Can anything else be called "Best Picture?"

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

I laughed, I cried, I never wanted it to end.
After spending what might have been the last 30 minutes of the film nearly racked with sobs, sitting through the entire final credit sequence, and wondering what I was supposed to do next, I decided I had to leave the pages of the book that I just saw and face the world again. It was not easy.
There are many scenes in this film that I forgot to breath. I remember exhaling on more than one occasion, as I was held breathless by the images that I had witnessed.
I'll tell you something though...nothing is perfect. There were some scenes which I felt were actually lacking (in my desires for things to be "by the book") in places. I thought it started slow, and the opening sequence, while good, felt out of place. It needed to be somewhere, I'm just not sure where. In the battle with Shelob, I never felt what it was to be faced with that light, as she was. Or to have felt the Sting. However, just how do you convey the emotion of a giant ancient spider?
I don't care. It's the Best Picture. The Best Trilogy. A Towering Achievement. Can anything else done on screen compare, in our lifetimes? I wish I could have been lucky enough to be more than just a part of the audience.