By Adam Rosenberg
The Third Age has officially ended and millions watch with mixed emotions as
Mithrandir, the last of the high elves, and the two greatest Hobbits that Middle
Earth has ever known sail out of the Grey Havens and pass into the west where
eternal peace awaits in the fabled land of Valinor. What all this means is that
the tale of The Lord of the Rings has reached its end and we’re
all a little diminished for it.
Peter Jackson’s theatrical adaptation of Return of the King,
the third book in J.R.R. Tolkien’s timeless Lord of the Rings
trilogy, is finally being released to DVD on May 25th. This final piece serves
to tie together the many threads that have spread through the whole of Middle
Earth over the course of the story and bid a fond farewell to the beloved characters
who have worked so hard to save the life of their world. Anyone reading this
should really have seen at least the first two films by now (or at least read
the books), so continue reading at your own risk if you haven’t.
Return of the King finds the world of Men teetering on the
brink of death as Sauron’s forces rally for an all-out offensive against
Minas Tirith, the center of the kingdom of Gondor and the last hope of mankind.
As Gandalf and Pippin race towards the White City to warn the Steward of Gondor
of the coming storm, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Merry remain with King Theoden
of Rohan as he rallies his own forces to march to Gondor’s aid. All through
this Frodo, the ring-bearer, and his ever-faithful friend Samwise Gamgee march
onwards towards Mount Doom on their ill-fated quest to destroy the One Ring.
They are guided along by Gollum, a former ring-bearer with highly questionable
motives and one hell of a sore throat. As Tolkien’s work (and Jackson’s
by association) shows time and again, help can come from the unlikeliest of
places. This theme remains central to the story all the way through to the very
end, and viewers can expect more than a few surprises from the final chapter
of this epic tale.
Peter Jackson has been called many things as a result of his work with The
Lord of the Rings, but the only one that simply cannot be argued with
is that he is a fan of his source material. This has been said time and again,
but Jackson has literally brought Middle Earth to life in a very real way. No
book-to-film adaptation has ever come as close to capturing the true spirit
of its source like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. These films
are unquestionably a labor of love and they deserve the same amount of respect
within the film world that Tolkien’s work has garnered within the literary
world.
There’s really not a whole lot that can be said of this film that hasn’t
been said of it already (or of the two that preceded it for that matter). The
story, dialogue, cinematography, editing, visual effects, sound, and more are
all flawless. The actors truly managed to bring these fictional characters to
life. This is a production that has really been allowed to blossom thanks to
the love and respect of one man who insisted it all should be just this way.
Peter Jackson deserves loads of credit for making this all happen, more perhaps
than even the Best Director Oscar has given him. Maybe being handed the King
Kong remake as his next project is an iota of that credit he deserves. Or maybe
he’s simply being marked as Hollywood’s new go-to guy for high-quality
remakes and adaptations. Here’s hoping that this experience gives him
the breathing room to pour his heart and soul into another production, an original
one with all of Hollywood’s steam behind it (unlike his initial movie
work which amounts to mostly B-grade horror flicks).
Special mention should be made of this final film’s denouement. There’s
been a lot of complaining about the length of the end and the scene after scene
detailing the last breaking of the Fellowship. People seem to forget that these
three movies comprise one overarching tale that doesn’t just need a proper
ending, it deserves one. These characters have developed a great deal over the
course of the collected nine and a half hours of film and it would both cheapen
the experience and detract from the power of the story to give them any less
than a thorough exit. The very last touch of the camera shot of the little round
door in the little green hill makes for a perfect cherry on top of this masterpiece.
The added features of this DVD, unfortunately, leave much to be desired. The
breakdown for what’s included is as follows:
-The Quest Fullfilled: A Director’s Vision. This half-hour featurette
features some all right behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with key players
in the production of the three films, but there’s not a whole of interesting
information to be gleaned from it all.
-A Filmmaker’s Journey: Making The Return of the King. It’s almost
insulting how much repeated footage there is from the “Quest Fullfilled”
documentary that precedes this one. This one also clocks in at about a half-hour,
but there’s so much repeated material it could just as easily be skipped.
-National Geographic Special: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King. This is probably the most interesting special feature included
with this set, which isn’t saying much being that it’s available
elsewhere as its own DVD. The documentary explores the connections between historical
facts and characters and events within The Return of the King. This makes for
some interesting television, though the fact that it’s been available
since December 2003 cheapens the impact of its presence.
-Featurettes (Created for lordoftherings.net). There are six featurettes included
on the DVD, also available elsewhere (this time, on the website). They clock
in at a couple of minutes apiece and provide some interesting facts about their
sources. In the end, they cause the same problem that most of the added features
from this set suffer from, which is redundancy. It would have been nice to see
some more completely new and original behind the scenes material here.
-Original Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots. This is a very complete section
within the special features area. The question is, who really wants to watch
10+ commercials for this movie when they can just watch the movie itself? It
just seems like these are here to needlessly fill up space.
-The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Supertrailer. Okay, this one
is kind of cool. It’s a six-minute trailer with footage from all three
films edited together. It doesn’t really amount to much more than an ad
for the trilogy as a whole, but it’s kind of cool to see all of that footage
edited together in one place.
-A Special Look at Electronic Arts The Lord of the Rings Series
of Video Games. Here’s another fairly insulting feature, a documentary
that essentially amounts to a marketing device. As if sales of the video games
for these movies weren’t good enough (EA did do a great job with the games),
they probably figured that The Return of the King theatrical DVD release would
be the perfect place to plug them some more.
What does all this amount to? Well, buying this DVD set ensures that you have
this great film as it was originally released in the theaters. The special features
are no more than superficial additions to make the whole release seem cooler,
but it’s really just a DVD movie packaged with an extra disc loaded with
nonsense (and redundant nonsense at that). Get this for the masterpiece that
is Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King. The extended
edition (due out in November) will assuredly have some better behind the scenes
material than what’s featured here, not to mention the extra lord-only-knows
how much footage added to the film itself. This release is a different entity
meant for a different audience. Fans of the films will need this; fans of the
books can probably just wait for the extended edition to see the movie as it
ought to be. Fans of the books AND the movies… well, it’s pretty
tough to resist buying this now, isn’t it? Don’t resist… this
is a phenomenal piece of cinema and if you love the books and the movies, you
already understand that the extended editions are a completely different entity.
Put the special features included in this set out of your heads and just get
the thing. You won’t regret it.
DVD Film Score: A+
DVD Special Features Score: C-
Overall Score: B
