The Return of the King (2003) Review

Hello, dear reader. How are you this fine summer afternoon? I hope you’re in the mood to hear opinions about The Return of the King, since that is what I am here to provide. If you missed my reviews of Fellowship and The Two Towers, check ’em out at the links provided. I shall launch into this review with no further preamble other than to warn once again that this post will be stuffed to the brim with spoilers.

Starting the movie off by showing us Gollum’s backstory was a Choice. I’m not inherently opposed. I understand that they wanted some way to kick things off with a bang, and they sure did.

…I don’t know that we needed the close-up of him biting the raw fish, though. That was a little gross.

I like that we kept the cute banter-y meet-up of Merry and Pippin with Aragorn and Gimli and Legolas. And since I watched the extended version this time, I got to see Saruman’s death scene. (I’ve heard that Christopher Lee was not pleased that the scene was cut from the theatrical release, and I can understand why. He’s a pretty important character, and without this last scene he just fizzles out of the story.) The scene was fairly well-done, though as I mentioned in passing in my last post, I don’t think the full import and effect of his golden voice and his power of persuasion was gotten across.

However, I really liked Wormtongue’s part in the scene. I thought his acting and characterization were quite well-done and properly nuanced, and since they cut the Scouring of the Shire, it makes sense to have the Saruman and Wormtongue denouement happen here.

Legolas and Gimli’s drinking game at the fun Rohirrim-shindig felt tonally out-of-place to me. I think a recurring problem is that Peter Jackson wants humor in the movies, but his sense of humor is not at all the same as Tolkien’s sense of humor, so he cuts out Tolkien’s funny things and adds his own funny things..but since my sense of humor is closer to Tolkien’s, I sometimes find Peter Jackson’s funny things just dumb.

Aragorn and Eowyn’s dynamic is portrayed much better in ROTK. We still see Eowyn’s admiration for Aragorn, obviously, but on Aragorn’s part we get a much better sense of his reluctance to do or say anything which would lead her to think that he cared for her, alongside his sympathy for her and his wish that she’d be happy. I don’t know what was up with that interchange between Eowyn and Theoden which made it seem like Theoden thought Aragorn/Eowyn was a confirmed thing, though. While Aragorn was too chummy with Eowyn in TT, he never said anything which would justify an onlooker in thinking they were betrothed or anything. Did Theoden just automatically assume that anyone Eowyn liked would be happy to marry her? (That would honestly be kind of a cute dad-figure thing if that were the case.)

As aforementioned, I didn’t mind seeing Gollum’s backstory at the beginning, but I don’t think we needed to flashback to it again as Slinker and Stinker are arguing. And ugh, it’s so frustrating when Sam overhears Gollum plotting and then Frodo comes in and thinks Sam is just being a jerk to Gollum. I know that they’re deliberately creating a dynamic of Gollum driving a wedge between Sam and Frodo, but I don’t LIKE it. I think it brings down Frodo as a character. We can easily believe that Frodo would lash out against Sam in brief moments where the Ring was taking possession of him, but Frodo would not consistently doubt Sam and his intentions. Their friendship and trust in each other is too strong for that – too strong for the Ring, or Gollum (or some unwholesome combination of the two), to so easily corrupt. I wish the movies showed us that.

The scene of Pippin looking into the palantir struck me as Rather Odd. For one thing, it doesn’t make any sense that he decided to look into it while sitting there right in the middle of everybody, where Gandalf or anyone could wake up any moment and see what he was doing. It also doesn’t make any sense that Merry was there watching the whole thing, just awkwardly making frightened remarks as his best friend was literally writhing on the floor screaming.

But what made the least sense to me was the decision to put the scene into slow motion. Some scenes may be enhanced by slow-mo, but this one just looked incredibly goofy.

And also…why did it take everybody in the tent so long to wake up, with the ruckus those two were making? Gandalf sleeps like a log, and that’s a fact.

Then we have the made-up scene with Arwen seeing a vision of her and Aragorn’s child and rushing back from the ships to return to Rivendell. This whole sub-plot doesn’t really make sense to me either, for two reasons:

1) Why was Elrond able to convince Arwen that she shouldn’t marry Aragorn just because he was going to die? This shouldn’t have been news. Arwen knew from day one that Aragorn was a man and she was an elf; if she did not choose mortality, of course he would die and she wouldn’t. And I fail to see how leaving the love of your life and never seeing him again, knowing that he’s going to die without you, is in any way preferable to marrying the love of your life and spending years together before he dies with you at his side.

