The Writers Take #15 LOTR PT.1
The Dwarves dug too deep, but we go deeper, unpacking the magic behind Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy and its expanded universe
There are some things in life that are good, others that are great, and some that are fantastic. But very rarely is something special. It is not often that an author brings us into a realm that is completely made of fiction, that enthralls us, that ensnares us, that lets us believe life can be something more.
This in and of itself is the rarest of rare, but to build on top of this, a filmmaker with the convictions to tell that tale the way it was meant to be told, to dare to be great, to not be shackled down by the pressures of a studio and to deliver the most compelling, the most consequential trilogy in film history.
Well then, then you have The Lord of the Rings.
If you know me, you’d know that I could write every Writers Take on The Lord of the Rings, that my personal obsession of Tolkien’s world reaches far beyond any sensible norms, but that's because the world of Middle Earth that Tolkien birthed is not sensible, it’s not normal, it breaks every norm, it follows its own path, and there is nothing that came before or after it that comes even close to it. The depth of the characters and its written history are unlike anything else you have ever experienced or will ever. But this post is not about the books, (I can hear everyone reading this with a big sigh of “thank god it won’t get that nerdy'' relief.) Fear not, that day will come. But today, we are going to dive deep into Peter Jackson’s magic, into the film’s lore. (Don’t worry Tolkienites this is just the first of many of these, have faith in the white Wizards).
So the first question that is always posed is simply “Why is it so good?” Or the better one, “Is it really that good?” For the latter, the answer is simple, delete that person from your life, but for the reasonable question, let's dive into it.
The 17 time Oscar winning series had three core things going for it:
There were no less than 5 highly seasoned London Theater legends on the cast, including Sir Ian Mckellen, Sir John Rhys-Davies and the man who James Bond was designed after, Sir Christopher Lee.
Peter Jackson convinced the studio that it made sense to film the entire 3 films at the same time. Something that had never happened before, and most likely will never happen again. A decision that was as genius as it was nuts.
And this ties to #2. They had Peter Jackson. A life long zealot of LOTR and a proficient film maker, Peter had a lot more on the line than his paycheck, he had his childhood, his personal love of the world on the line, this is what drove the series to such heights. Nothing makes this more evident than the path of funding for the films. Deadline has crafted a phenomenal piece on how special everything was that had to happen to make this a reality.
If you’d like a little spoiler before second breakfast, how about putting everything on the line with a 5 million dollar party at Sundance, READ HERE.
But this is all pretense, set up for the real “why” the intangibles that went beyond a great script and acting, impeccable prop design and set design, the real reason why could be summed up simply as, everyone who touched The Lord of the Rings, felt a responsibility to the IP. This unfortunately is not the norm in adaptations, and could not truly be said about any other adaptation other than possibly Harry Potter, and even then, I'd have trouble really comparing the works with each other.
If you went to spend the 20 minutes or so to read the Deadline article before you got this far you’d understand just how close they were to NOT finishing the movies, to the risks and the uncertainties they faced in trying to get it done, in trying to not make a heaping pile of shit. I’m looking at you Amazon. Ok fine, it was visually insane in The Rings of Power, if nothing else, as my wife so eloquently put, “if you smoke a joint and then watch it through the lens of a David Attenborough show, then it's the greatest show ever.” She’s not wrong.
But let’s get back to the old testament, the trilogy, the prophesied scripture of every fantasy nerd to ever live. I think it is also critically important to highlight the nerdism. We have skirted around this briefly here, but it cannot be overstated just how important it is, that the filmmakers, producers and actors (except a few, I’m looking at you Viggo) were avid fans.
Christopher Lee is on record talking about how it was a role of a lifetime, and he was literally an MI6 Agent. Viggo Mortenson took the role because his son demanded it. These tidbits are felt throughout the film trilogy in the way each and every scene was executed, none more than the scene of Saruman’s death.
When filming this in The Two Towers, Peter (Jackson) was looking for a specific sound, movement from Christopher Lee, and after several attempts to capture what Jackson wanted without avail, he paused the filming and went up to Christopher and asked simply, “why are you not sounding like how I’ve been describing for this death.” Christopher Lee simply responded with “Because that's not how one sounds when they are dying.” A profound response that Peter knew to be true and a reference to his time in MI6. It is moments like this that make The Lord of the Rings so special. Winning 17 Oscars, and being nominated for 30 is no joke, both are records for a franchise and are unlikely to ever be broken or frankly even close to being broken.
Another masterful aspect of the filming is the innovative and revolutionary techniques of perspective filming. Naturally we all understand that Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and others were not actually 3 feet tall. They achieved this with perspective filming, an idea that had never been done at such scale before. A great piece on how this was achieved was written by Screen Rant and can be READ HERE.
When we go deeper into The Lord of the Rings next time,I want to dive into how Andy Sirkis prepared for and accomplished the Gollum voice. How Peter Jackson chose to make several bold moves like making Sauron only an Eye and introducing a feme fatale like Arwin. Both departures from the source materials.
We will also dive into the lore building, the depth of Tolkien's world and why when people say things like “Game Of Thrones is just as good” it's a laughable and hilarious statement to make. But I couldn’t do the first of many ultra nerd posts getting too nerdy, I have to lull you all into a false sense of security, into a comfort of mainstream relatable points before we start arguing over the validity of the Palantír’s or the outrage of Morgoth. For now, we will stay focused on the human story, and how a small town film maker was able to bring generations of fans a magic that could endure.
Keep Writing and Stay Curious my friends.
For Frodo.
Matthew.
Herø Projects, Gungnir, and other musings…
I wanted to take a moment during our intermission here to shamelessly and directly promote my two companies. Gungnir Entertainment, a genre-focused publishing company with best-selling titles from yours truly hitting shelves nationwide this Fall. With books focused on classic sci-fi ideas like “What does it mean to be human” and “is the bible right?” “Adventures throughout the stars” are just a few of the prompts for the books you can dive into with Gungnir. Gungnir’s website will launch this summer, and you can stay up to date on the forthcoming titles on my Instagram, @matthewmedney, or at my author page on Simon & Schuster.
And then there is Herø Projects. The Perennial leader in custom comics and animated services, Herø is a state-of-the-art creative studio that has worked with talents such as Floyd Mayweather, Shaggy, Nghtmre, and brands such as Remi Martin, Live Nation, and Rolling Loud. If Branding through storytelling isn’t your thing you can check out our original titles, the Onyx line with books such as Stable, Remnant, and Best Selling Comic The Red. To learn more about Herø Projects visit us at heroprojects.io