To be honest, I had head of somebody back in 2000 trying to make all 3 of J.R.R.Tolkien Lord of the rings books, into a movie. All I remember was my collective "Ho-hum" about it. Even after seeing the previews for months on TV and at the movies, I did not even bother to see the film during the opening weekend. When I saw these #'s on the opening weekend, $66,114,741 (USA) (23 December 2001) (3,359 Screens). I could not believe that these were correct numbers for a 3 hour film.
I had vaguely read all 3 books back in my high school days and I had somewhat of an idea about what was going on in the film. So I decided my next off day from work I would go see the film. I ended up seeing the film twice that day. I could not believe what I had just seen and I wanted to see it again asap.
This was the start of me actually wanting to read more about Tolkien and to soon get these so-called special edition DVD's that I was hearing about for all 3 of thee movies. For a quick plot summary on all 3 of the films please click here
So as 2002 was moving along I, like many other, were eagerly awaiting any spoiler information on the next film that was coming out. When the 4 DVD extended set of #1 went on sale, I purchased it and went home to watch all 4 of the dvd's.
Then soon it was December 2002 and it was time to join the other fans at one of the many midnight showing of the "Two Towers". By the time the film was over, all I wanted to go was go home take a quick nap and see it 2 more times the very next day. In 2003, I did the exact thing with ROTK, go see midnight film, nap, go see the film two more times the next day. I think I saw the last part 6 times total at the movie theater.
In my DVD collection, I have all 3 of the movies and i want all of them to be released on Blu-ray, so I can see these films in glorious Hi-Def.
Now, as for being a huge fan of the book, to this day, it is still a bore for me to try and read these books. Its style just never really works for me. So when Peter Jackson announced all of the small changes from the book to the movie. It never really bothered me. If it made the film work then I was all for it. If you are a huge fan of these books then the films have left out people and events such as Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire.
The idea of this film is very simple, take a ring into a mountain and drop the ring into a lava fire. Now it sounds very simple, but it isn't and that's what I loved about these 3 films. I really had no idea what was coming next and you had better be ready for what comes next at you.
For the longest time I could not understand the ending with Frodo. I could never understand why he was acting lost. Then while watching the Extended Version of ROTK, I saw a part that explained that Tolkien has fought in the first World War, then Frodo finally made scenes to me.
Frodo had returned from the war but the war was still with Frodo. When he states that his wound has never really healed. To me, Tolkien was talking about the lost men from WW1 who never were really home and suffered the rest of their lives because of what they had seen and done in the war. When I rewatched the film after learning this, Frodo becomes more of an empty person to me. He did all that was asked of him and a whole lot more, but now that the war was over, he had not found love nor joy. I always thought that Gandalf knew this and blamed himself for it.
My best advice for this film is to take a Saturday or Sunday off and watch all 3 of the extended version back to back. This way you will be able to see it as one huge complete film instead of the 3 smaller ones.
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