2) Why was it this big “wAiT a minute!!” moment when she saw the vision showing her that if she married Aragorn they would have a child? Surely she already knew it was quite likely they’d have children if they got married, and knew that if she left him and went to Valinor those children would never be born?

I get that they wanted Arwen to have more screen time, but I think they should have thought of a better use for her than to just have her deliberate over whether or not she should marry the wonderful man she was in love with and who she knew loved her too. I don’t think it’s a question that needed a lot of thought. (I guess they now have it be her prerogative that the Sword that was Broken was re-forged, so that was something actually constructive that they gave her to do.)

And now we’re at Minas Tirith! And I’m happy, because I love Minas Tirith!

Although the sets tend to be quite good, I was a little apprehensive about the Minas Tirith set, because it’s a favorite Middle Earth place of mine and I have a pretty specific image of it in my mind. But while their set (naturally enough) doesn’t look exactly like my mental image – the overall look of everything is smoother and less jagged in my mind – it’s actually fairly close, and it’s beautiful in any case, so I was pleased.

Gandalf’s little lecture to Pippin before bringing him in to see Denethor was genuinely funny. I enjoyed that.

…and then we meet Denethor.

Denethor’s characterization may well be the one which bothers me the most. At least characters which bother me like Legolas or Gimli are exaggerated from traits their original characters do have, and Faramir’s character is at least somewhat fixed in this film, but Denethor’s character is just utterly…butchered. He’s such an interesting character in the books, one of my favorite ‘antagonist’ characters. He’s not wholly a villain. In fact, you could argue that he ‘s a classic tragic character. He has let his pride – for his position, and perhaps even more for his city – corrupt him, and putting his trust so exclusively in that eventually leads him to despair, but he is a wise, admirable leader in many ways. He doesn’t spare himself just because he is in a position of power, he is eager for his city and his people to be protected – and is more aware than most of them of just how great the danger they face is – and he does, at the end of the day, deeply love both his sons, even Faramir whom he doesn’t understand.

He’s also supposed to have an immense amount of gravitas. Pippin is literally reminded of Aragorn when he first sees him. Pippin sees a likeness between him and GANDALF. Let me just quote this bit from the book: “Denethor looked indeed much more like a great wizard than Gandalf did, more kingly, beautiful, and powerful; and older. Yet by a sense other than sight Pippin perceived that Gandalf had the greater power and the deeper wisdom, and a majesty that was veiled. And he was older, far older.” Gandalf is greater than Denethor in every way because of course he is, but that is still a LOT of gravitas.

And here we get a rude greasy-haired slob with appalling table manners.

I’M MAD, GUYS.

On a more pleasant note, it’s around this point that I really start to like Pippin. Minas Tirith is where Pippin gets his maturation and character growth in the books, and they keep that same dynamic here in the movies. And it works really really well. I think it goes to show that my issues with Pippin before this could have been fixed by better scripting, since I think Billy Boyd is great as Pippin from here on out.

The fighting at Osgiliath just plain went on too long for me. There are a couple rather large battles that have to happen in this segment of the story…I don’t think we need to be adding more. (Well, it’s not adding it per se, since it did happen in the book, but we didn’t see it in the book, and I don’t think we needed to see it.)

I didn’t like Pippin lighting the beacons. Denethor is not a dumbo. He knows the city is in peril and that they need help all the help they can get; there should be no need to sneak around behind his back to light the beacons. There’s no impact to his giving up in despair later in the story if that’s just the way he is the whole time! (I think I should just use this emoji 😤 every time I talk about movie-Denethor. It’s a pretty accurate portrayal of my thoughts on him.)

And wait a minute…when Gandalf goes riding out and scares off the Nazgul who are harassing the remnant returning from Osgiliath, why is Pippin there with him? Didn’t we bundle him off to Minas Tirith precisely because the Nazgul would be looking for him? Why are we now practically dangling him in their faces?

Faramir and Pippin’s little conversation right before Pippin swears fealty to Denethor was cute.

