Sauron, the evil tyrant who now exists only as a malevolent
spirit in the form of a great, disembodied eye that stares balefully over Mordor,
finally makes his move against Middle-Earth. Now aware of the presence of Aaragorn
(Viggo Mortensen), the true heir to the throne of Gondor, Sauron will not risk
all of Middle-Earth uniting under his rule. Hoping that a massive hammer blow
will crush his enemies, Sauron orders an assault on the enormous stronghold
known as Minas Tirith, the fabled White City of the human kingdom of Gondor.
Eventually, all the armies of both light and dark meet for a fateful battle on
the fields of Pelennor.
And what a spectacular battle it is! Huge catapults on both sides hurl immense
boulders and chunks of buildings at each other; the Ring Wraiths, having traded
their horses for flying dragons, rule the air above the battle, grabbing
unfortunate soldiers and hurling them to their doom from great heights; a fiery,
titanic battering ram named Grond bashes against the main gates of the White
City; and a row of battle elephants, all decked out with spikes and archer crews
on their backs, rumble across the plains, crushing everything in their path.
While the battle for Helm's Deep in The Two Towers was superb, the conflict of
Pelennor Fields makes that epic clash look like a lazy afternoon picnic by comparison.
The Return Of The King is an ambitious, larger-than-life tale that is very well
told. But perhaps what is most impressive is the fact that director Peter
Jackson never loses sight of his characters' personal stories. Indeed, the film
opens with a six-minute flashback that details how Gollum first encountered the
ring of power, and we come to understand him a little more, even if we still do
not condone his actions. Whatever sympathy was created for Gollum in The Two
Towers is gone here; as we witness him plot an insidious trap for Frodo (Elijah
Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), which involves a humongous, ravenous spider by the
name of Shelob. And I have to say, after seeing my fair share of giant spiders
in everything from various B-movies to Harry Potter,
that Shelob is a genuinely scary critter. A welcome surprise in "King" is when
Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's faithful friend throughout the series, is given a chance
to become a hero in his own right, and Sean Astin truly does some excellent work
in these scenes. The other Hobbits are not ignored, either. Both Merry (Dominic
Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) have their own adventures on and off the
battlefield of Pelennor. And even the fair Eowyn (Miranda Otto) shows her true
grit as she helps to battle Sauron's armies and eventually winds up taking on
the Nazgul Witch-King by herself.
The DVD that I reviewed is the standard theatrical edition of the film (which
still runs over three hours!). There are plans for a special edition DVD of
"King" to be released in December 2004. This is said to include an additional
40 minutes or so of new footage. One hopes that one of the scenes to be
reinstated will be the final showdown between the wizards Gandalf (Ian Mckellen)
and Saruman (Christopher Lee). Lee's villainous character was cut from "King"
completely, and his absence is felt; we need some closure with his storyline.
While there are no commentaries (which I assume will be on the special edition
DVD), the standard edition DVD does offer some very good "making of"
documentaries. Until the longer, and most likely definitive version of Return
Of The King is released on DVD, this "shorter" edition will more than suffice. --SF