Any of you fellow Tolkien fanatics out there who haven't yet seen the final
film in the trilogy, be sure to bring some tissue. One person wrote on the
'net that as a man, he's never cried in a movie theater until he saw "The
Return of the King", where he burst into tears on several occasions.

Having seen it yesterday, I must say that if this doesn't win Oscars for
"Best Picture", "Best Director", and a slew of other Oscars, I personally
will be boycotting the Academy forever. It's clear to me that Sean Astin,
who plays a far more significant role in this release, and does a superb
acting job as Samwise Gange, should be one of many to be awarded "Best
Supporting Actor". There are so many superb acting performances, that "Best
Actor" and "Best Supporting Actor" could go to any of numerous actors.

Each of the three actresses with significant roles in the trilogy put in
fine performances, but the male roles so dominate the female roles in the
story that it's unlikely that any will be nominated for her role as an
actress in "The Return of the King".

And if you haven't yet purchased the extended DVD version of "The Fellowship
of the Ring" and "The Two Towers", do yourself a favor and get them - the
two extra discs in each volume show in detail all the incredible work that
went in to every aspect of these films - there has never been any cinema
production like it.

It will be worth waiting a year to get the extended version DVD of "The
Return of the King". I can already guess several points in the film which
will be fleshed out in the extended version. Meanwhile, I'll just have to
go see the short version in the theater a few more times. :-)

Jim said:

Having seen it yesterday, I must say that if this doesn't win Oscars for
"Best Picture", "Best Director", and a slew of other Oscars, I personally
will be boycotting the Academy forever.

A lot of people said that when "The Fellowship of the Ring" came out, and were
surprised when "A Beautiful Mind" won. FOTR, after all, was nominated for a
record-tying 14 awards, and ABM was only nominated for 8 or 9, so it seemed
natural that the big fantasy epic would win. It didn't. And when "The Two
Towers" came out last year, it was only nominated for 6, and was considered the
dark horse Best Picture nomination. Of course, that woefully thin, vacuous
adaptation of "Chicago" won.

But here's the happy ending. The inside word in Hollywood for more than a year
has been that if "The Return of the King" doesn't turn out to be a complete
piece of ****, a la the Matrix sequels, it will win Best Picture as an
acknowledgement for the monumental achievement of the trilogy as a whole, which
I think is a classy move. And, of course, it turns out that ROTK is the best of
the three, so it WILL win Best Picture for 2003.

Oh, and in a perfect world, Bill Murray will win Best Actor for "Lost in
Translation."

Boon

"Marc Phillips" wrote:

Jim said:

Having seen it yesterday, I must say that if this doesn't win Oscars for
"Best Picture", "Best Director", and a slew of other Oscars, I personally
will be boycotting the Academy forever.

A lot of people said that when "The Fellowship of the Ring" came out, and
were
surprised when "A Beautiful Mind" won. FOTR, after all, was nominated for
a
record-tying 14 awards, and ABM was only nominated for 8 or 9, so it
seemed
natural that the big fantasy epic would win. It didn't. And when "The
Two
Towers" came out last year, it was only nominated for 6, and was
considered the
dark horse Best Picture nomination. Of course, that woefully thin,
vacuous
adaptation of "Chicago" won.

But here's the happy ending. The inside word in Hollywood for more than a
year
has been that if "The Return of the King" doesn't turn out to be a
complete
piece of ****, a la the Matrix sequels, it will win Best Picture as an
acknowledgement for the monumental achievement of the trilogy as a whole,
which
I think is a classy move. And, of course, it turns out that ROTK is the
best of
the three, so it WILL win Best Picture for 2003.

Oh, and in a perfect world, Bill Murray will win Best Actor for "Lost in
Translation."

A thoughtful reflection, with which I wholeheartedly agree (except I haven't
seen Bill Murry in "Lost in Translation" yet, so I can't comment on that).
ROTK is undoubtedly a "slam dunk" for "Best Picture" (it will surely break
all box-office records, as it is indeed the best of the trilogy), but if
Peter Jackson doesn't win "Best Director" I'll still boycott the Academy -
his work on the trilogy is monumental - he brought together a vision and an
enormous crew that accomplished to perfection numerous technical feats never
before imagined, much less tried, in the history of film, and his choice of
actors and actresses was uncanny - just as I imagined them 27 years ago when
I read the trilogy for the first time.

An interesting bit of trivia: a New Zealand director will soon be filming in
New Zealand and using the Weta Workshop (owned by Peter Jackson) to begin
translating to the silver screen "The Chronicles of Narnia", written by C.S.
Lewis, a personal friend and colleague of J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford for many
years. Lewis' fantasy was inspired by Tolkien's " The Hobbit", and
Tolkien's early work on "The Fellowship of the Ring". They both served in
World War I. Were it not for C. S. Lewis' influence and persuasion, Tolkien
may never have finished the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

If this keeps up, New Zealand may someday supplant Hollywood as the cinema
capital of the world. :-)

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 08:20:08 GMT, "Sandman"
wrote:

If this keeps up, New Zealand may someday supplant Hollywood as the cinema
capital of the world. :-)

Now there's a nice thought!

*Return of the King* is breathtaking, and all three films taken
together are IMO the best thing to happen in cinema for a long, long
time--and probably a long time to come.

I'm going to see ROTK again today. I saw it on release day and haven't
been able to get it from my mind.

The extended versions of the previous two films have improved
dramatically on the theatrical versions (I wasn't in love with the
theatrical release of *The Two Towers*, but the extended cut gave a
much better feel for the newly introduced characters). I think ROTK
stands to gain most from that fleshing out process.

--
td

surprised when "A Beautiful Mind" won. FOTR, after all, was nominated for
a

I balled a few times watching that one... It deserved best picture. This
doesn't suprise me at all. IMHO I think it was one of the greatest films of
all time. It is in my top 10 for sure. LOTR is a great set of pictures,
phenomenal, but the first two can't measure up to the emotional caliber of A
Beautiful Mind. This is what wins academy awards for best picture, not
simply good actors, action, vistas, and special effects. Russel Crowe is the
man... but that isn't what won.

Emotional caliber is the most important aspect of a critically viable film,
along with great acting, a great script, and great camera work. No tears, no
BP.

Thus far, no science fiction/fantasy film has ever captured that caliber of
intense emotion, LOTR has come close with the first 2 films, maybe the third
will be over the edge.