Oof, the ‘crumbs on his jacketses’ scene…probably one of my least favorite scenes in the trilogy. They don’t just fail to portray the depth of Frodo and Sam’s friendship, they make Frodo downright cruel. “Go home, Sam”? You mean past all those orcs and Dead Marshes and everything? You know that he’s never going to survive, right? And making sure you finish your journey safely has pretty much been Sam’s driving purpose in life the past few months – you’re literally wrenching his whole sense of purpose away from him. Not to mention, how many times before this did we see Sam foregoing his own food and water to make sure Frodo got enough? Why on earth would Frodo believe he had suddenly turned around and started sneaking the food he had been voluntarily surrendering before?

For poor slandered book-Frodo’s sake, let’s all just forget this scene exists.

Gandalf’s interchange with Faramir before the latter goes off To Do Stupid Things Because Denethor Said So was good. Faramir in general is a lot better in ROTK than he was in TT, though I still don’t think he quite captures the book-character. He’s too unequivocally warm and fuzzy; I don’t think the nuances of his character, especially his strong sense of justice, and his strong desire to do what’s right no matter what, are shown fully enough.

Oh yes, then we have The Scene In Which We Find Out That Denethor Has No Table Manners. No wonder poor Pippin looks so uncomfortable. I would be too if I had to stand there watching someone eat like that. And of course this scene – showing us the dichotomy of Faramir and his troops going forward to fight against unconquerable odds which Denethor sent them to while he himself sits safe at home gorging himself – once again misses the whole point of Denethor’s character. Denethor is absolutely capable of sending men to death without a second thought, but not because he spares himself or asks more of them than he’d ask of himself! YOU JUST DON’T GET IT, GUYS. 😤

Also, while Billy Boyd has a lovely voice, the song Pippin sings is not the sort of song I’d expect Pippin to know. When did they sing that at The Green Dragon, Pippin?

Then Elrond shows up with his characteristic scowl and Isildur’s sword to tell Aragorn to go through the Paths of the Dead and that Arwen’s dying. But why is Arwen dying? Why is her life somehow tied up with the fate of the Ring? Did they give any rationale for that? I missed it if they did, and I can think of no logical explanation for it. The Ring doesn’t have that kind of direct correlation to anyone else’s well-being – why hers? She chose Middle-Earth instead of Valinor, but I don’t see how that changes anything as far as the Ring is concerned; there are plenty of other Elves who also chose to stay in Middle-Earth, and they’re not effected like that. (So our ideas for Arwen’s added screen-time in this movie are 1) have her dither about whether or not to marry the perfect guy and 2) have her randomly start dying. I feel like we could have done better.)

I really liked Eowyn and Aragorn’s conversation before he enters the Paths of the Dead; it was both written well and played well. (I do feel like Aragorn could have explained more fully why it makes sense for him to go down the Paths, but I recall feeling like that in the book too.)

The whole walking over crunching skulls bit in the Paths was A Bit Much. But of more import than that, it makes no logical sense to me that the shadow king would pretend to not be willing to honor the oath, then two minutes later be all “haha April Fools! We will fight for you after all”. There’s absolutely no reason why they wouldn’t want to honor the oath and finally be free to rest in peace, and furthermore, there’s absolutely no reason why they would dally with Aragorn and pretend not to cooperate. And there’s also no reason why approximately two million skulls should break loose from the walls and come crashing down in a skull-avalanche. This whole bit felt very contrived to 1) create more suspense when it makes no sense whatsoever and 2) gross us out when it makes no sense whatsoever.

I also don’t like that when Faramir is brought home wounded, they make it seem like Denethor is more upset that his line will die out if Faramir dies than actually grieving over his son. GIVE DENETHOR HIS DUE. 😤

And then Denethor telling his men to give up and Gandalf promptly beating him up with his staff and taking over…I don’t even know what to say, guys, beyond that this part made me laugh.

As aforementioned, I’m not much of a battle person, so I don’t feel qualified to talk about the battle that much. But I think they did a very good job of hitting home just how terrifyingly vulnerable Minas Tirith is compared to the strength of Sauron.

The part where Frodo walks into Shelob’s lair is all messed up since Sam wasn’t there like he was SUPPOSED to be, but other than that it was fine. Gross, of course, but I suppose being chased and captured by a giant spider-thingy is bound to be gross. That bit where Frodo thinks he’s free and starts slinking away, and we see Shelob silently creeping along right above him? That was good. (Well, it was a bad thing to happen, but you know what I mean.)

(Just a side note, but when Sam found the lembas that Gollum had flung over the cliff, I sure hope he took it with him. They weren’t in the position to be turning their noses up at anything remotely food-like that they came across.)

