Arwen (Liv Tyler) pines for her beloved Arragorn in The Return of the King. IT IS easy to get lost in the sheer cinematic beauty of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fortunately, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers acclimatise us to the wonder so we can revel in the other elements that make all three movies great.
The Return of the King is a wonderful film. There is the striking architecture of the white stone buildings that make up Minas Tirith. New Zealand's often stark and sometimes green beauty continues to be unveiled. The action is gripping and the plot engaging. But by now all that is expected.
This time around, if one chooses, one can become more involved with the characters, most of whom have been developed so well there is much to become involved in. In The Return of the King relationships take equal precedence with the epic battle scenes.
Since the opening of the first film of the trilogy, whether director Peter Jackson remained true to Tolkein's vision has been questioned. The Return of the King finally answers that question. He has.
In The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the size of the hobbits and their frequent helplessness was quite obvious with Frodo doing very little but stare pathetically in The Two Towers. However, in The Return of the King the four hobbits are finally in their rightful place at the centre of the tale.
The Return of the King means a more than just the King returning home. Arragorn (Viggo Mortensen) must now shed his guise as a ranger and step into the role of King. For the first time he is truly in command.
The changes in Gandalf (Ian McKellen) are also fascinating. He has long shed his wizard's hat and his true power revealed from the moment he shouted "You Shall Not Pass!" to the Balrog.
In The Return of The King we see more than Gandalf the wizard. We see Gandalf the manipulator, Gandalf the commander and fighter. Though Gandalf was engaged in battle in the previous chapters of the trilogy, his skills in battle were not as obvious, nor was his ability to lead an army. In The Return of the King his true might is unleashed.
FASCINATING DEVELOPMENT
However, it is the development of Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Austin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Smeagol/Gollum (Andy Serkis) that is most fascinating.
Frodo spends so much time struggling under the power of the ring, especially because its power is not physically manifested, it is easy to become annoyed with him. You want him to succeed, but he is a little much to take, especially when his friendship with Sam is tested. His suggested frailty is almost paradoxical to the rampant heroism of most of the other characters. Sam, because of his dedication to Frodo, easily finds his way into our hearts. More than just a "fat hobbit", by the film's climax Sam shows that he possesses the stuff of which heroes are made, though he never sees himself as one.
The dirty, tired but determined Sam, whom we see scaling the rocky side of Mount Doom, is a very far cry from the quivering mass that Gandalf caught eavesdropping at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Merry and Pippin began equally light-hearted, but Pippin soon shows himself to be more playful. When the fellowship was created, his quip that men of intelligence were needed on this "quest, mission,...thing" quickly singled him out as not quite the sharpest knife in the drawer. You cannot help but agree with Gandalf everytime he calls him "Fool of a Took". Pippin maintains a childlike enthusiasm that even Merry had abandoned during The Two Towers.
So, it is in The Return of The King that Pippin realises that it is not a grand adventure which he happened upon one day while stealing carrots. He finally begins to see the serious nature of the quest, and it is an intriguing transition.
Smeagol's dual personality quickly elevates him as one of the most interesting characters to leap from The Lord of the Rings. In The Two Towers he graduates from the shining eyes we see in The Fellowship of the Ring and becomes a cinematic feat. However, at the heart of him is a villainy which is gradually revealed.
Of great importance is that The Return of the King allows you to see how Smeagol moved from a Stoor (a hobbit-like creature) to the grotesque mangling of limbs and desperate eyes that is Gollum.
Nothing much has changed with Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) but they are a very integral and welcome part of the story.
Eowyn (Miranda Otto) finally legitimises her presence in The Return of the King. In the final stages she steps up from merely pining for the affection of Arragorn, becoming a hero in her own right.
The interactions between the characters are allowed to blend in between the lengthy battles, which though wonderful, would be quite tiresome by themselves. It all winds down to a very satisfactory, though equally very lengthy, ending which attempts to tie-up all the loose ends.
At the end of it all The Lord of the Rings was a wonderful journey, there and back again.
