Tommy Olsen: One Ring to Rule Them All

#3 Lord of the Rings

List of Movies: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King

Why I love these movies:

Through all the groundbreaking special effects and the epic battle scenes lies one of the greatest stories of all time! The story of Frodo, the fellowship, middle earth, and the one ring is truly incredible, and also symbolic. I was in junior high when these movies came out and I enjoyed them mostly for the action and battle sequences. As I was grew up watching them (and playing the video games), I realized they were much more than that. These movies are filmed beautify and have some of the best acting in any movie. They are more than just action and war films, and more than just fantasy! These movies are magical, epic, emotional, breathtaking, and they are each true masterpieces!

What makes these movies so great is that you actually feel like you are on the journey with the characters. The intensity of each of the character’s mission is felt in some way. You can see and almost feel the pain that Frodo is experiencing as he carries the ring. You feel the frustration of Sam as he tries his very best to help Frodo bare the ring. It puts you in the front lines of the battle for middle earth. The sets, the costumes, the make up, the special effects, and especially the music, all make the experience truly grand. This film carries you away into a whole new world. These are the greatest fantasy movies ever made, and I don’t know if we will ever see something pass it up.

What I love the most though is the overall story and how symbolic it is. The ring is the one power that rules the men of middle of earth, if they allow it. The ring is enticing to all those who come in contact with it, and seek after it. It represents the evil temptations, and how when we give into temptations and let evil take over our lives we are truly destroying ourselves. The character of Gollum is the best example of someone who embraces the power of the ring. In his mind he truly thinks the ring is bringing him happiness, but what he doesn't realize is that it is slowly destroying him. The more he gives into the ring the more he becomes a slave to it, and the same goes for us as we give into our own temptations. When we continue to allow sin and temptation into our lives, we are slowly poisoning ourselves, and allowing ourselves to become slaves. Sin and temptations blind us into becoming something we never wanted to become. Watching this really showed me how important it is to focus on the good things in life, and to not let myself get caught in the temptations that are around me. These films have so many over arcing themes, but to me this was the most important message to learn.

Favorite Film: The Fellowship of the Ring

This was a very hard decision to make, each of these films are so equally matched, and they actually feel like one huge movie. This makes it very difficult to choose a favorite. But since I have picked a favorite for all the other movies I will pick one for this as well, and my favorite goes to the Fellowship. The reason I chose this one is because this was the film that introduced me to Toikens amazing world. Prior to seeing the movies I had never read the books, so this was my first exposure to them.

The Fellowship was one of the movies that really helped me to truly see films as more than just entertainment. I was in seventh grade when this film came out and at about the same time my friends and I started making our own home made movies. I know that I can speak for my friends that this film was a huge inspiration for us. Seeing this movie made me want to sit behind a camera and make an epic movies just like it. (My dream career when I was 13 was to play in the NFL for 12-15 years, and then when I was done I wanted to become a movie director and producer, talk about an awesome career!). Eventually this movie inspired my friends and I to try and create our own fantasy epic. The movie was called Azmarah (Don't ask me how we came up with that name, somehow we just did) It was about a magic rock, that had the power to annihilate the world, and we had to destroy it. Sound familiar? Yeah we pretty much plagiarized Lord of the Rings, but it’s all good, I don't think Peter Jackson felt too threatened by our movie. I'm pretty sure his movies made billions of dollars and won a few Oscars. And as far as I know Azmarah has only been viewed by a select few, which is probably a good thing. Maybe one I will be brave and post it on here.

Along with the great memories, this movie also has some of my favorite scenes out of the whole series. I love the opening prologue scene; it set the tone for the rest of the series. The scenes in Rivendell were the fellowship is formed and the ring’s destiny is determined is another great scene. Gandalf’s death scene in this film is one of the most dramatic and emotional scenes of the whole series. You really feel the sense of fear that the whole fellowship is experiencing because they just lost their wise and trusting leader. Viggo Mortensen's acting as Aragon is amazing in the aftermath of this scene because you can see his fear that he must now lead the fellowship, but at the same time he also shows his and determination to move on from this tragedy. The best part of the movie though is the last 20 minutes because it is full of action, drama, emotion, but it also provides you with a sense of hope that Frodo and the fellowship will be able to accomplish their task. These scenes are what made me love movies so much.

The next best is Return on the King. The scene where Frodo and Sam have their last confrontation with Sméagol on Mount Doom is one of the most intense scenes of any movie I have ever seen! This film brought closer in many satisfying ways. Many people complained about the long ending, but I loved how they showed the fate of each character, and that we are able to see that each of the characters are finally able to find peace, except Frodo as it shows him still suffering from the spiritual and emotion wounds of the ring. It shows that many times sacrifices must be made in order to achieve the greater good. Another great aspect of this film is the scenes with Shelob the spider. I have always hated spiders and this is one of the most terrifying creatures I have seen in any movie, and I was truly scared the first time I saw this. I appreciate when a movie can scare me, because I usually don’t get that scared in movies or T.V. (except for Unsolved Mysteries).

The next film, The Two Towers, is just as good as the other two but I guess one of them has to be last. The Helm’s Deep battle sequences is probably the best battle sequences of all the films, and as well as one of the best of any movie! Another thing I love about this movie (as well as the third one) is all the scenes with Sméagol, Frodo, and Sam. It’s the most fascinating and complex trio of characters I have ever seen in a movie. The conflict is nail-biting, and motivating at the same time. I say motivating because this is where I see the parallel of temptation the most. Sam’s speech at the end of this one is also very inspiring. Like I said in the beginning this is so hard to choose a favorite because I really do see these all as one movie. Even though I did put them in order of favorites it’s really more of a list of my favorite things from each film.

Final Rankings:

Favorite Scene:

The breaking of the Fellowship. I mentioned this scene above as one of the best parts of the first movie, but for me it is also the greatest scene of the whole series. This final scene is filled with so many great things from the epic battle with the Uruk-hai, to the heroic death of Boromir, the farewell scene between Aragon and Fordo, and the emotional act of Sam chasing down Frodo in the boat, with his steadfastness to fulfill his promise to protect his friend. It’s great stuff, and if I’m not careful it gets me a little choked up!

Favorite Quote:

Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”