And when poor abused loyal Sam comes striding in with the phial saying “let him go, you filth” we all want to cheer. His fight with Shelob is gross (of course) and lasted rather longer than I personally thought it needed to, but Sam grieving over what he thinks is Frodo’s body afterwards is really well-done. That’s one of the emotional moments that I thought worked really really well.

I’ve already ranted enough about Denethor, so I won’t say too much about the ‘pyre of Denethor’ sequence (beyond asking why his actual death was so weird, with him running around all on fire and everything? They can’t even let the poor man die without making it as undignified as possible?). On a more positive note, though, there’s a little bit in the part leading up to it which is one of my favorite moments in the whole trilogy. As we hear Denethor despairing and saying everything is hopeless, the camera very naturally moves across to show you the White Tree – and we see one bud blooming on its dead branches. I loved that. That’s the sort of subtle storytelling stuff that I love and that I think exemplifies what LOTR should be.

Speaking of symbolism, Noddy could write you an essay on what a huge mistake it was to have the Witch King break Gandalf’s staff – you’ll notice that staffs are a big point of symbolism throughout the stories (i.e. Gandalf breaking Saruman’s staff when ‘relieving him of duty,’ as it were) and to have the Witch King be able to break Gandalf’s staff does not symbolically say anything good. Even if you don’t read into it that deeply, it’s still saying that the Witch King is stronger than Gandalf, which I don’t like.

And speaking of Noddy – I wouldn’t have noticed this and, not being a geography person, don’t really care about it too much (sorry Noddy) – but he wants me to mention the fact that when the Rohirrim finally arrive at the Pelennor Fields, they’re coming roughly from the west. The movie shows the sun rising behind them.

They do a good job once again of getting our spirits up with the arrival of the Rohirrim, then dashing them again by hitting home how hopelessly outgunned they are in every respect.

This is a small thing, but I don’t like how well they have Merry fight. They make it look like he’s just as good of a fighter as Eowyn, which I find rather unrealistic – she’s a shield-maiden of Rohan and he is a completely untrained hobbit, for goodness’ sake! It also makes the moment when Merry helps Eowyn defeat the Witch King a lot less poignant, if he’s obviously a good fighter and not just a scared, helpless little hobbit who nevertheless can’t bear to see Eowyn die completely unaided.

Right about here is my other favorite scene in the entire trilogy, which is Pippin and Gandalf’s little conversation during the battle about the afterlife and how death is only the beginning. I loved everything about this scene – the setting of it, the dignity and beauty and depth of the dialogue, the acting, the feeling of a sickening return to reality we see on Pippin’s face at the end. Why couldn’t the rest of the movies have been just like this?? THIS WAS GREAT.

Eowyn’s initial confrontation with the Witch King was good, though I don’t know how I feel about Theoden being fully conscious and aware of what was happening. I’m not inherently opposed, but I don’t feel like they really did that much with that choice.

Once she’s hacked the head off the gross winged thing and the Witch King starts fighting back, it comes across a bit to me like Eowyn doesn’t know what she’s doing. And she DOES. When she starts losing the fight, it’s supposed to be because practically no one could successfully fight against the Witch King, not because she’s an amateur.

Now, I said in my Fellowship post that I would tell you which two parts in the trilogy made me weep…and Theoden’s death was in fact one of those two parts. It’s interesting, since (though I love book-Theoden!) I really didn’t care about his movie-character much before that…but his death really hit me like none of the others did. I think a large part of the reason for that is the tragedy of the situation – I know it’s a change to have Eowyn be there at Theoden’s death instead of Merry, but I liked it in a way – and even more Miranda Otto’s acting. So many of the emotional moments feel overblown to me and therefore just don’t feel real enough to evoke emotion, but she accomplished just the right blend of real grief while keeping it subtle, so it felt very genuine and in keeping with her character. And it worked really, really well.

Unfortunately, Eomer finding Eowyn on the battlefield didn’t hit me in the same way – it was, again, very tragic situationally, and a very shocked, visceral reaction from Eomer would make sense, but the way it was done felt too over-the-top to me. (I almost feel like the picture hits harder for me than the actual scene did? You know, if they’d cut the volume and had that scene be silent, I could see that really working.)

I know that it’s an immensely long movie already, but I wish we could have taken a little more time with Eowyn and Merry healing…it just happened so quickly here.

