This was some legendary filmmaking here..! ------- Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema Be safe out there and enjoy the day!
I wont spoil it but you really have to watch the third one extended.. at least for the beginning.. i still dont get how they could cut that out.. so yeah for the first two movies, extended is mainly fanservice, but for the (beginning of the) third one it is just necessary
These movies could only happen once in the history of mankind, it is so unique (doesnt matter how many bad copies there are out there;)).. so enjoy :) As well as the entire world Tolkien created.. i dont get how anybody wouldnt do a deep dive into the lore, reading (or listening) the books and watching the making of these movies.. (dont bother with the Hobbit, except for a few scenes and good moments..) I dont even am into fantasy at all, honestly besides everything LotR, i only love The Witcher 3, nothing else really, this is just special ❤
James, I'd like to see your reaction to the "behind the scenes of LoTR" . That's something I'd get behind hear your reaction and seeing if you were right on how they did some of the things they pulled off.
The best thing was the old-school blog posting Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen were doing, during the lead up to the movie releases. I was glued to it. Such great marketing...
The behind the scenes is a saga unto itself, as enjoyable as the movies themselves. The journey, the friendships or "fellowship" that grew throughout filming, the hardships, the craftsmanship... it's so emotional.
The production team went above and beyond on these films. They created a world that truly felt lived in. These films still look incredible these 20 years later. What makes it all work was the smart filmmaking. Knowing what to film practically, when to use CGI, and using miniatures. They used every trick in the book and even made some new ones along the way. I bet in 100 years, these films will still be amazing.
The reference for the swamps is actually Tolkien's (the man who wrote the books that the movies are based on) experiences. He was a soldier in World War 1, and fought in the Somme in 1916. It was a field of mud, and as he walked through, he saw bodies under the water in the craters (millions of cannon shells had blown the farmland into something thay looked like the swamps in the movie). It stuck with him. Also, as an officer he had an assistant assigned to him (called a batman) who he loosely bases Sam off of.
"My Samwise Gamgee is indeed a reflection of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war and recognized as so far superior to myself." - JRR Tolkien
So what's up with Gandalf coming back is that he's a "special" type of entity called Maiar. Saruman is one too, as was/is Sauron. And there's a couple others. The "god" of this universe made them and put them in Middle Earth to watch over things. But limited in the powers they can use; and they can be EXTREMELY powerful, as you've seen. And they have a hierarchical structure. Saruman was the Head, but after his turn toward Sauron, and then Gandalf dying (Maiar can't actually die) "god" sent him back as the new Head, and thus allowed to use much more of his potential powers. It's certainly good to start with the "simpler" theatrical releases for those not familiar with the lore, but the extended versions certainly answer some questions. Still, a bit much for a new-to-it-all viewing. Thanks! Be well.
To elaborate and simplify terms, Maiar are Angels (and Demons, or at least the ones who followed Morgoth). They work for the Valar, who are treated as gods in much of the narrative but are clearly meant to be a higher class of Angel (one of whom, Morgoth, is a direct analog for Lucifer). The Valar serve Eru Eluvitar, who is straight up intended to be the Christian God. Tolkien, who was a devout Catholic, maintained the fiction within the text that he was merely relating a lost mythology that the people of pre-Christian England had followed, and I think he just thought too highly of his imagined storytellers to picture them as being ignorant to God as he himself understood it. Doesn't make a single page he wrote less enjoyable for non-Christian readers, though, unlike CS Lewis whose otherwise fantastic works often groan under the weight of their allegory.
In case no one has mentioned it, Treebeard is voiced by John Rhys-Davies (Gimli). In the making of videos he explains that he would inhale while speaking Treebeard's lines :-)
That speech by Sam near the end, in that darkest of moments, is one of the greatest in film history. There’s a clip of just that speech on YT, and it’s one of the things I sometimes share with friends or family when they’re having a particularly bad day.
The craziest part (and the part I love the most, as a linguist) is that Tolkien (himself a linguist) wrote these books just so the languages he created as a hobby could have a world to exist in.
