I.A.M. Musing About…

Yes, this is about all of them in one post. Honestly, the best way to approach the thing is as a single whole. They’re not like the original Star Wars trilogy which had various themes and strengths, this story is one long tale of conflict with a single goal at its core. Thus, it’s a very long story which happens to be in three parts.

But let’s have a quick look at those three parts, shall we? None of them are particularly short. In fact, depending on where you’ve seen them, they might be particularly long indeed. The cinema versions are the ‘slimmest’ (if you can use that term to describe them), but have a look at these running times for each of them, depending on the instalment.

	The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)	The Two Towers (2002)	The Return of the King (2003)
Cinema	2:58	2:59	3:21
DVD	+ 30 min	+ 44 min	+ 50 min
Blu-Ray	+ 20 min	+ 12 min	+ 12 min
TOTAL	3:48	3:55	4:23

So, the end result of that is, should you wish to watch the Blu-Ray edition of all three films, you’re setting yourself the task of viewing 726 minutes of film, or just over twelve hours of your life, and this isn’t allowing anything for bathroom, food, or exercise breaks. Additionally, there are documentaries and extras on the discs which could possibly add another eight or more hours of viewing. If you were to consider this as a job assignment to be accomplished in one block of time, fully one third of the task would be considered “time and a half” according to most labour codes. Additionally, you’d only be half-way through the second film when a meal break would be legally required. Some expectant mothers have gone through entire birth processes in less time than this.

Lord knows how, but I may be the last male of my age-group to see the complete trilogy. I saw the first in the theatres, then the second one but probably either nodded off or was in some mental state which occupied my attention through much of the story. Certainly only about one third of the second film seemed familiar to me. The third film I knew coming in that I’d not seen a second of it. As a result of that. I made a point of trying to watch them all as close as possible to each other, and ended-up devouring them over the course of an evening and the next afternoon and evening. Don’t ask me what the weather was like that week-end as I’ve obviously not a clue.

The original pitch by director Peter Jackson was for the books to be made into two films. Yes, just two. How he proposed that I’ve no idea. Even without the numbers above, I cannot conceive of a way to tell the stories in the three quite massive volumes in only two parts. Even with the DVD versions which I watched, everything seems absolutely necessary to the development of both the plot and the characters. Had I taken the time to carefully examine the original novels, construct graphs and maps showing the various plot-lines and characters’ travels, then cross-reference with copies of the screenplays, and only then worked my way through the films – stopping occasionally to re-adjust things on my documentation – it’s possible that the bits which could have been missed from Peter Jackson’s version could have been identified, as well as bits he left in which I could have done without. Granted, had I done that, I would be a massive anorak of epic proportions at the end.

Having grown up surrounded by Tolkien calendars and copies of all the books (although I am ashamed I’ve not read them), plus having had The Hobbit read to me as a bed-time story, followed by about half of the first book in the trilogy (when I began having nightmares featuring men on horseback with glowing eyes, we stopped), the visualisations were stunningly beautiful, and nearly exactly as imagined. The fact that several of the best-known Tolkien artists were included in the design team ensured this, making both Helm’s Deep and Argonath – the monument comprising two enormous pillars carved in the likenesses of Isildur and Anárion, standing upon either side of the River Anduin at the northern approach to Nen Hithoel – surely duplicates of paintings which were reproduced in the calendars that fascinated me as a youth.

The thing is a stunning achievement, not only due to the scale of the story itself, but the fact that it’s not a gigantic muddle by the end. Every detail is there, clearly, and understandably. Not once do you feel “why do we need to hear about this?” nor are you ever confused about “which one of the little people is this one?” the combined efforts of wardrobe, set, and effects designers have made everything work in one cohesive whole, and it’s testament to what can be accomplished by disparate groups of people all concentrating on a common goal.

Granted, there is a bit of a massive plot hole in the series, and one which the original editor ought to have pointed out to Tolkien prior to publication, and long before all that foreign language material was created.

One has to admit, this would save a great deal of time.

"The Lord of the Rings" Trilogy:
The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Two Towers (2002)
The Return of the King (2003)
New Line Cinema presents
a Wingnut Films production
licensed by The Saul Zaentz Company (DBA: "Tolkien Enterprises")

Directed by
Peter Jackson

Writing credits
J.R.R. Tolkien (original novels)
screenplay by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
& Stephen Sinclair (The Two Towers only)

This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.

The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-making process with the people involved.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 at 1:07 pm and is filed under movies, Personal, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.