An Epic for All Time

Rating: 10/10 (24 November 2002)

Now, having seen the Platinum Extended Edition twice in three days, and as and experienced cinephile and life-long watcher of films, I can safely say that the LOTR is one of the great cinematic experiences of all time. It represents a magnificent achievement in filmmaking and its process--easily taking six-seven years of constant work by Peter Jackson and his genius craftsmen. By the end of the the trilogy, Oscars should be given to every one of the principal designers who shared in its vision.
Many people will wish that this scene or that scene should have been added. Given the complexity of this shoot, it's a minor miracle any kind of coherence exists at all. This film was not film back-to-back-back in order, with Fellowship coming first, as some have reported, but filmed as one film--one that was twelve hours long. Locations were secured--and then all the scenes that would happen there throughout the three films were then shot. Many of these scenes would have to fit with scenes shot, perhaps, a year later. Jackson is still editing the picture--two years after principal photography has finished!
One still has to judge the film as a whole, however and, to this critic's eye, most everything rings true. Everyone has a couple of quibles and I am not immune. My particular quibbles are with Sean Astin as Samwise, and Liv Tyler as Arwen. Those two actors, fine in their own right, are too "American" to suggest Middle Earth. Astin will always be Rudy--the role he was born to play and Tyler will never eclipse her role as Affleck's main squeeze in Armageddon.
Filmmaking is all about making decision. On an average film with a 60-day shoot, the director is, perhaps, making 200 decisions a day. That breaks down to 12,000 decisions (just for principle photography.) Add in a pre-production of eight months or so and you can add another 40,000 decisions. The LOTR was THREE YEARS in pre-production, 15 MONTHS in actual filming, and another THREE YEARS in post-production. If you are an absolute genius, you could not expect to get more than 95-97 percent right. With 200 decisions a day, that means 10 or so answers a day are not based on concrete knowledge but instinct and that illusive talent: creativity. With LOTR, just during the production phase alone, 2,500 decisions were made just that way. Mind boggling.
No, my friends, I am not going to quibble that Jackson should have done this, or sustained that, had been more poetic here, or ethereal there. Certainly, Peter Jackson is a great director but he is no David Lean--but let's not hold that against him. LOTR will stand the testament of legend and rank as of the great epics of all measured time, savored for generations to come.
See it. Be it. Live it.