YOU ARE THE FIRST PERSON I HAVE WATCHED REACTING TO LOTR THAT ACTUALLY APPRECIATED THE MUSIC WHEN THE TREES STARTED TO MARCH. THAT MUSIC GIVES ME CHILLS EVER SINGLE TIME
James, this is one of the best reactions you’ve done, good sir. You were both absolutely hilarious (“…WIFE”) and crazy insightful. Props on picking up on some of those special moments of sound design. Just wanted to say thanks for being one of the best reactors in the game. Looking forward to seeing your reaction to Return of the King!
@@JamesVSCinema you missed that when Saruman grabs the candlestick in wormtounges hand and pulls it away, he’s doing it because he’s making a bomb to take out the wall at helms deep. It’s likely some equivalent to gunpowder and he stops him because he is using an open flame to try to get a closer look at it.
Part of what you are seeing is that the screenplay was written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens, all of whom are superfans who have read the books dozens of times. Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee were also well versed in the stories and offered changes they thought merited. Then, it was kind of a happy accident that New Line, who was previously known for slasher films, gave Jackson a three film deal and a lot of creative control. Weta Workshops made great props. And they got an amazing cast. Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001. Some marketing noob at New Line didn't understand what they had and arranged a promotional tie in with Burger King for collectable (sic) glasses. There was no more of that after opening weekend.
No, it wasn't a happy accident. They got three films for the same reason that the script and the acting were so faithful - because the guys at New Line _were also Ringers._ Mark Ordesky and Barrie Osborne were also great fans of Tolkien, so they just suggested the three films as being the obvious choice. (I don't get why more people don't realize that producers and executives can also be lifelong fans.)
Weta Workshop and Weta Digital did outstanding work....the Big-atures, the Motion Capture, armor, weapons....the sets created based upon the art and design work of John Howe and Alan Lee...mind blowing.
James regarding the soundtrack... A few years ago i had the privilege of watching these 3 movies in a Theatre (3 separate days )with one of Europe's best orchestras performing the soundtrack live. It was one of the most amazing experiences i have ever had.
@Gerald H I'm kind of salty about Denis Villeneuve not getting nominated for Best Director this year. It feels like the Academy treats him the same as they do with Christopher Nolan.
@Gerald H It's not just genre films, either. Genre novels and comic books/graphic novels are routinely ignored because they aren't Literature with a capital L to snobs who refuse to see and acknowledge the merit of science fiction, high/fantasy, horror, etc. Even children's and YA lit. In my undergrad studies, even in creative writing courses, genre was looked down on by students who wanted to write - and I quote - "serious literature," not something they see as worthy and worthwhile; but honestly consider low, common art and frivolous pursuits. Imagine calling The Twilight Zone, LOTR, Watership Down, The Giver, Hitchcock, Cameron, Spielberg, Houston, and Carpenter films, Sam Spade, and similar art "low," "unimportant," and "silly." Imagine the audacity, the unmitigated gall. It's ridiculous
@Gerald H I don't know who started it, but I wish they would've kept their pie hole shut. I mean, each of the examples you give are legit. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein isn't Literature? It's taught in university Literature courses. Shakespeare wrote genre. He simply elevated it, like the authors you listed and many others; which is what separates Literature from literature. It's the elevating quality of the elements - story, writing, style, characterization, themes, etc. It's tone, not whether or not it's toney. haha
And they are especially good specifically at 'cloaking'! In the books, it clear that this is also why the Riders of Rohan at first ride right past Aragorn and company
The primary reference for the "Dead Marshes" was for J.R.R. Tolkien's experiences in running across dead soldiers in the mud in No Man's Land during WWI. And yeah, the sound/Foley editing in this series is awesome. Lord of the Rings is one of the few series which still give me that emotional experience.
The in joke at the time of release of these movies was that it's a giant long commercial for New Zealand tourism. And it kinda was, as it suddenly put this small quiet country at the bottom of the world on the global stage, and tourism boomed! Before LOTR most people had never heard of New Zealand.
When a movie gives you chills, it’s a sign you are witnessing art. A photograph shows you what is. A peice of art takes you inside of itself and allows you to feel some small part of its subjects emotion.
Simple answers: This trilogy is Peter Jackson's love letter for his home of New Zealand Every bit of armor worn by every real character was handcrafted and told a story. Orlando Bloom loves skating boarding, surfing, and snowboarding. They shot all 3 movies at the same time, so it was a HUUUUUGE gamble on everyone's part. They were able to get studio backing by having literally the entire trilogy story boarded out. Andy Serkis was on set to interact with things.
