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My wife @helensulisbowie is away this weekend so it's just me and the lads ('the lads' meaning the last ringbearer, Frodo Baggins, and his brave companion, Samwise Gamgee).Permalink On Internet Archive
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Also using this film to test the new subwoofer a friend gave me. The cats are not pleased with the levels of bass that this gives to the Mordor scenes in the prologue.Permalink On Internet Archive
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The way Ian Holm stumbles over "one hundred and eleventh" in Bilbo's birthday speech <3Permalink On Internet Archive
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The way Frodo immediately starts packing for travel once he realises that the ring can't stay in The Shire and that Gandalf can't take it. He knows what has to be done and doesn't hesitate in doing the right but difficult thing <3Permalink On Internet Archive
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God, I love these films. They meant everything to me as a teenager. I watched the Appendices on the Extended Edition DVDs over and over. My fondest wish was to be involved in creating something as monumental as I saw these films to be.Permalink On Internet Archive
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The Saruman / Gandalf fight is perfectly shot as a fight between two powerful old men. You never forget that their bodies are frail and aged. It's how Yoda should have fought in the Star Wars prequels rather than hopping around all over.Permalink On Internet Archive
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"It comes in pints?!"Permalink On Internet Archive
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Fellowship is probably the least effects-heavy of the trilogy but I'm 90 minutes in and I've only seen one special effects shot in this movie from 2001 (19 years ago!) that doesn't stand up (a wide shot of Orcs mining Isengard).Permalink On Internet Archive
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There is a beautiful bit in the cast audio commentary for this scene (which I just paused and rewatched to confirm) where Ian McKellen talks about how he told Sean Astin that it was so important for Sam to hold Frodo's hand in this scene. It's such a wonderful detail.Permalink On Internet Archive
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What I'm getting from this viewing is how filmic this adaptation is. It feels strange to say that a 3-hour film is economical but these films use cinematic techniques to further the adaptation. The cross-cutting in the Prancing Pony, the editing in Rivendell.Permalink On Internet Archive
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The Lord of the Rings films use cinema (filmic editing and cinematography) to tell the story in a way that a lot of adaptations don't. This makes them economical as they say more with a single image than could be said with pages of text.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Don't ask me why but, for me, the scariest moment of the entire LOTR trilogy is when Galadriel goes all Dark Galadriel and gives her speech about how will love her and despair.Permalink On Internet Archive
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On to The Two Towers. I'm looking forward to this one since, despite being the worst of the trilogy (by a very slim margin), it has some of the best scenes of all the films: Sam's speech, the march of the Ents, most scenes with Gollum.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Andy Serkis deserved an Oscar. No question.Permalink On Internet Archive
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To pin the middle film of your trilogy entirely on a cutting-edge CGI and motion-capture performance that you don't know will work is an incredibly bold filmmaking choice. Just one of many in retrospect that the Lord of the Rings films made.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Hell yeah, we're making a film with a CGI main character. Hell yeah, we're splitting up the main cast for two whole films. Hell yeah, the main antagonist is incorporeal. Hell yeah, characters openly smoke something called 'weed'.Permalink On Internet Archive
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"I am on nobody's side because nobody is on my side."Permalink On Internet Archive
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I'm sorry but Gandalf the Grey >>>> Gandalf the White. Gandalf the White has the energy of a narc in a way that Gandalf the Grey does not.Permalink On Internet Archive
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If I recall correctly, this scene where Gandalf whistles for his horse and there's like 30 straight-up seconds of a resplendent white horse running towards the camera is in the theatrical release. God, what a great film.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Calling it a day at the end of Disc One of The Two Towers. Theoden and the people of Rohan are off to Helm's Deep; Frodo and Sam have been captured by Faramir. Will they be OK? Will I remember to pick up this thread? Stay tuned.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Reading about The Lord of the Rings films after I went to bed, I learned that David Bowie was up for the role of Elrond at one point and now I don't like these films anymore. Oh, what could have been. theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/29/david-bowie-auditioned-lord-of-the-rings-dominic-monaghanPermalink On Internet Archive
