Lord of the Rings

You shall not pass!!! They were the very words blasted by the world iconic character known as Gandalf the Grey (Ian Mckellen) and written by the very late John Ronal Reuel Tolkien. Lord of the Rings is one film that took the earth by storm not only with its trilogy, but also by means which inspired the film, which is the books. Along side both of these aspects there was also the huge amount of merchandise. But the biggest impact was made by the film. On rare occasion films can be made to be better than its book and in my opinion, the films have achieved this. The films were created over the space of four years back to back by New Zealand's Peter Jackson. Whilst Peter was in deep trouble as no production studio would help to financially support him with his project, he was on the brink of giving up. But then a silver lining appeared. New Line Cinema offered themselves, but the book had to be split down into three films instead of one. Peter set up a studio in New Zealand where the film was based and was also supported by New Zealand's Weta Workshop. He found a cast and crew and started his project.


Now the films story itself was truly incredible, only created so that Tolkien could use his created language, embarrassing fantasy writers around the world. The films creatures and settings were created by artist Alan Lee representing not only quality and the story itself but true beauty and symmetry. Although his work was amazing, they were based off Tolkiens original drawings, just that there were some aspects of middle earth that Tolkien didn't have time to create physically, so Alan had to improvise. 


The original scores were created by Howard Shore. Such scores each represented certain elements and locations and situations such as 'Concerning Hobbits' represented the the much relaxed shire and its simple care-free life. Whilst 'The Prophecy' represents the back story, the story itself, mystery and suspense. And others like 'Pelennor Fields and 'The Bridge or Kazad-Dum' represent adventure, war and its location. The scores all represented a perfect atmosphere in front of the big screen and made you feel you were right there with them in Middle-Earth. Orchestra's give more of a sense of creation and serenity, which takes great amounts of effort and dedication. Without the orchestra, the film would not be the same.

Now the costume and make up were astonishing. As whilst you watch the film you think all of the bad guys (orcs) nearly, are in SFX and CGI but no, they are all made up of costumes and make up. The detail that was put into such masks, costumes and make up were exquisite and fascinating making these creatures seem lifelike as if they actually do exist. But the creatures are actually terrifying with make up that represented blood, sweat and other gore and their costumes which resembled the true terror that was the orc and troll and uruk-hai etc. Now when it comes to the good side, the costumes and make up represented elegance, strength, dexterity and authority. Igniting the pragmatical feeling within. 


On that note, the SFX and CGI was sensational. Whether it was the simulation of thousands of horses at once and the mumikil or the army of the dead to Gollum. Gollum is the biggest cinematic achievement in CGI in history, inspiring those all over the world. The detail of Gollum was overwhelming, with such detail, it would have seemed that Peter Jackson and his team actually created a real life human from nothing (which is why Peter is God). The factor of war came to life and lit up the room with such amazing special effects.




Now concluding this article I must say the Lord of the Rings is one film that will live in the heart of cinema forever, being the trilogy that achieved in total 17 oscars, with the third installment winning every award it was nominated for, winning 11 (which is the largest amount of winning in history joint with Titanic and Ben-Hur) and also bring the genre Fantasy back to life, filling not only kids hearts but adults hearts with goblins and elves once again. It is olso one book in the libary that will never get old.