Two Towers is my favorite of the trilogy. I do recommend going back through the extended cut of TT for a glimpse into the background of Boromir & Faramir. Howard Shore's Rohan theme is easily the best song of the series with its haunting strings, and once you know it, you'll hear where it is woven into other themes here and there where the Rohirrim are involved.
I would say - listen for it at "The Ride of the Rohirrim" in the next film. But... You don't HAVE to "listen" for it - it SLAMS YOU BACK INTO YOUR SEAT AND GRABS YOUR EARS LIKE AN EAGLE WITH A MOUSE IN ITS TALONS!! You WILL be overtaken by some kind of deep fuel emotion in that scene. Some people are HYPED - others weep. Others do BOTH. But you CANNOT ignore Howard Shore's masterpiece musical storytelling!
Helm's Deep battle is still my most amazing theatrical experience of my life. There was something about the sound. The entire place shook with the spears being hit to the ground and the marching of the Urukhai. The audience was dead silent. I believe it took them 4 months to film Helm's Deep, most of it in the "rain". Everyone got shirts saying "I survived Helm's Deep". No, the elves did not come in the books. It was a change I preferred with the movies. The sacrifice of those who are preparing to leave Middle Earth and live for eternity is quite moving. You are right, they managed to introduce us to the characters very quickly. Especially to consider that we only got to really know quite a few of them better in this second film. You're in for a treat for Return of the King. Definitely check out the extended editions on your own. I believe you will enjoy them based on how much you're appreciating everything. You are going to be like a kid in a candy store when you get to watch all the behind the scenes videos. Something I have said: Usually with a trilogy or series, there's at least one movie that sort of falls short of the others. That doesn't happen with this trilogy. It just keeps building and building. It's a timeless masterpiece. See you at the finale. :)
Think the makeup department needs so much more love. The prosthetics added to the Urak Hai looks insanely terrifying. You really see the difference when comparing them to the CGI Orcs in the Hobbit. It’s almost night and day. Real makeup is so much more effective man. I love it.
How Peter Jackson went from making Bad Taste to the biggest movie project of all time still baffles me. The details he went to was insane, from building Theoden’s actual palace atop a mountain to even carving the inside of his armour, even though the camera would never see it, just so the actor would appreciate it. And a million more. I still think this trilogy’s ‘making of’ is the best ever. And the bond it created between the whole cast and crew for me still hasn’t been topped. I mean, they got tattoos!!!
Well they did live an worked together for years in New Zealand. I mean the entire cast and crew of the movies got official citizenship of New Zealand. They live and work there so long that they were made citizens. So Eliza wood and the other cast and crew members are official citizens of New Zealand.
It's crazy how many shots in subsequent films echoed that shot of Gandalf and the Balrog falling into the lake. Aquaman, Pacific Rim, Underwater, The Tomorrow War, and that's just the ones that immediately spring to mind.
A lot of the questions you have about production are really well covered by the extended version’s “making of” features. For instance, the opening fight with Gandalf and the Balrog are because one of the concept artists, a professional Tolkien artist named John Howe, made a sketch of the battle. Peter Jackson loved it so much that he said, “This has gotta be in the film!” The arc of making these movies, from the amount of prop and set work done, to the 18 month initial shoot, to the advances they made in character CG work, to the way the production ended… it’s almost better than the films in some way. Check them out some time, they are THE gold standard for DVD extras.
The mark of a truly excellent score is being able to close your eyes, and envision the scene perfectly by the music. I don't even need to WATCH How to Train Your Dragon anymore. I have it memorized and now I can watch it via the sound.
Never before have I wanted someone so badly to react to the Behind the Scenes stuff as much as I do with you. You would find SO much enjoyment in them!
I very fondly remember seeing the trilogy in theaters. What’s important to remember from the early 2000’s is that visual effects of this level was not common, especially in a five-star movie. These bridge the gap between blockbusters and award winners. I definitely didn’t forget about “Titanic,” but it was considered a “pretty” movie or chick flick at the time. I’m glad opinion has changed on “Titanic,” and “Lord of the Rings” has also expanded to audiences it didn’t reach in its time. The pandemic gave everyone a spare nine hours for a long trilogy, to say the least, and adults who missed it in the years since release were brought around mostly because of the popularity of “Game of Thrones.”
