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| Elijah
Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean,
Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard
Hill, Miranda Otto, Brad Dourif, Liv Tyler, Billy Boyd,
Dominic Monaghan |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Pippin (Billy Boyd): Is there any
hope, Gandalf, for Frodo and Sam?
Gandalf (Ian McKellen): There never was much hope. Just a fool's hope.
The former Fellowship of the Ring
prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth, while Frodo and
Sam approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring..
 And
so, after the unique two-year period it took for the second and
third installments of this uniquely produced trilogy to reach
movie theater screens, Peter Jackson's epic Tolkien adaptation
is finally complete. It has been showered with accolades and rewards,
making this the first time in movie history that the third part
of any film trilogy is generally considered to be the best of the
bunch.
And not without good reason. Like the first two parts of The
Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King may hardly
be flawless, but it's as good a film adaptation as any Tolkien
reader could imagine by any stretch of the imagination. The book
is so packed with background, history and events, that even at
a good nine-and-a-half hours the theatrical cut of the trilogy
at times feels too breathlessly condensed, while some extended
action sequences verge on the hysterical.
 The
same thing goes for The Return of the King. Although the conclusion
is a longer film than either of the preceding parts, several story
elements are glossed over or left hanging. Denethor's madness, for
instance, is motivated by nothing but the death of Boromir, while he
utters dialogue ('I know more than you suspect') that points towards
the far more convincing reason from the book. Also, the Witch King's
confrontation with Gandalf is announced ('I will deal with the White
Wizard') but never occurs. Hopefully, omissions and problematic elisions
such as these will be addressed in the extended cut that will appear
in December.
But the few minor flaws stand in no comparison to the achievement here,
which offers the kind of spectacle rooted in character and narrative
that is rarely seen in contemporary blockbuster cinema. As tired as
audiences have become by now of huge, computer-generated army hordes,
Jackson rarely relies solely on the sheer scale of his special effects.
Instead, the film builds on imaginative staging of the action sequences,
with
a strong focus on the main characters' perspective within them.
Finally, by remaining true (almost to the letter) of the book's final
passages, Jackson thankfully doesn't go the much-reviled way of Return
of the Jedi by ending the saga with a big Hobbit party. |
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Identical
two-disc Special Editions are now available for Region 1 and Region
2. The release carries the theatrical cut
of the film
on the first disc and a variety of featurettes, trailers
and other extras
on disc 2. A four-disc set with a longer cut of the film spread across
the first two discs and other extras on discs three and
four will street
internationally in December 2004.
As with the previous two
parts in the trilogy, the anamorphic widescreen image is
framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
2.35:1. And again, like the previous two parts, The
Return of the King again benefits from advances in
mastering technology, and delivers a transfer as good as
anything we've seen on DVD so far. Any worries about fitting
such a long movie along with two audio mixes onto a single
dual-layer disc quickly prove to be unfounded, as this release
delivers the absolute best video experience on the medium
so far. Not a hint of grain, not a trace of edge enhancement,
and never a sign of compression artifacting ever shows up
on the screen.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX sound mix is as good as the previous ones, creating
a rich, enveloping sound field both highly detailed and beautifully
mixed. It will probably be bested yet again by the DTS audio that
is set to appear on the multi-disc version scheduled for the winter,
but for a Dolby Digital audio mix, this one's hard to beat.
 As
with the previous two-disc versions, the second platter is
reserved for various promotional materials of rather limited
value to collectors already spoiled by the previous four-disc
sets. An entertaining half-hour featurette 'A
Filmmaker's Journey' includes some pleasant interviews, bits
of behind-the-scenes
footage
and of course generous samplings from the film, along with
hagiographic narration. The similarly titled (and themed)
'The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision' runs a little
shorter at 22 minutes and focuses more exclusively on Peter
Jackson's role as director, with plenty of gushing interviews
with cast and crew members. A more tiresome inclusion is
the 45-minute National Geographic 'Behind the Movie' special
that draws parallels both tiresome and contrived between
events and characters from the film and historical events,
seeking to answer the inanae question what it is about Tolkien's
story that appeals to so many readers by finding portraits
and legends that bear a superficial resemblence to moments
from the film.
Completists will be pleased to learn that all six web
featurettes have been included, each running between
two and three minutes (though most others won't care). Also
here are both theatrical trailers, no fewer
than fourteen TV spots, a seven-minute 'suptertrailer' for
all three films (in case you feel like watching The Lord
of the Rings in less than ten minutes), and a promo for
the computer game based on the film.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: June
28, 2004
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Click here
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