~~~ One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. ~~~

Thus begins the Lord of the Rings, a fantastic tale of Good and Evil, of Love and Retribution, of Mysteries and Magic. In an earlier Post, I had talked of the existence of Alternate Worlds right beside us, but Mr. JRR Tolkien (1892 - 1973) took this concept to a whole new level with his fictional Middle Earth and its awesomm creatures. To put things into perspective, while the Tale of The Lord of the Rings takes place in the 3rd and 4th Age, we in 2005 are in the 7th Age, this is how Mr. Tolkien merges fantasy with reality.

Tolkien's Universe encompasses everything from Gods to Humans, TreeMen and Elves and all kinds of esoteric creatures, each one that much more removed from reality, but the values, the principles they expound, one ends up wishing they existed in reality, one wished they were true like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Tolkien's tomes, published in 1955, are widely recommended as a must-read for any Fantasy enthusiast, reader and author alike, and I have a strong suspicion Miss Rowling modeled Dumbledore on Gandalf the Gray, the avuncular magician of LOTR.

While the book is simply brilliant, the movie goes a step ahead with what Peter Jackson has been able to achieve with an ensemble starcast, painted on a sumptuous New Zealand proscenium touched by a straight-from-the-heart direction. Hitherto known for distinctly B-Class fare (Heavenly Creatures), Jackson had a choice between directing a King Kong sequel (He is doing that now :)), or the LOTR trilogy. Backed by the newly-fangled New Line Cinema (the outcome of the Time-Warner-AOL merger), it was a do-or-die kind of situation for almost everyone involved. With an outlay of $300 million, Jackson set out to create what only once had someone even come closer to doing in history, make three movies in a series, and make them all as good as one another (only Star Wars 4,5,6 spring to mind, even Godfather III bombed badly !).

But in defense of the other movies, inspite of all odds, Jackson had atleast three key elements going in tandem for him:

• He had a already written down, a renowned masterpiece, Trilogy in place, which meant he had that much less to do in terms of script.
• Jackson displayed a Rayesque ability to choose his actors, Elijah Wood, Mortensen, Sir McKellen, at best they can be called inspired casting, at worst it could all have gone so horribly down the drain.
• And the third, but not the least, the foresight or the freedom to shoot the three movies one after the other, whereby each of them fed on their predecessor's success and expectations.

I know linking Awards to Performance can be odious, but still, just to set a parameter to judge LOTR against, the whole franchise won a mind-boggling 17 oscars, with ROTK bagging 11 out of the 11 it had been nominated for, a record besides tying for the honor of garnering the Most oscars for a single Movie with Titanic and Ben-Hur.

Besides being brilliantly crafted and superbly acted, one of the most enchanting aspects of the Trilogy was the way Jackson started each of his movies, with a different story essential to the whole epic, in their own ways. FOTR starts with the genesis of the One Ring, TTT starts with Gandalf's encounter with the terrifying Balrog (Thou Shall not Pass !) , and the ROTK begins with the most important of them all, how My Precious degenerated Smeagol into Gollum. The starting piece grabs you right-away and the rest of the fare fiangles you into spontaneous admiration and joy at having had the experience of watching probably this greatest of Trilogies, as they come.

Jackson has been very faithful to the novel, but takes a few cinematic liberties like the romance between Aragorn and Arwen (Liv Tyler), which only enhances the magic of the movie (Ain't I thankful that Jackson chose Tyler, she is soo goddamnned beautiful afterall :)). Infact the scenes between Aragorn and Arwen remind you of the old-age romances, when love meant love and not love-making, as has come to be today's norm. You have to see it to experience it for yourself, the ethereal touch, the longing and the warmth.

And one of the best things about the movie is James Horner's (Titanic amongst others) music, its so subtle and beautiful, it never takes your attention off the movie, and yet heightens the effect par compare, and Enya's rendition of May It Be is already a timeless classic.

To sum up this chotu-sa post :P, every movie series has had one distinctive movie which has stood head and shoulders above the rest (Godfather II, Rambo - First Blood), but in this LOTR trilogy, you would find divided opinions abounding, everyone has his or her own favorite, and for amazingly different reasons (Believe me or not, even though being in the middle-of-nowhere, TTT comes out to be the favorite most number of times amongst my friends !!, and dats saying something). So, if you still havent been touched by the Magic that LOTR is, dear reader, I would implore you to go and experience Cinema at its best, before someone taunts you with, "Yeh LOTR nahin Jaanta !!".

Adios till next time,

Ranagorn :)

p.s. I am so Vella abhhi, I am working on four drafts at the same time, tell me about it :). Hence, the next post coming ASAP !

Juss for Literareur sakes, a sample of the magic that Tolkien's writing wields:

Frodo : I wish it need not have happened in my Time.

Gandalf : So, do I. and so do all those who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

A Class Apart. Enough Said.