Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King

Alas, the last film and that alone is enough to make it poignant. What to say about the stunning CGI that hasn't already been said. Perhaps only that I believed all I saw. Again all the actors took their characters and went deeper. John Noble was a convincingly crazed Denethor, whose character became more three-dimensional in the extended DVD. David Wenham made Faramir a melancholic figure. Once again the music by Howard Shore moved me to tears many times.

I may be committing an act of heresay if I say that, for me, the battle of Pelennor Fields, as amazing as it was, did not move me as Helm's Deep had done. Perhaps to was too big to involve. Again it was the charge of the Rohan riders that moved me to tears, as they brought the sun in with them.

There was no way you could get more moving scenes than those with Frodo and Sam on Mt. Doom and the destruction of the Black Gate and armies of Orcs was just overwhelming, again the music fitted the action to perfection. I have to say that the depiction of The Grey Havens was not as I had envisaged it, far too bright and I found myself wracking my brains to think of the artists who had inspired the final moments. It had to be Turner and Claude. I found myself moved but not as I had been at other moments.

All three films became something better when viewed on the extended editions. For me it wasn't always about progressing the story but building the characters and making them fuller and more real. Return of the King deserved it's 11 Oscars, but each film deserved them also. These films are landmarks in film making and will always be remembered as such. They are perhaps the 'Gone With the Wind' of their times.

If these films have done one positive thing for me and others I know, it is to get us back into the cinema to watch movies that have benefited from the SFX advances and risks taken with the parameters of film making. So for us SF/Fantasy buffs we know the importance of this genre in addressing life issues, now the rest of the world does too!

If you would like to add a comment or a review of your own, send me an e-mail at shimmerxx@yahoo.com