Greatest Movie of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2004)

I figure I have paid to see roughly 500 different movies in theaters over the course of my lifetime, rented hundreds more, and seen a few thousand others on cable. And I can say this without hesitation: The Return of the King is the best movie I have ever seen, hands down.
I won't give a long exposition about the plot, or how deserving it's Oscar sweep was; that's already been done by countless others before me. I will say, however, that if Peter Jackson never made another movie again after this, he will still be remembered 100 years from now.
One of the most beloved and most-read series of books EVER, the LOTR trilogy was thought, many years ago, to be unfilmable; it was too long, too broad in scope. You'd have to cut so much out in order to tell the story. And at the time, it was true. But with movie effects and technology having progressed to the point it has, the time was right for the telling of this story. And, viewing the three movies as a whole, I wouldn't change one thing about it.
There were changes or omissions from the original story, of course: the roles of the female characters, Arwyn and Eowyn, were hugely embellished for cinematic purposes; and the disappearance of Saruman from the 3rd installment is the only real niggle I have about the whole series. But I think that if JRR Tolkien had lived to see his work portrayed on the big screen, he would be more than satisfied with Jackson's work.
Having read the books, I wondered just how much of the "after" story would make it into the final cut. Again, they left a lot out, but when you have a movie that is already 3 1/2 hours long, I guess certain sacrifices must be made! Of course, part of me hoped that the movie would never end.... and I know that's a sentiment shared by many.
It's weird to note that ROTK nabbed 11 Oscars without even a single nomination for acting. Many would say that the story's epic-ness and volume were on such a massive scale, that it became difficult for individual performances to stand out. And that is a shame. Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood all did such and incredible job infusing their characters with warmth and inner strength that they almost became members of our family while we were watching them.
The word "epic" is sometimes overused when it comes to movies. Any movie that incorporates thousands of extras, huge sets and big-budget effects these days could be called an "epic", but only history will be the judge of how it will hold up. "Titanic" was an epic, in every sense of the word. And for a year or two, it seemed to be the only movie that people saw, or talked about. But look at it now! Yes, it still stands as the #1 grossing movie of all time, a record that may stand for years to come. But it's already played itself out. Everyone has seen it, and few really have any desire to see it again. LOTR, the whole series, will not suffer the same fate. This movie will generate just as much positive buzz ten, twenty years from now as it does today. True, technology and computer effects will continue to grow, evolve and improve. There will be more "epics". But there will never, ever be another series like this one again.
My score: an unqualified 10.