by Chris Marshall:
Return of the King
posed a unique problem for The Oscar Project. It is only the second sequel to
win Best Picture—The Godfather Part Two
being the first—but this time, neither of its predecessors took home the top
prize. Although I had seen all of the films at least once before, I hadn’t
watched them since soon after they came out in theaters.
For this reason, I was a little concerned that I would be
totally lost upon re-watching Return of the
King. As it turned out, though, I remembered enough for it to (mostly) make
sense, and I think it works pretty well as a standalone movie anyway. Obviously
it is greatly enhanced by seeing the first two in the series, but I feel like
it would be mostly comprehensible to a newbie.
I try to tread lightly when discussing The Lord of the Rings because I am by no means an expert. As I
mentioned, I’ve seen the movies only once or twice each, and I’ve never read
any of the books. The only Tolkien I’ve read at all is The Hobbit, and it doesn’t help much with these films. Therefore, I
just want to say that everything I write should be viewed in light of that admission.
Not that I have much bad to say at all, really. This is a
great film in almost every respect, and I don’t want my opinion about that to
be misconstrued. It’s just that I have some questions about certain elements
that may or may not have been addressed in the books and/or first two movies.
For example, when Aragorn takes his newly forged sword with
him to recruit the Army of the Dead, everybody should know that they’ll be
completely unstoppable when they arrive at the battle of Minas Tirith. Without
them, however, the human forces will be destroyed. In light of this fact,
shouldn’t the humans have just retreated and waited for the Army of the Dead to
arrive? Instead, they stood their ground and lost countless soldiers, seemingly
for no reason. I know it’s more courageous to stand and fight in the face of
certain annihilation, but if you’re confident that a bunch of ghosts are going
to save you, why waste all those lives?
And just as an aside about that, I think the Army of the
Dead was completely broken. It was like Aragorn got frustrated by the game’s
difficulty and decided to turn on some Game Genie codes. The Army of the Dead is
literally invincible, so it seems like a cheap way to win to me. It’s not like
I have any ideas about how else it should have ended or that I think you
necessarily have to fight by the rules when facing the forces of evil
incarnate; it just didn’t sit well with me is all.
What is the population of Middle Earth, by the way? It
seemed like there were millions of participants in the battles at the end of
the movie. Was everybody on the entire planet engaged in combat at one time? I
guess I don’t really know how big Middle Earth is, so maybe there is just a
vast number of people/orcs/whatever available for mortal combat.
 |
| A younger, happier Saruman. |
While all this death and destruction is going on, Frodo,
Sam, and Gollum are working their way up to Mount Doom so they can destroy the
One Ring. I did, as always, enjoy the hobbit bromance. Isn’t Sam the more
heroic of the two, though? He was always saving Frodo’s life and providing
all-important moral support. I know Frodo was bearing the burden of the ring
and all, which can’t be easy, but come on. If you’re a real hero, you shouldn’t
have to lean on Rudy so much.
I could go on, but after two straight 900+ word posts, I
should probably end the plot discussion there. At the Oscars, this film was an
absolute juggernaut, winning all 11 awards it was nominated for. This ties it
with Ben-Hur and Titanic for total number of awards won, but it was the only one of
the three to sweep its nominations. Because of this, Return of the King is sometimes considered to be the most dominant
Oscar winner of all time.
Although Christopher Lee (Saruman) only appears in the
extended edition of Return of the King,
his presence is quite noteworthy. He possesses the record (by seven years over
second place Sue Casey) for the longest gap between Best Picture appearances,
as this was his first since having a minor role in Hamlet in 1948. That’s true longevity.
The rest of The Oscar Project should be smooth sailing. Only
one more film (The Departed) is over
two and a half hours long, and the next two I watch are the final winners I
haven’t seen yet. Start getting the champagne ready.
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