The Thinklings

"People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy."

- G.K. Chesterton

Friday, January 18, 2008

The Crownless Shall be King Again

Posted by Jared @ 9:15 pm CST
Filed under: Movies, Just Goofin' Off

I've had the four-disc special extended edition DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King sitting, still shrink-wrapped, on my shelf ever since it was released (four years ago?). Tonight I finally opened it, and now I am finally watching it.

The wife is out of town for the weekend on a scrapbooking getaway, so it seemed like a good opportunity to indulge in four hours of nerdtertainment.

You can read my hyperbolic review of the film from the days of Thinkling yore here.

What a great flick this is. Revisiting it reminds me what utter crap all the subsequent pretenders to the fantasy film throne have been. Even the Narnia film, good though it was, seems reasonably forgettable in comparison.

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Comments on "The Crownless Shall be King Again":

1. Chestertonian Rambler - 01/19/2008 9:42 pm CST

Return of the King was, in some ways, the most dissappointing of the three.

It had moments of true sublimity, yes. But it also accelerated the "silliness" quotient unnecessarily, and (worse yet) left a LOT of plotlines unfinished. I expected this to be remedied in the extended version, but instead the extended version just stuck in a few more unnecessary (if sometimes beautiful) scenes.

And an avalanche of skulls.

WHY the avalanche of skulls?

(This is a thought that keeps me up at night.)

2. Bill - 01/20/2008 7:03 pm CST

While the movies will never replace the books for me, I thought ROTK was very, very good. A fitting end to a masterpiece of cinema.

I need to watch those again . . . :-)

3. Bill - 01/20/2008 7:06 pm CST

Also, CR, you asked "WHY the avalanche of skulls?"

At first I was confused by this, because I didn't remember an avalanche of skulls. But now I'm thinking you're referring to the catapulting of severed heads into Minas Tirith at the beginning of the battle of the Pelannor fields.

If that's what you're referring to, that was in the movie because it's in the book - Tolkien writes of the terror-tactic used by the armies of Mordor to steal the hope from the defenders on the walls: namely, catapulting the severed heads of those killed in Osgiliath into the besieged city.

If that's not the part of the movie you are referring to, let me know what avalanche you're talking about (because you've got me curious - I'm wondering if I'm forgetting something :-). Thanks!

4. Karl - 01/21/2008 1:53 pm CST

I think he's talking about the avalanche of skulls as Aragorn et al. come out of the Paths of the Dead.

ROTK was a good movie and throughout the series PJ got so much "right" that I find it hard to complain. Yet, PJ and the writers persistently reinterpreted LOTR in light of their own philosophy such that the worldview of the movie trilogy felt similar to, but at times showed itself to be fundamentally different from, Tolkien's more Christian worldview. That was frustrating, especially where it was so unnecessary. But I'm so grateful to PJ for getting so much "right" and not botching it - and allowing me space in most places to "read in" my own Christian worldview - that overall I can forgive him and love the movies for what they are.

5. The Ancient Mariner - 01/22/2008 1:02 pm CST

Jared, given your take on ROTK (with which I basically agree), this should make you happy. (It did me, though I do wonder what they're thinking of for a sequel.)

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