The Return of the King of Cinemas
Thoughts on The Lord of the Rings returning to theaters
Mae govannen friends,
This past weekend I (and many of you, I suspect!) got to see The Lord of the Rings on the big screen.
Perhaps it was your first time seeing them in theaters. Maybe you, like me, were seeing them once again in cinemas after first seeing them when they were first released over twenty years ago. Or something in-between.
I was only able to see The Fellowship of the Ring this weekend, but I’m planning on seeing The Two Towers on June 23rd (can’t wait!) and I caught The Return of the King when it was in theaters April 2023.
Over twenty years later and—like Bilbo between the events of The Hobbit and the start of The Lord of the Rings—The Fellowship of the Ring hasn't aged a day. Though I certainly have!
Fellowship is a magnificent film that feels at once like being transported to a far-off, magical realm and also like coming back home to the familiar and to the cozy. There and Back Again all at once, you might say. Loved seeing it again as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen.
I’ve been thinking about the film and the experience all week: I found myself noticing small details I’d never picked up on before, emotional at encountering familiar musical motifs or poignant scenes, and appreciating the film for the marvel of filmmaking that it is all over again.
The entire Moria sequence, for example, just works on every conceivable level. The music, the action, the character moments, the final showdown at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm and Gandalf’s sacrifice…this is cinema. And you could say the same about nearly every other sequence of the film!
Having just rewatched The Hobbit trilogy recently, I also appreciated all the references to the events and characters of Bilbo’s prior adventure on a deeper level. But I also was reminded of the stark difference between the final product of that trilogy and this one.
Love Mingled with Grief
One scene in particular that jumped out to me on this rewatch was the Fellowship first encountering Galadriel and Celeborn in Lothlórien. In the extended edition of this scene, Galadriel has some additional lines.
To Gimli, she says "Do not let the great emptiness of Khazad-dûm fill your heart, Gimli, son of Glóin."
After a pause, she continues: “For the world has grown full of peril. And in all lands, love is now mingled with grief."
She then looks to Boromir, who cannot meet her gaze without looking away and weeping.1
Here in Jackson’s Fellowship, this line about love mingled with grief is used to emphasize the danger and peril of the world, especially with the immediate cut to Boromir, who is an ever growing peril to Frodo and the Company’s quest. But not so in its original form.
Originally spoken by the elven warrior Haldir to Merry, the full line is not simply a warning about the growing danger and sorrow of the world. Instead, it is a call to persist and continue living in spite of these factors.
“I have never been out of my own land before,” says Merry to Haldir when discussing travelling in Middle-earth. “And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don’t think I should have had the heart to leave it.”
“Not even to see fair Lothlórien?” said Haldir. “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”2
Haldir acknowledges that yes, the world is perilous and dark at times. But do not give up on the thought of experiencing it! There is much that is still fair as well! And yes, love is mingled with grief. But do not let that keep you from loving. Perhaps this mingling has actually led to there being more love or deeper love!
I suppose I appreciate the use of some of Tolkien’s language in the film here in this scene, but I’m not sure how I feel about only half of it being used and only the first, more negative part of the message being conveyed with it.
I’m planning to revisit the theatrical versions of these films soon, as it’s been so long since I’ve actually seen them that it’s often hard for me to remember sometimes whether a scene is added or extended. Even these lines I had to do some double-checking to make sure they were only in the extended edition!
The Temptation of the Ring
More than any other previous viewing, this time I noticed the pull exerted by the Ring in this film on not just Frodo, Boromir, and Galadriel, but also on Gandalf and Aragorn. Both of them are offered the Ring by Frodo and both give clear indications that they at least do consider (or have previously considered) the temptation. But wisdom and strength of character led them through these temptations.
I won’t say too much more on this subject now, as I’m still pondering these scenes and anticipate that this topic topic (including why Jackson and company made a mistake with Faramir in this department) will be what this month’s Extended Edition Essay will explore!
Halflings of My Own
Finally, I couldn’t help but notice throughout the film just how much the size and physicality of the Hobbits reminded me of my own two boys. At age 4 and 2, they are currently Hobbit-sized (Tolkien describes Hobbits as between two and four feet tall) and many of the interactions between Bilbo and Gandalf or the hobbits and the rest of the Fellowship reminded me of my daily interaction with my own halflings.
This was especially on my mind when a chastened Bilbo runs to Gandalf and hugs him after Gandalf seems to grow taller and more menacing as he rebukes him for not trusting him and giving the Ring to Frodo.
Fellowship
All in all, the experience was immensely enjoyable and left me with both familiar comforts and new insights. Like other great art, each encounter with these films and this story leaves us with something new, often because it is we who have changed and bring new experiences and questions with us as we sit down in the theater or on the couch for the latest viewing.
I am already looking forward to my next journey into these far distant and yet intimately familiar lands.
For Discussion
Were you able to see some or all three of these movies in theaters this past weekend? What was your experience like? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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Appendices
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had an excellent reflection on seeing these movies out of order and ending in the middle with The Two Towers.I enjoyed this article (the first in a short series) on C.S. Lewis and his thoughts on criticism of art by
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In the theatrical version, she says neither of these lines and simply looks silently at Boromir.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Illustrated By The Author (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), Book 2, Chapter VI, “Lothlórien,” 349.
I watched the three Lord of the Rings movies in theaters with my two cousins, who are only a year and three years older than me respectively, and whose dad, my uncle and my dad's twin brother, recently passed away in March. The Lord of the Rings movies are sacred to us because of our dads, who were huge fans and showed us the movies growing up, and of course, they had at one point seen them all in theaters. For us, this was our first time seeing them on the big screen, so it was very special, and we all noticed how each movie seemed even better than the last.
We had a lot of laughs watching them in theaters (the humor in the movies was all the more obvious when the entire theater laughs with you!), and we couldn't help but notice that stretched on the big screen the special effects were more noticeable (Frodo running into Mount Doom was the funniest by far). But we still thought they were absolute masterpieces, down to the last nut and acorn, and we loved the atmosphere in the theaters, where people clapped and shouted and gasped and laughed along. We thought it hilarious on the first night when people clapped after Aragorn defeated the orc that killed Boromir, either applauding the fight sequence or the character's actual victory or both, it was hard to tell.
In fact, seeing it in theaters where you can't pause the movie or be easily distracted by a phone or conversation made it all the more obvious how each scene, each line, each song, and even sometimes just a single word or gesture, felt so iconic, and how we wouldn't change any of it for the world. It seems when you rewatch a movie enough times, you learn to love every second of it. I even found myself thinking in jest "I won't part with a ssssingle second" just like Smaug with his gold. They are precious to me!
Of course, we also shed tears, especially in light of my uncle's passing, but I was still surprised how movies that I've watched countless times can still bring me to tears so easily. When Boromir was struck down, or Gandalf fell and the Elves sang a song for him, the sadness was felt poignantly. Or Gandalf's description to Merry of what happens after death, which we listened to as if he were trying to comfort us too. For me, I struggled the most watching Eowyn's uncle's death, her grief too resembling of mine.
But in the end, it was the goodbye of Gandalf and Frodo before they board the ship into the West that moved us the most, especially after the grand, epic finale that is The Return of the King. Even though I knew I would rewatch the movies many more times to come, the goodbye felt more final somehow, as if we were saying goodbye not only to Frodo and Gandalf and Middle-earth, but also to a sacred moment in time where for a brief few days, we felt my uncle's presence near us, and with the end of the films we had to let him go and return to our lives, much like Sam has to, and write the rest of the story ourselves.
And in your post Halbrand needs to be changed to Haldir. 😁