I'm not sure that opinion has changed so much with Titanic. I remember at the time that the script was much criticised, and it hasn't improved with age. Cameron doesn't do subtle, as evidenced by the baddy/goody divide in Avatar. Titanic was a block-buster, but the level of attention to character was rudimentary at best, something that LOTR had in spades.
On the filmmaking side of things all three movies were shot over the course of a year. They came out over 20 years ago and the perspective tricks and cinematography is still next level.
Fun little trivia you might like about the lore, the wizards were all color coded based on their job. Gandalf as the Grey Wizard was tasked with uniting people, while Saruman as the white wizard was tasked with watching and eventually defeating the ultimate evil, Sauron. Over thousands of years Saruman went crazy and decided it was impossible so they had to join the evil. So when Gandalf died fighting the Balrog, he really did die, but was sent back as the new White Wizard because the spot was now empty
@Trashthlete I think no one really knows what the two blue wizards were up to. They just kinda went off on their own thing. Tolkien never really said much about them other than they were meant to do stuff in the far east and south of middle earth. Radagast, as the Brown wizard, was tasked with studying the flora and fauna of the world, but mostly just got high on mushrooms.
Not exactly like that. They were all tasked to help Men and Middle-earth elves destroy Sauron, each chosen for their strengths and personalities to do it, the only one known not to fail was Gandalf because we don't really know what the Blue Wizards did, there's only the theories. Gandalf was the wisest and compassionate and did not care for power either as Grey or White and made his choice out of wisdom forging alliances, uniting all the peoples, grooming people like Faramir, Aragorn for what to come, he knew that the only way to bring down evil was trough fellowship, union and great deeds of all the people of Middle earth, he was a chess player. Saruman of All Colours was to proud, entitled and jealous, he was a scholar a master of the lore and knowledge and he believed that he could outsmart the greatest manipulator and he fell into his own trap, he looked for the ring for thousands of years and cared more to find and keep, believing that he could use it to overcome Sauron, than to destroy it. Radagast the Brown was too enamoured of his wild creatures , he hurt so much watching the creatures he loved suffering that he lost perspective and forgot what his task was.
@Trashthlete One theory comes from a letter written by Tolkien, he described them as, "emissaries to distant regions, east and south, .... Missionaries to enemy occupied lands as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and "magic" traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron." Later not long before his death Tolkien wrote that the two blue wizards arrived not in the Third Age with Gandalf and Saruman , but in the Second, around the time of the Forging of the One Ring. Their mission was to travel to the east and weaken the forces of Sauron. And it is said that the Wizards far from failed; rather, they had a pivotal role in the victories of the West at the end of both the Second and the Third Ages. On this later, more positive interpretation, the Blue Wizards may have been as successful as Gandalf, only in a different place beyond the borders of the map in The Lord of the Rings.
I wasn't going to watch these reactions at first since you had said you saw LOTR before, but getting into them it's lovely to see you turning into a super fan before our very eyes...at least that's the way it appears. Also, as much as I love the extended versions and feel like several scenes in them greatly deepen the story, I actually believe the theatrical versions are superior from a pure filmmaking aspect and am not unhappy you chose to react to these.
Hey, love the reaction! Real quick, the reason Legolas can easily lift himself on the horse is because elves are known to be light footed people, you can notice this in the first movie, when the fellowshio are walking on snow, Legolas is the only one not breaking the snow floor. Also, ents (tree people) dont know about hobbits because hobbits are relatively young in the realm, only like 500 years compared to other races.
Is it explained where hobbits came from? Are they a subspecies of an already existing species or they evolved from something else? I never thought of this before
@@artsysabsHobbits are an offshoot of the race of Men that emerged sometime within the last age. Tolkien is unclear when they came into being, but the Shire is about 1400 years old and the ancestral families of the Hobbits moved around quite a bit before settling there.
"Dude, the music man! Im getting chills in my chest. Do you understand that? Do you guys understand? Do you even know what that means? I don't even know what that means, but I feel it!" 😂😂 Bro that had me rolling and I feel ya 100%. The epic is taken to new heights with these films. For your question for me the closest to this experience has been the new Dune. The movie is crazy gorgeous and the effects are so damn good. You can tell there was a lot of love and talent that went into that movie. Also I love the lore of the universe. This movie got me in the Dune universe and I started reading the books.
