From an Historian's Perspective. . .Incredible!

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 2003)

I've been a fan of Tolkien since childhood and like so many waited a lifetime for this film. In fact, one of my reactions, while watching the credits run at the end, was a sense of tremendous loss, like that of a child who is going to bed after Christmas is over. . .the anticipation is gone, the "quest" has been fulfilled.
I have to throw in a comment, call it a professional comment about the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. For perhaps the first time, truly the first time, a film got it "right" when it comes to ancient and medieval warfare, especially the charge of the Riders of Rohan. All my old favorites, Spartacus, even Gladiator and Braveheart, fall apart, historically, during the charge and first moment of contact in the battle scenes, all other films devolving into the lone hero running about with hundreds of extras senselessly running about, without any formation, discipline or tactics even before the two armies collide. A charge, especially a cavalry charge, was all about mass formation acting as a battering ram, start slow, keep formation, build up speed, then hitting like a tidal wave, . . .ROTK DOES IT RIGHT! Jackson and team, truly give us the sense of scale, of mass ponderous formations building up speed, becoming unstoppable, of the terrifying sight of six thousand cavalry coming straight at you, not individuals all spread out, but a wall of horse and warriors. To paraphrase from another favorite film, Patton "You know I actually felt sorry for those damn orcs!"
I've actually talked to a few old soldiers who have been in stirrup to stirrup cavalry charges (my Dad being one, in a pre-WWII training exercise) and they tell me it was one of the most frightful yet supreme moments of their life, a total madness takes hold. Perhaps I dwell too long on this, in what should be a comment about a movie, but darn it, I've waited a lifetime to see it on film, and I'm still awed.
In a broader sense the battle had tactical sense, incredible formations and effects, the frightful sense of despair and yet final defiance as Gondor prepares to go down fighting, and Grom, the battering ram. . .again WOW.
Beyond that, the entire film was superb, and like another reviewer I believe this series will eventually stand in the rankings as one of the five best movies of all time. It is, as Tolkien intended his story to be, an archetypial creation, a mythology of the West that touches something deep within our cultural heritage and memory.
If I have any other sadness, besides that sense of loss when it was finished, I just wish we could have seen, through Frodo's eyes, "The Far Western Shore. . ."
Bill Forstchen Montreat College