The lord of the films

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2004)

A truly unforgettable experience, this movie is not only the satisfying conclusion to one of the most courageous productions in cinema history, but it has also fixed a new standard of quality that all epic movies in the future will have to consider. Even if considered only as an action-adventure experience, ROTK is almost perfect and really breathtaking (battle of the Pelennor is outstanding... Ride now! Ride to ruin and the world's ending! Death!); but I think (and the Academy thought it too, I see)it is more than that. It's not mere fantasy: it's human drama in a fantasy setting.
Surely this film is so unique because Tolkien's book was (I mean, is) unique and absolutely amazing, plus it is so near to perfection in all its aspects (acting, directing, editing, music, special effects, etc.). The actors are the hearth of this movie - they're all good, and some (Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Bernard Hill) really are outstanding. Some (many) people criticize Jackson for the many differences between the movie and the book, but you must consider than a movie is a different media then a book and has different priorities. Peter Jackson may have changed many events of the books, and erased many characters, but in most cases he was forced to do that in order to make a movie worth of the novel, even if somehow different. Sometimes, being unfaithful to Tolkien, Jackson manages to improve, as a cinematic experience, the story. For example, Faramir's ride isn't shown in the book as it is in the film, but Peter Jackson made it so good, that it is one of the better pieces of the whole Lotr, and shall be remembered in cinema history. Pippin's song in that sequence is in fact from the book, but it has a totally different position, and a very different aim (in the book, it's a normal hobbit-song, not the moving, sad song seen, I mean heard, in the movie). Also the siege of Minas Tirith, including the battle of Pelennor fields, is quite different from the book, but it is probably the finest and most spectacular war sequence ever seen in a movie so far. And if you think that Peter Jackson didn't care about the novel and Tolkien, ask yourself why The Return of The King didn't end with the marriage between Aragorn and Arwen (a happy, classic Hollywood ending), instead of a nearly 20 minutes long sequence that many (maybe most of the) viewers found too long and boring, but that I think is a mature ending to the trilogy, and really close to the book, especially in its tone.
I really like Tolkien's Lotr, as a book, and I equally, maybe even more, like Peter Jackson's Lotr as a movie. However, as the book, it has many detractors. Perhaps there are people who simply don't like fantasy - in which case I respect their opinion, but I'd like them to remember that a movie isn't a documentary nor a history lesson, but it's art, and fantasy is the blood of art. Surely, everyone has the right to like or dislike a movie, as any other thing; but, if you really don't like Lotr, maybe you should ask yourself if you like cinema...