A tremendous trilogy

So a couple of weeks ago, I did a Lord of the Rings movie marathon with a couple of my friends. I had never watched them before then (cardinal sin, I know), and I went in, not sure what to expect. If I had to put it in words, I think I was expecting movies that were good, but perhaps forgettable. I had heard about the movies before, so I knew it wouldn’t be a complete letdown.

What I got, however, was completely different. Instead, I spent 13 hours and a bit watching what were possibly the best three movies I have ever seen.

When I first finished the movies, I wasn’t too wowed by it. But by the time I had got in the cab and was just thinking about the movies, I was absolutely gobsmacked. Three weeks later, I’m still as amazed at how well they made the movies. From the schizophrenic treachery of Andy Serkis as Gollum to the noble honor of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn to the slowly-deteriorating sanity of  Elijah Wood as Frodo, all the acting is stellar. The camera work is also incredibly good, and even in the first movie, you lose count of the number of breathtaking panoramas they show. The soundtrack manages to stand on the fine line between sticking in your head and not irritating the hell out of you, and brings a tear to even the most hardened metalhead.

But that’s not really why those movies are so amazing. It’s because they endure.  I haven’t watched even a minute of the movies since then, but I still feel disgusted when I think of the indifference with which Denethor treats Faramir. I still feel despair when  I think of how Gollum throws away Sam and Frodo’s elven bread. I still feel touched when I think of Sam making the single greatest monologue ever at the end of the battle of Ozgiliath, and I still fell relief when I think of  Frodo collapsing on the sides of Mount Doom after dropping the ring into the cracks of death.

‘The return of the king’ won all the Oscars it was nominated for (all eleven of them), and it deserved it. All three movies did.