Perfection on Screen

Rating: 10/10 (11 December 2002)

I am by no means an easily impressed person, especially when it comes to film. I have been known to look at such masterpeices as "Lawerance of Arabia" and "Raging Bull" and find some little insignificant detail to upset me. When I walked into a movie theater on a cool, windy night in Orlando, FL on December 28 2001 and decided that since I just missed the 11:30 Harry Potter showing I should find a descent replacement I happened to glance at the 11:35 showing of something called Lrd of the Rn (which I later deduced by the movie poster meant LORD OF THE RINGS) I figured, "Eh, it's got a wizard, why the hell not?" SO I bought my ticket and entered the theatre totally unexpecting of the maginficent ride I was about to take.

From the very beginning I was hooked. I laughed and giggled in Hobbition. Recoiled in my seat and covered my eyes during the black rider chase, listened attentively during the council and awed by the amazing jounrey to end the film. I left the theatre with tears in my eyes, for two distinct reasons. One was just due to the touching ending (even though some refuse to call it that) where Sam and Frodo head off to certain peril. And the other reason was becasue I had just had my first true movie experience of my adult life.
Now, when you're a child the prospect of the "going to the movies is entertaining you do it for birthday parties or family outings. As you grow older and "mature", however, movies (at least in my case) lost a lot of their magic. I would go out if friends invited me or if a really attractive girl was nice enough to ask, other than that I rarely went to the moveis for their sole purpose which was to entertain and touch me in their own way.

When I walked out of that theatre on that cool windy night (or I should say morning) I thought movies like those were extinct. No one made "epics" any more and if they did they were to a ridiculus scale totally overflowing with hammy acting and eye candy. Yet this film, this exprience grab you by the seat of your pants and took you on an emotional roller coaster where if you compared the begging of the movie to the end you would question if it were the same movie.
I could go on about the brilliance of the cast, crew, and Peter Jackson for bringing this remarkable story to the screen. Yet, if you have read this far you have surely realized this in seeing the movie for yourself or if you haven't (shame on you) I would suggest renting it and unplugging your phones and secluding yourself to a basement or whatever may be and just take in the beauty and grandure of one of the greatest films of all time.

My love for this movie is in it's characters and landscape and the overall experience that is the "Lord of the Rings". The movie stands out on it's own even though it is about the masterful books written by Professor Tolkien. I think Peter Jackson sent out a message to all film makers and said "look, it can be done, you can make a terrific movie and still have a big box office draw". I hope Hollywood got the message, because if they did we can look forward to a bright future in the world of cinema.