the lord of the rings: the two towers

review by rob gonsalves

director
Peter Jackson

screenwriters
Peter Jackson
Philippa Boyens
Fran Walsh
based on the novel by
J.R.R. Tolkien

producers
Peter Jackson
Barrie M. Osborne
Fran Walsh

cinematographer
Andrew Lesnie

music
Howard Shore

editors
Annie Collins
Jamie Selkirk

cast

Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins)
Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)
Sean Astin (Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee)
Orlando Bloom (Legolas)
Bernard Hill (King Theoden)
Miranda Otto (Eowyn)
Karl Urban (Eomer)
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)
Billy Boyd (Pippin)
Dominic Monaghan (Merry)
Liv Tyler (Arwen)
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)
Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
John Noble (Denethor)
David Wenham (Faramir)
Andy Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol)
Thomas Robins (Deagol)

mpaa rating: PG-13
running time: 200m
u.s. release: December 17, 2002
video availability: VHS - DVD
official site

other peter jackson films
reviewed on this website:

- the frighteners
- king kong
the lord of the rings:
- the fellowship of the ring
- the two towers
- the return of the king

see also:

- peter jackson: the films
(overview of his work,
with brief reviews of each movie)

Last December, summing up my experiences to date in Middle-earth, I wrote that the first Lord of the Rings installment (The Fellowship of the Ring) had interested and entertained me, and The Two Towers had hooked me. The final chapter, I'm afraid, has lost me. The Return of the King is far from a turkey -- for what it is, it's as exquisitely crafted as its predecessors. Peter Jackson deserves respect and recognition (from the Academy or otherwise) just for having mounted this formidable project. But I suppose the problem, for me, in this finale must go back to the old wizard himself, J.R.R. Tolkien. This road goes ever on and on, and Tolkien liked it that way. Jackson, straining for fidelity, dramatizes a lot of stuff that feels like padding.

What can you say about an epic in which the biggest conflagrations, we're repeatedly told, are just distractions to keep the eye of Sauron off of a hobbit? You may say, Wow, some distractions -- Jackson rounds up what looks like millions of combatants, on foot or astride horses or elephant-like beasts or winged nasties (sorry, I don't care enough to look up the critters' actual names), bashing each other for the better part of 90 minutes (with a good amount of cross-cutting to less testosteronal happenings). It's safe to say the big screen hasn't seen gigantism on this level since the glory days of Fritz Lang (who had to gather his masses without the aid of computers). But there's just too damn much of it, as there's too much of most everything else here. A lot of it is just hacking and slashing on a mammoth scale, which is still just hacking and slashing. If you're happy with that sort of thing, ROTK has a ton of that sort of thing.

While all that's going on, the weary hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Samwise (Sean Astin), accompanied by the duplicitous and conflicted Gollum (voice and modeling by Andy Serkis, who also plays the pre-Gollumized hobbit Smeagol in a prologue), trek up the hazardous face of Mount Doom, where they must dispose of the One Ring. Poor Samwise must fend off the ring-greedy Gollum while looking after Master Frodo; very little doubt is allowed to cloud his pure, stainless love for the frail ringbearer. Do we ever feel they'll give up or be defeated? Is this the final three hours of a nine-hour cycle? Quest narratives like this are too predetermined to fool you for even a moment. The whole gargantuan thing is meant to test the fortitude of the heroes, the weakness of the villains, and the bladders of the audience.

Back in the fray, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) gets some supernatural warriors on his side with some fancy rhetoric and, mostly, his comically long (Jackson pans up the blade in priapic awe), newly reforged sword that proves he's the top dog. Merry (Dominic Monaghan) sneaks into battle with Eowyn (Miranda Otto), while his buddy Pippin (Billy Boyd) hangs out with Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and discusses the meaning of death. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) has exactly one crowd-pleasing moment, when he takes down one of those elephant things, but otherwise recedes into the background, a cipher firing arrows. The only actor who moved me was John Noble (who looks like a dissipated Terry Gilliam) as the mad Denethor, who has already lost one son (Boromir, in the first film) in battle and now thinks he has lost the other. Noble's performance pushes against the heroic constraints of the epic; he's allowed to be flawed, mad, human.

After much warfare (during which even the thrill of seeing men plucked up or batted aside, complete with their horses, by giant adversaries loses its novelty) and much pain and anguish on the path up Mount Doom, the journey reaches its end. The movie, however, continues forward for another twenty minutes or so, with reunions and marriage and tearful farewells and, for all we know, in the eventual extended edition on DVD, a dance number or two. The Return of the King reminded me why I got bored with Dungeons & Dragons after about age fourteen. When all was said and done, I was ready to re-enter the real world, go home to my DVD player, and pop in something raw, gritty, and short.