Re: The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King Oscars
Major Rowley
Globally, the film is one of the highest grossing films in cinema history. The film won 11 Academy Awards at the 2004 Oscar ceremony including Best Picture, sharing the world record for most academy awards received with Ben-Hur and Titanic, and also was the first fantasy film to win Best Picture.
The first two films were The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, although the third film's story includes later events in the section of the book The Two Towers as well as most of The Return of the King. Like the two previous films, The Return of the King was a major box office success, grossing over $1.119 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Middle-earth film out of all six and was the second highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release (behind Titanic). It was also the highest grossing movie of 2003 and for New Line Cinema as a whole. The movie even became the highest grossing movie for New Line's parent company Time Warner until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 in 2011. The film is the third Middle-earth film adaptation to be released and the sixth and final film chronologically.
Andy Serkis appears as Smagol before his degradation into Gollum. This scene was actually held over from the previous film because it was felt that it would have a greater emotional impact if audiences had already seen what the Ring's influence had done to Smagol. In his degraded state Gollum is played in the movies by a CGI character whose movements are derived from a motion-capture suit worn by Serkis, and sometimes from footage of Serkis interacting with the other actors and then digitally replaced by Gollum.
The city of Minas Tirith, glimpsed briefly in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is seen in all its glory. The filmmakers have taken great care to base the city closely upon Tolkien's description in the book. Close-ups of the city are represented by sets and long shots by a large and highly-detailed model, often populated by CGI characters.
The film contains key scenes that occurred in the middle portion of the novel The Lord of the Rings but were not included in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. These include the scene where the monstrous Shelob attacks Frodo and is wounded by Sam, who comes to his aid.
Other key events include the Siege of Gondor; the re-forging of the shards of Narsil into Aragorn's new sword Andril; Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas' journey through the Paths of the Dead; the epic Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the charge of the Mmakil; Merry and owyn's role in the defeat of the Lord of the Nazgl; the destruction of the One Ring; the final fall of Sauron; Aragorn's assumption of the throne and the departure of several heroes to the Undying Lands.
The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is highly unusual, being the only movie series whose separate installments were written simultaneously and shot all at once, so that it could be considered three parts of a single very long film. This ensured that all three movies were consistent in terms of story, acting, effects and direction.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King picks up the story from the end of The Two Towers. The film begins with a flashback sequence where we discover how the character Gollum (Smagol) first came across the One Ring. Before becoming Gollum he was a hobbit-like creature known as Smagol. He is shown fishing with his cousin Dagol who, after being pulled in to the water by a large fish, discovers the One Ring in the river Anduin. Smagol demands that Dagol give him the Ring for his birthday, but Dagol refuses. This leads to Smagol violently strangling him to death and stealing the One Ring. After killing his cousin, Smagol escapes to the Misty Mountains and slowly mutates into the creature known as Gollum. As this sequence ends, we see Frodo, Sam and Gollum approaching the mountains of Mordor with Mount Doom in view. Gollum is still leading them and Sam continues to have bad feelings on where Gollum will lead them to. Frodo, however, has full trust in the creature.
Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, King Thoden, Gamling and omer arrive at a ruined Isengard, which has been flooded out by the nearby Isen river. There, they meet with the Hobbits Merry and Pippin, who are eating and sitting "on a field of victory". The Ent Treebeard tells the group that Isengard has been taken over by the Ents, and that Saruman is imprisoned inside the Tower of Orthanc.
At the foot of Orthanc they confront the traitorous wizard who stands atop of his tower. Saruman says to King Thoden that they could be allies once more, but Thoden explains that they shall both have peace when Rohan avenges all the people killed at the Westfold and Helm's Deep by executing Saruman on a gibbet. Saruman mentions to Gandalf that Frodo is heading towards immediate doom and that Aragorn will never be crowned King of Gondor. He reveals to the others the palantr which he kept in secret, and knows all the ways of the enemy. Then, they are informed by Saruman that Sauron is readying his forces for a final strike. Gandalf makes an offer with Saruman to come down from his tower and be spared, but Saruman attacks him with a ball of fire instead. Luckily, the Wizard survives and he shatters Saruman's staff, thus casting him out of the order of wizards. Before Saruman can give them more information, Grma appears. Thoden says that Grma is freed of Saruman, and that he can surrender and be a Man of Rohan as he once was. Grma happily bows to Thoden; however, Saruman insults the Rohirrim and claims that Grma will never be free and slaps him to the floor. In his anger, Wormtongue attacks Saruman, fatally stabbing him in the back. Legolas quickly fires an arrow into Grma, killing him, but he is too late to save Saruman, who plummets from Orthanc's top and is impaled on a watermill.
