The Lord of the Rings review
In all ages, there are lots of artworks like books, animations and movies states friendship, antiwar and obligation. For example, The Lord of the Rings(2001-2003) is comprised of three live action fantasy films and directed by Peter Jackson. This trilogy includes The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). Recently I came to see these serious of films because this trilogy are released again in Chinese cinemas. After spending my two weekends watching them, I was so obsessed with this fantasy world and each of characters have the strong have their own personality. This review will first indicated how the film show the three main themes of Pacifism, friendship and obligation.
Pacifism is one of the main elements because it permeated from beginning to end in this trilogy. The background of this film is the Dark Lord Sauron created a master ring to control all people. Some of people find the ring can become a weapon to control the war, but the protagonist Frodo and his teams want to destroy the ring because people has no ability to use the ring, otherwise the world will become worse. In the film, mountains of dead bodies, the destroyed villages and the conditions are full of smokes shown completely to the audiences. The horrors of war are explored through in the screen. Although some of characters are highly militant, the author does not glamorize war. Because the characters in the film were fighting for their lands and people and does not for revenge or gain the interests(Spencer, 2015) As a result, the theory of this film is justice and the purpose of the wars is to against the enemies and get peaceful world. In my point of view, the film help people to understand the essence of war and it is corrupt and horrible and they feel indebted as if it were received in person. The Lord of the Rings wants to tell us “only justified can over the violence”.
Moreover, one of elements can be an important theme in the film is friendship. The relationship of Sam and Frodo helps develop further progresses of story. Sam is willing to devote his life to Frodo in order to help him to destroy the ring. They help each other to travelled dangerous landscapes and avoid enemies. Every time when Frodo lost his mind because of the ring, Sam helps to get him back and took him walk on the right way. Not only Sam and Frodo, there are also many friendships between each of characters. Although some of them has some unpleasantnesses before, they renewed their friendship after experiencing different kinds of wars. The director Peter Jackson said (2004), “ I really hope that those four(the actors) would bond because one it would make with15 months go a lot quicker if everybody was friendly and got it got along would also for the film I knew having the hobbits sort of feeling like they really were connecting was something that was important for the movie.” As a result, the friendship in the film will be more real and true. The audiences feel the characters have lived together for a long time and can easily to feel the characters’ feelings for the further story.
Responsibility is also an elements in these trilogy because there are lots of character can prove this personality. For example, when powerful people realized one of them need to destroy the ring and it will full of risk, they caused a quarrel because nobody wants to carry this mission. But Frodo used his little body and said he wants to go. And in the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, he wanted to carry the ring by himself because the power of the ring is too easy to entice his team. These actions show him brave enough and respectable because he depends his willpower to finish tasks. In addition, Boromir is the son of prince regent in Gondor. He does not have strong mind to against the temptation of the ring and made mistakes. But he still choose to save others and devoted himself and in the last he was still thinking about his people and land. According to Beebout(2018), “His failure is no different from our own, and he proves that even the greatest treacheries can be redeemed and forgiven.” I like this character not only because he struggled between good and evil to show the value of human nature, but also he still have his responsibilities to take actions.
In fact, there are also many characters can be explored in more details. This trilogy inspires me a lot and I really like the whole processes in the films. I also found some videos about behind the scenes of the film. I am respect for each of staffs and they tried their best to use the technology in that time. I can see their efforts and hard-working into this film. Also, the soundtrack really touched me that it’s worth listening again and again. If I have the chance to join the work in the film, I want to learn from them and create a nice artwork.
Citation:
Spencer, Kayla, “The Anti-War Adoption of Lord of the Rings” (2015). 4610 English: Individual Authors: J.R.R. Tolkien. 9. https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_4610jrrt/9
Szeredi, A(2019) The Fellowship of The Cast. 3 November 2019. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvW3N0mXV24
Beebout, Kayla (2018) “”Few Have Gained Such a Victory:” A Defense of Boromir in The Lord of the Rings,” Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 7.