A ringing success!

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2002)

It is the rare film which is an improvement upon its original. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" has eclipsed "The Fellowship of the Ring" in sheer cinematic story-telling. Perhaps its only serious rival in this regard is "The Godfather, Part Two" [1974]. Director Peter Jackson opens "The Two Towers" boldly--without plot summary or other device and plunges us into the tale. He risks much at the outset--the fight to the death between Gandalf and the Balrog, but this ratchets up the tension from the outset, and for nearly three hours, Jackson never loses his grip. As in "The Fellowship," Jackson has taken certain liberties with Tolkien's original; I thought I would find them annoying and disturbing, but he really has done an admirable job compressing the labyrinthine complexities of Tolkien's story. After many readings of the tale, there is still no character I love more than another. The acting in "The Two Towers" impressive. Viggo Mortensen's Aragon is heroic in a brooding way. Legolas [Orlando Bloom] and Gimli [John Rhys-Davis] are less easy to cast, but both actors give their characters life and, more importantly, strength. I was deeply affected by Hugo Weaving's [Elrond] and Liv Taylor's [Arwen] discussion of her fate if she marries Aragorn. In Tolkien, I think it is obvious that the elf lord loves Arwen, but the scene in "The Two Towers" is overwhelming. The heart-breaking scene gives a human dimension to the cinematic tale that only hard-core Tolkien readers know about from reading "The Tale of Aragon and Arwen" from the Appendices following the end of the book. The violence in the film cannot be discounted and unsuitable though it may be for the very young, it is implicit in Tolkien. Use your imagination. Gollum is a wonderful creation. Jackson plays it close to Tolkien's original without its being a mere copy. The only incident which I didn't care for was Frodo's drawing his sword on Sam, but I also understood it. Tolkien could spin out his tale of Frodo's slow enslavement to the ring, but Jackson cannot. This great film's virtues are many and its flaws minor, almost irrelevant. Howard Shore has proven to be a master musician in darkening his score to underscore the action. Jackson has painted a gorgeous portrait of a most difficult theme...and he's not finished yet.