I also wish we could have seen more of Faramir and Eowyn together, because I love their relationship. That being said, the sadly short scene we do have of them was pretty doggone cute. I approved.

The Mouth of Sauron was funny…that cheery grin, though. It’s very fun to imitate. I think it was a VERY big mistake to have Aragorn lop his head off. Yes, he was highly evil (and also super annoying), but a man of integrity does not – without any warning, I’ll point out – murder someone he’s having a parley with, and Aragorn is very much a man of integrity.

Sam and Frodo’s last exhausted leg of the journey up Mount Doom was good. Oh Sam, how we love you. And Gollum’s jump-scare reappearance was well-done, too. Oh Gollum, how we have very mixed feelings about you but ultimately really can’t hate you.

The way they had Frodo and Sam’s interchange at Mount Doom mirror Isildur and Elrond’s was pretty cool. I have mixed thoughts about Frodo and Gollum’s fight at the edge of the chasm – I kind of prefer Gollum’s death being completely due to his own fault and his own blindness caused by the Ring. (I had remembered this scene from when I watched the movies years ago as Frodo deliberately pushing Gollum in, which I would have had SERIOUS problems with story-wise, but seeing it again it seems more like they just accidentally tumbled over as they grappled.)

Also, I refuse to believe that Gollum, used to climbing all over everything like a spider for who-knows-how-long, would not be able to cling onto the edge of the rock, while Frodo, who had no such career background and had also just had his finger bitten off, would be able to.

Frodo and Sam’s little scene as everything’s falling apart around them was another one that sort of Got to me.

The reunion scene with the rest of the Fellowship was a little awkward, though. I know they were going for a Vibe with having no talking, but I think it just made the atmosphere a bit weird.

The coronation scene was beautiful and everything (plus two more seconds of Faramir and Eowyn! Yay!). And I like Arwen’s dress. It’s pretty.

The “you bow to no one” line annoys me a bit, though. Partly because everyone giving the hobbits proper respect should not preclude their giving their king proper respect, and partly because, while we love Merry and Pippin and they’ve done pretty awesome stuff, do they honestly deserve the same amount of insanely high respect that Sam and Frodo have earned? Merry helped bring down the Witch King, which was pretty cool (though Eowyn did too and no one’s excusing her from bowing), but that’s not the same thing as literally travelling through Mordor and defeating Sauron himself. In the book Frodo and Sam were clearly singled out for respect, and I think that is how it should be.

I understand how the Scouring of the Shire is one the more easily expendable parts of the story…but I still think it was important and that ideally it wouldn’t have been cut. Not only does it complete the ‘hero’s journey’ arc for the hobbits, their interactions with Saruman really show us Frodo’s character growth in particular – how he’s allowed the horrendous ordeal he’s gone through to shape him and change him into something even better than what he was. The very end of his arc is just gone when you leave out the Scouring. Also, it is a fact of life that we can’t leave our idyllic old life that we love, then come back to find it just the same as it was. That’s just not how life works, and in the book we’re given a heart-wrenching reminder of that.

…And Frodo’s departure on the ship to Valinor is the other part that made me cry, because of course it was.

ROTK was an interesting one for me, since it had both my favorite scenes in the trilogy and some of my least favorite scenes in the trilogy (and Denethor, which is a big mark against it). It’s a little frustrating that I feel like we’re given hints in this one of how absolutely fantastic this trilogy could have been – again, that one little conversation between Pippin and Gandalf captured the LOTR-y feel so perfectly to me.

The trilogy as a whole had a lot of the right ingredients, and I really appreciate and respect all the enthusiasm and dedication that went into it. That being said, I just don’t like Peter Jackson as a director. I think he’s often not great at subtlety, and probably 90% of my problems with the movies could be boiled down to that one complaint in some shape or form – whether it’s lack of subtlety in characterization, in dialogue, in throwing implausible and unnecessary tension in our faces, &c. There are things about the movies that I like, but taken as a whole they just don’t portray the beauty, the gravitas, and the depth of the LOTR of the books to me. However, I know they’ve introduced a lot of people to this magnificent story who probably wouldn’t have known it otherwise, and for that I thank them.

Whew, did you ever think you’d see the day when I actually finished this review series? Which movie in the LOTR trilogy do you like best? What are your favorite scenes? How do you agree/disagree with my opinions?