All Hail The Return of the King

Well, sometimes being at home and temporarily unemployed does have its benefits, especially for us geeks who feel some weird compulsion to buy hyped-up products on the first day of their release.Well, normally I'm not the type to wait in line to buy something the day it comes out, but I do make certain exceptions. One of those exceptions occured today, when the extended edition of the final chapter in cinema's greatest achievement was released. Yes, I went out to Best Buy today and got my hands on wonderfully-packaged Return of the King: Extended Edition DVD. Now I may dive into some of the many bonus documentaries and whatnot soon, but I'll probably save the actual film until my brother is home for winter break, and we can take in the all new hour of footage as part of a multi-day Lord of the Rings marathon. And sadly, this release marks the end of a movie-going era that was the greatest event since Star Wars and one which I doubt we'll see surpassed in the near future. Why are these movies so great? Here's how I see it:

Faithfulness to the spirit of Tolkien: unlike countless other big-budget adaptations, everyone involved in these movies has an obvious love for the source material that shines though in every aspect of the trilogy. Special effects are used to great effect to bring Tolkien's visions to life, not simply to show off and drown out the more important, human characters and emotions (take note, George Lucas).

Perfect Casting: Before this trilogy, names like Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, and Liv Tyler were not thought of as cinematic heavyweights. They were the kid from Goonies, some former child actor from a lot of bad movies, and the chick from the Aerosmith video who was also the lead singer's daughter. But Peter Jackson cast these actors as part of an amazing ensemble and saw in them potential that was fully realized throughout the films. Many ensemble casts have a few great picks and a few clunkers (see X-Men), and some bank on big-name stars to draw in audiences (see Ocean's 11 / 12). But Jackson and his crew brought in classical, established, (but not marquee) actors to lend gravitas as Gandalf and Bilbo and Galadriel, and found great, reliable genre actors to round out the cast (John Rys-Davies, Hugo Weaving, and of course Christopher Lee). It was surely this casting that inspired the careful and promising casting of upcoming genre movies like Batman Begins to use quality actors (Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, etc) over over-hyped, big-name stars (George Clooney, Keanu Reeves).

A Classic Musical Score: A score really adds a lot to a great movie, and helps elevate a film to classic status. Many big-budget epics lately have not exactly had memorable scores, but LOTR is a clear exception. Howard Shore's themes are stirring soundtracks that perfectly fit the movie and really add to the timelessness and emotion of the trilogy.

Classic Themes: While the overarching themes of the films come directly from Tolkien, the movies really help remove the clutter of the books and cut to the core of their message. The themes of industry vs. nature, the power of the individual, fated love, friendship and comraderie, adventure, the corruption of power and temptation, faith, home, and good vs. evil are universal and can be enjoyed and appreciated on many levels, by men and women, young and old.

Well, that about sums it up. Sure, there are some promising, ambitious films coming out that share the potentially epic source material of LOTR (the Disney adaptation of the Narnia books, for one), but I think that this trilogy of films will serve as the benchmark by which all other adventures are judged for a long time to come. If I had to pick one favorite moment from the trilogy, it is probably in The Two Towers, when Gandalf rouses Theoden from his Grima-induced trance. The king, grotesquely aged and weakened by the spell, suddenly rises up with renewed vigor and determination, ready to lead his people to war. One of many great moments in the trilogy, but that one moment is one that stands out for me.

OTHER, RANDOM, NON RINGS-RELATED THOUGHTS:

- Damn, Veronica Mars rocked tonight. What an ending! (won't spoil it here). Please watch this show.

- Saw Rabbi Shmooley on Scarborough Country tonight, in a really absurd discussion about whether there is a "God-gene" that predisposes people to believe in God. Schmooley actually made the most sense of the panelists in his arguments, but really the topic is kinda ridiculous. One's beliefs are a result of experience and / or taught cultural values. But what about Jesus and Muhammed, who found their own forms of faith? Were they genetically predisposed to have original religious thoughts? This is a pretty crazy idea in my opinion. If genes pass down inherited traits, then how can they be responsible for original ideas or concepts? In any case, it was nice to see hear Shmooley's rants again, and he did have some excellent points about active displays of religious belief (ex: prayer, religious song should be banned in public schools) vs. passive displays (ex: nothing wrong with displaying menorahs or even nativity scenes).

- I may talk more about this in a future post, but I am sick of hearing hype about John McCain and Rudy Guliani being respected party mavericks who speak freely and from the heart. These two have done nothing but publicly kiss W's ass since the last election season began, and in these highly contentious months I've heard barely anything from either of these two that goes against the party line. Honestly, there hasn't been a truly independent and free-speaking politician in the public eye since Jesse Ventura was governor of Minnesota, and that may well be one of the reason's why he's out of politics (among other things).

- Well that's the end of Chanukah. Went by quickly, and it's still weeks before Christmas. Chag Sameach and peace out.