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Tom Bombadil as a character sucks ass and it's good he's not in the films but if anyone could have played him, it was Bowie.Permalink On Internet Archive
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"It's your Sam. Don't you know your Sam?" 😭Permalink On Internet Archive
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The Two Towers is done and, as the strains of Emilíana Torrini's Gollum's Song fade away and I enter my 21st hour of tweeting about The Lord of the Rings films, I ask you to contact UUK to resume negotiations to resolve the #UCUstrikes because some of us are clearly going mad.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Similar to the Bowie fact earlier in the thread, did you know that Björk was originally supposed to perform Gollum's Song but was unable to do so because of her pregnancy. Truly a powerhouse of cast and crew that didn't work out.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Back on my bullshit with Disc One of The Return of the King: a film that, let's not forget, won every one of the eleven Academy Awards that it was nominated for.Permalink On Internet Archive
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The Saruman death scene is a great loss in the theatrical release. Not least because of the fact that when filming it, Christopher Lee corrected Peter Jackson on how someone reacts when they're knifed in the back. Jackson didn't press Lee to elaborate on how he knew that.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Only a few minutes in and bawling at Pippin being separated from Merry 😭Permalink On Internet Archive
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The Aragorn / Arwen stuff doesn't really work. I think the filmmakers did the best they could with her without butchering the source material but Tolkien simply doesn't give them enough to work with. Arwen comes across as wet because Tolkien couldn't write women.Permalink On Internet Archive
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But it's especially bad in ROTK where Arwen joins Padme Amidala in the canon of ladies of nobility who just start dying for no discernible reason.Permalink On Internet Archive
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John Noble is terrific as Denethor. Old-school Shakespearean in a way that the role demands. He nails every scene he's in.Permalink On Internet Archive
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It's weird that it takes both Gandalf and Elrond telling Aragorn that he needs to take a different road to Minas Tirith and raise the Army of the Dead before he realises what he has to do. Why have one mentor figure when you can have two?Permalink On Internet Archive
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The ride of the Rohirrim to the army amassed before Minas Tirith is perhaps the most powerful scene in the trilogy. They know they will die, they know they can't win, and they ride to battle nonetheless. Beautifully shot.Permalink On Internet Archive
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And isn't that just the essence of The Lord of the Rings films? Keeping hope when all about you is hopeless. Doing what is right even when all seems lost.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Anyway, then there's a bit where Eowyn and Faramir fall in love because they're the only two people in the fantasy hospital and Tolkien still can't write women unless they're dying or falling in love ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Permalink On Internet Archive
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And finally we come to Mount Doom. It is astonishing to spend three films and almost 9 hours building up a single scene and then to absolutely nail the landing in that one scene so perfectly. That scene in the film is /exactly/ as I saw it when I read it. It's perfect.Permalink On Internet Archive
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At one point, they were going to have Aragorn fight a corporeal Sauron outside the Black Gate at the end. We can all agree that would have been extremely bad and made no sense. The ending belongs to Frodo and Sam. That's how it needs to be.Permalink On Internet Archive
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When this film came out, I remember people complaining that it had too many endings. Fuck that: I want more endings. Show me Legolas introducing Gimli to the forests. Show me Merry and Pippin exploring Middle-earth together.Permalink On Internet Archive
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"Well, I'm back." There are no perfect films and it's possible that you can criticise even the things you love. But I love these films to bits and they're perfect to me.Permalink On Internet Archive
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(Though it's super jarring nowadays to see Harvey Weinstein's name so soon into the credits after such a beautiful ending.)Permalink On Internet Archive
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Will I be continuing on to the horrible mess that is The Hobbit films? Absolutely not. I will be rewatching @thelindsayellis's and @whyangelinawhy's Hugo-nominated video essays critiquing The Hobbit films and how capitalism tore out any soul they might have had.On Internet Archive