Treebeard informs the group that the Ents will return to fill up Isengard as they once did. As the watermill spins and Saruman is submerged below the water, he drops the palantr from his sleeve. Pippin sights the palantr in the water and jumps down from Aragorn's horse to get it. Upon finding the palantr beneath the water, Pippin is told to give it to Gandalf, and he does so, but Gandalf is unsure in the hobbit, and knows that he may be up to something.
Meanwhile, Arwen is travelling with a company of Elves, including Figwit (credited as "Elf Escort") toward the Grey Havens. On the journey, she has a vision of Eldarion, her future son by Aragorn, which convinces her to turn back to Rivendell. There, she urges her father Elrond to reforge Narsil, the sword of Elendil, so that it may be given to Aragorn. Elrond is resistant, until he realizes that Arwen is becoming mortal. He is told by Arwen that this is her choice, and that there is no ship that can take her away now.
Meanwhile, as Gandalf says this, Frodo, Sam and Gollum move toward the evil city of Minas Morgul on their journey. Gollum then leads them to some stairs spanning up a huge cliff face in the Mountains of Shadow. Suddenly, the power of Minas Morgul draws the Ring close to it and Frodo goes with it. Gollum and Sam quickly move to pull him away, but as they do, a pillar of green fire rises from Minas Morgul and shoots up into the night sky.
Frodo, Sam and Gollum begin to climb toward the high pass of Cirith Ungol. As they do this, Sam suddenly grabs Gollum, warning him not to do anything to Frodo, and if he does, Gollum will be gone. Sam then continues to climb with Frodo, and Gollum looks up at him with an evil grin. At Minas Tirith, Gandalf realizes that the Mordor army is on the move. He quickly has Pippin climb up to the signal beacon located high above Minas Tirith and light it.
At the ruined city of Osgiliath, the Rangers here, led by the young captain of Gondor, Faramir, prepare their weaponry. Faramir is told that the Orcs are lying low across the river, scouts were sent to Cair Andros to give early warning in case the Orcs were to attack from the north. Secretly, on the river, the Orcs are making their move on large rafts. Among them, one hideously deformed Orc, Gothmog, is in immediate command. Gothmog orders his Orc troops to be quiet whilst they approach Osgiliath, in a surprise attack on the garrison.
As the Orcs draw closer towards the city, one soldier notices them approaching, and Gothmog quickly orders his demise. Then, an Orc archer kills the soldier and Faramir is called to the scene, where he instantly realizes that they are about to be attacked and Orcs are not attacking from the north. Then, Faramir quickly leads a heroic defence of the city, having all his men guard each side of the river bank, but the Orcs draw closer and Gothmog orders his troops to draw their swords and prepare to invade the city.
Faramir waits for the attack, his sword drawn, as the Orc rafts hit the shore and the Orcs inside them run into Osgiliath. Faramir then nods to his men that the time is right, and he charges into the invading Orcs, his Rangers and men of the garrison following. The Orcs start attacking the garrison, and, as more rafts hit the bank, a huge battle ensues. Soon, the Orcs lower a ramp on the bridge and swarm into the city. The garrison experience a very early success, but are soon overwhelmed and overrun by the Orcs.
Meanwhile, Pippin climbs up to the Minas Tirith signal beacon high above the city and quietly sets it alight and sneaks away, as the Gondorian soldiers there stand up in confusion as the beacon lights in a large ball of flames. On one of the city walls, Gandalf goes to view the other beacons lighting up along the White Mountains. However, Denethor looks unhappily at the events through the throne room window. Gandalf knows that hope has come to Gondor.
As the Rohirrim gather, Thoden takes one last look up at the banner of Rohan, knowing that this will be the last battle he shall ride to. Gathering up, omer bids the men of Rohan to fulfil the oaths they had taken and ride for Lord and land. It is then that, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Thoden, owyn, omer and even Merry leave Edoras for Dunharrow.
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