BUCKET LIST UPDATE – No. 75: Watch all the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies back-to-back

I scratched another item off my bucket list on Sunday when I watched all of the “Lord of the Rings” movies back to back.

There are three “Lord of the Rings” movies in all – “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), “The Two Towers” (2002) and “The Return of the King” (2003). “The Fellowship of the Ring” is two hours and 58 minutes long. “The Two Towers” is two hours and 59 minutes long, and “The Return of the King” is three hours and 21 minutes long. If you watch them back-to-back, as if they were one long movie, it takes nine hours and 18 minutes.

These epic fantasy films, which were directed by Peter Jackson, are based on the world-famous, masterpiece fantasy novel, “The Lord of the Rings,” by English author J.R.R. Tolkein. First published in the early 1950s, it’s the third best-selling novel of all time, having sold over 150 million copies. While “The Lord of the Rings” is a single novel, most people think of it as a trilogy since, for economic reasons, it has traditionally be published in three separate volumes, that is, “The Fellowship of the Rings,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King.” I first read “The Lord of the Rings” when I was in the eighth-grade and have re-read it several times since then. If you’ve never read it, you haven’t lived. It’s that good.

Like a lot of Tolkein fans, I can remember when there was no motion picture adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings,” and I can remember feeling that there was no way that anyone would be able to do this epic tale justice on the big screen. Thankfully, I was wrong because, while these movies do fall short of the book (as most movies do), they’re still awesome. The all-star cast included Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee and Ian McKellen.

I got the idea to watch these movies back-to-back from my friend Robert Oswalt, who is a huge Tolkein fan. Right after the DVD release of “The Return of the King,” Robert and I both lived just down the street from each other in Monroeville, Ala. and had planned to get together one Saturday to pay homage to Tolkein by watching all three movies back-to-back. For some reason or other, we had to change our plans, and we never set another date to pull this off. Robert now lives in Fort Scott, Kansas.

Watching all three “Lord of the Rings” movies back-to-back gave me a greater appreciation for the grand sweep of the tale and made me want to re-read “The Lord of the Rings.” In fact, I’ve already gone so far as to take my single-volume edition of the novel off my bookcase. It’s sitting on my desk at home as I type this, just waiting for me to begin.

In the end, I enjoyed scratching another item off my bucket list. How many of you have ever watched the “Lord of the Rings” movies? Which of the three is your personal favorite? Have you ever watched them back-to-back? Let us know in the comments section below.