'The Return of the King' was a fitting end to Tolkein adaptation

Just a few days ago, I made further progress in my project to watch all of the Academy Award winners for Best Picture, in order, when I re-watched the 2003 winner, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”

Many of you will remember this epic fantasy adventure, which was the third and final installment in director Peter Jackson’s motion picture adaptation of author J.R.R. Tolkein’s famous trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.” The first two movies, which took their titles from the first two books in the trilogy, were “The Fellowship of the Rings” and “The Two Towers.”

To say that “The Return of the King” was a blockbuster, would be selling it short. In addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, it won 10 other Oscars, including Academy Awards for Best Directing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Song, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Make-up, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing. The movie also received a number of Golden Globe awards.

Many of you will remember “The Return of the King” because of its all-star cast of actors, who teamed up in all three movies to bring Tolkein’s masterpiece to the big screen. (All three of the LOTR movies were shot simultaneously in New Zealand.) Big name actors that appeared in the films included Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett.

“The Return of the King” was also an enormous financial success. Its shooting budget topped $94 million, but eventual gross revenues amounted to over $1.1 billion. That’s right, “billion” with a “B.”

I enjoyed this movie because I can remember the days when fans of Tolkein’s epic trilogy, myself included, moaned and groaned because the books had never been adapted into a live action movie. Most of us felt that, given the scope and grandeur of the books, that such a feat would have been impossible. Jackson, excuse me, Sir Peter Jackson, proved us all wrong, and his movies based on the trilogy can be called nothing less than a home run. I honestly don’t know how the movies could have been any better, and they certainly did justice to the books.

Those of you who enjoyed Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy will be pleased to hear that a motion picture adaptation of Tolkein’s 1937 book “The Hobbit” is underway with filming scheduled to begin next month. Jackson is set to direct this adaptation, which will be split into two movies. From what I’ve read, the first of the two “Hobbit” movies won’t like be released until late 2012.

In the end, I thought “The Return of the King” was awesome, and I would encourage anyone in the reading audience to not only watch this movie but to also read Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of books. It will take some time to finish all three books, but it will be time well spent, and you will not be disappointed.

How many of you have seen “The Return of the King”? What did you think about it? What did you like? What did you dislike? Let us know in the comments section below.