way, as long as I’ve already mentioned Lucas, let me say one thing more in his defense: the last time a series like this was brought to a close in such a satisfying and heart pounding manner has to be “Return of the Jedi” which, all bitching about ewoks aside, was a heart pounding spectacle that actually had a heart and actually did a great job- I stand by this statement). But the “Lord of the Rings” movies are richer and deeper than the Star Wars movies, taking on interesting subjects like obsession and addiction and power and even friendship and family dynamics. Like the best fantasy work, these stories use the fantasy realm to hold a mirror up to reality and examine its various aspects, from a refreshing angle. That is why these movies will endure and that is why this movie in particular has more subtext and food for thought than any film I can remember from the past year. In fact, I think one may have to go back to “Titanic” to find the last time a film was so relentlessly entertaining and yet powerfully effective, action-packed, and mesmerizing at the same time.

The actors are all excellent, but the performance I must single out this time belongs to Sean Astin. He’s been doing great work all the way through this trilogy, but it’s been the kind of work that is largely done to complement the rest of the cast, to be a true supporting actor. But here, he finally gets a chance to shine and also to remind those of us who enjoyed Tolkien’s novels why we have such fond memories of Samwise in the first place. He’s arguably the most heroic character of any of the novels, simply because he does so much with no thought to recognition and without deliberating all the angles. He simply knows what is best to do and does so whenever it is required of him. And Astin plays that magnificently. He is the best character in this movie and, by far, the most noble. Every other actor in the movie does a great job, as well, but Sean Astin is the best of the bunch. He’s the one that I think back most fondly upon.

So, yes, “Return of the King” is the best of these films, providing spectacle that causes our jaws to drop, spectacle that rivals such classic films as “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Ben Hur”. There is a scene where watch fires are being lit that put a tear in the corner of my eye. It is a simple moment, and there is definitely an element of grandeur to it, but it is the beauty and visual poetry of the sequence that truly sticks in one’s heart. The movie even includes a few of Tolkien’s famous poems and songs (such is a testament to how richly JRR imagined this world of his) that lend an extra, haunting majesty to the events onscreen. There is very little, if anything, that doesn’t work 100% in this movie, but that statement doesn’t really get to the heart of what makes this film so damn magical. Nothing I can say does, really, or even could. You’ve got to experience this film, you’ve got to let it live in your heart (as it will, if you have one and if you let it) to really appreciate this movie. It’s the sort of film I’ll be watching with my grandchildren and, despite the fact that it is three and a half hours long, I’m sure they will be thoroughly riveted. I know I am.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2003 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.