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December 23, 2003

Return of the King

OK I finally saw it. That's the reason there were no blog entries yesterday. I'll be brief. It is definitely not a perfect flick and even if I hadn't ragged on Frodo, I have to agree with Hawkins (although not as squeamishly) that there's a bit too much hugging and loving and smush in this film.

I had been warned that I was going to leave the theatre in a sobbing pile, but it wasn't that touching. I can only get so weepy over swords and sorcery. But I must admit that the spousal unit and I have never been quite so affectionate in the theatre as we were watching all this.. this melodrama.

That said, it was an excellent entertainment and I look forward to wasting a perfectly good weekend watching all three on DVD back to back.

I felt so hurt for Samwise. I just wanted to smack the [remaining] teeth out of Gollum/Smeagol. In fact, I nearly jumped out of my seat when he finally to a rock to the noggin. There's nothing lower than a conniving traitor, except perhaps a cowardly, gluttonous father who sends his only remaining son to die out of spite. There was no shortage of truly despicable characters in this epic, and that is what makes for excellent good vs evil.

Anyway I said I'd be brief. Damnable film has already taken too much of my day. Go see it.

BTW: It must have been some time since I've been to the theatre. All the trailers were new to me. Spiderman2, Adventures of Riddick, Harry Potter 3, all looking like pretty damned good flicks. Well, Spiderman is tired, but the other two look good.

Posted by mbowen at December 23, 2003 01:45 AM

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Comments

I agree. I made a comment about the movie having underlying homoerotic content and I got the big smackdown about not understanding platonic love. Whatever. I loved the movie, though. I also got teary, not at the very end, at the "you bow to no one" scene.

I can't wait to buy the whole extended version trilogy on DVD. Dean and I will spend a weekend in for that viewing.

Just for laughs, did you read the secret diaries of LOTR?

Posted by: Rosemary Esmay at December 23, 2003 08:59 AM

Platonic love my cornhole. I cannot believe for one minute that Hobbits of all creatures don't have some goofy equivalent of noogies. I haven't seen so many soulful yearning looks since 9 1/2 Weeks.

This is where Peter whathisface director really screws up. His emotional shorthand is overloaded, especially between Frodo and Sam. Near the end of the film after they've doused the ring, Sam mentions his love for whatsherbabe Hobbit for the first time in the trilogy. I think they even found the exhausted well-we-made-it-out-of-that-scrape-did-I-tell-you-how-much-you-mean-to-me expressions run dry.

I don't think this is so much an artifact of the director's intention as perhaps the orientation (or desire to please) of the entire cast and crew. In a real way this is a love story between Frodo and Sam. They are soldiers who don't know how to be soldiers. And while it wasn't quite clear that Frodo was willing to die for Sam, at least in this episode, Sam's devotion and courage are perfect - so much so that he doubts his own value in rejection. I think if he hadn't found the breadcrumbs he would have jumped. How does that kind of love between men express itself, the LOTR guys did it the best way they knew how, and it just came off looking gay. That's called a lack of imagination.

Posted by: Cobb at December 23, 2003 09:31 AM