Brought a grown man to floods of tears

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2003)

Well I finally got to see Return of the King last night. I had to wait two days because the cinema was sold out and I wasn't quick enough booking when the tickets went on sale. The wait was excruciating, as I had seen the other two movies on opening day and felt I was missing out.
I had read nearly every review on rottentomatoes.com and knew it was going to be great, and guess what, it was stupendous!
I must admit to being a tolkien nut. I have read LOTR about 8 times, also the silmarilion, and all of Christopher Tolkien's works on his father's material. Yes I have even struggled through The Notion Papers!
So it was with great trepidation that the screen went dark and across the screen came those words cast in gold, "The Lord Of The Rings", together with that wonderfully haunting theme from Howard Shore.
For over three hours I was entertained to the max. The visuals were so amazing I just didn't know where to look on screen once battle commenced. Even so the charactors were never swamped by the size of the battles,(or CGI) and we rooted for them all the way!
I have read a few complaints about the multiple endings. I found them to be essential and perfect. Sentimental, yes. Forcing us to tears, yes, because we care about these charactors so much we want to know about Sam and Rosie and the rest of the "gang".
Just one small point, that I didn't pick up on but the rest of my group did. As the credits rolled, they all said, "Why does Frodo have to go off on that boat?". They had all seen the other two movies at the theatre, but none of them had seen the dvds to recap. They couldn't understand why Frodo had to go away and leave his friends. I knew why, and explained it to them, but perhaps this should have been made a bit clearer to the average movie going public. Obviously the special edition 4 disk set will explain Frodo's problems on returning a bit clearer.
And so ends what is to me the greatest film ever. I will probably go and see it a few more times before it's pulled from the cinemas, to make sure I take in all that can be seen on the big screen.
Is it going to be a record breaker? It sure is! One billion dollars world wide at the minimum. In fact I am sure in a couple of years time, the demand will be so high that New Line will be forced to release all three movies nation wide in their extended versions.(to more packed theatres!)
Oscars? Well I found the Oscar voters behaved disgracefully against Fellowship of the Ring. It was by far the best film of the year, and to be beaten by A Beautiful Mind showed just how out of touch the voters were. Whilst A Beautiful Mind is a good film, (and I own it on DVD) it is not a patch of FOTR, even taking into account the different genres.
Last year The Two Towers was again cheated by Chicago, which I felt was even more of a snub.
I just hope the academy was waiting for proof that Jackson was capable of pulling off all three films before giving him what is justly his. But don't hold your breath! Best Film, Best Director, best Visual effects, best costume, best musical score to Howard Shore, plus a ton of other minor oscars would be fair and perfect.
10/10 and my favourite of all time.