When you said of Gollum, the acting in the eyes, you are so right. When I first saw this movie in the theaters the scene that really sold me on Gollum was when Frodo is talking to him and calls him Smegole . Gollums eyes, at that moment, there is so much emotion showing in those eyes, it just blew me away. That scene alone sold me on the idea of Gollum being his own character and not just a CGI special effect. Great reaction. I love these films!
I've been desperate for someone to do a reaction video to the Making Of videos of LOTR. They're just so fascinating, and the craftsmanship and sheer magnitude of work that went into these movies really has to be seen to be believed.
the CGI is mind blowing! especially for 20 years ago. yes you will really love the behind the scenes. they actually had to create a lot of their own effects and programs. I just remember about how they had to create their own fire and water effects for the first film for the river that washed away the wraiths and the balrog (demon that Gandalf fought) because the effects at the time for those elements were really obvious. And they were pioneers when it came to motion capture. Originally Andy Serkis was just going to voice Gollum and basically just record his voice. They had already designed Gollum's look and face. But after doing some tests with Andy they realized that he put so much facial expression into it when he did the voice they would have to use it. They meshed the design they already had of Gollum with Andy's face and he actually ended up being on set everyday in his motion capture suit. He IS Gollum. Pretty much all of the amazing physicality of Gollum is due to his amazing acting. Even all the climbing on the rocks and splashing down the stream. Of course the effects team did in an INCREDIBLE job, but it's also cool to note that Andy Serkis actually got involved with his own effects company after LOTR to continue supporting and expanding CGI and motion capture technology. When you begin checking out behing the scenes stuff I definately recommend watching the side by side comparison of the famous Gollum/Smeagol scene where he's arguing with himself, live action vs CGI
I think what LotR did so very well (and you touched on it) is these sweeping landscape shots. Many movies/directors underestimate the power of a good landscape shot. It reminds me of the great movies of old times (like Ben Hur and the like)...
This trilogy was truly a magnum opus. I love watching people react to it, but especially filmmakers because they can appreciate the genius of the artistry. Thank you for your reactions!
Bunch of trees start marching and James gets chills in his chest. And we did too. Enjoy The Return of the King. Prepare yourself for the conclusion to the greatest trilogy ever made.
Howard Shore is a God-tier composer. I love me a lot of other composers, but I don't think any of them could have done what he did with this. He was absolutely the right choice. Edoras, the home of Theoden on that hill... they freaking found a valley in New Zealand that fit the description in the book, and they built a damn city on it. Facades all, but they built a physical city, multiple buildings, the wall, all of it. The set design on this is difficult to even describe. They built layers of history into every set. This is what was originally built, this is what the next generation added. This is what was changed/added on to that. A fire happened and this section is new. They took into account the cultures, materials, etc. All of Rohan's architecture involves horse motifs. This was like the dream project of pure love for everyone involved. I can't think of another movie that has put this much care and love or raw talent into a production. And it holds up to this day incredibly well. The DP and cinematographer are just having all the fun in the world with the camera. Peter Jackson wherever he was shooting at the time would have live satellite uplinks to all of the other units. There are shots of him sitting behind a bank of 6 or 7 monitors, just keeping track of the sprawling enormous production taking place on 4 sound stages and often times multiple locations at once all over the country.
I’ll be honest, when I saw the battle at Helmsdeep scenes in the theater, and the massiveness of the armies, I don’t think I’ve ever matched that feeling again with a movie in terms of scale and dread.
Tolkien crammed every redeeming quality of his entire WW1 trench into Sam. Of this I am convinced-- and like the goosebump-moments, the heroics just escalate in the last one.
You totally get it with the immortality part. Elves are incapable of suicide, and sometimes see the mortality of Men as a gift, because every second of a mortal life is more meaningful.
As I'm watching this with absolute joy, my daughter comes up behind me looking over my shoulders. "This guy's reactions are so good. Everything I've seen you watch from him is always so good. I need to start watching him."
Elaborating on the immortal life conversation: The downside of an immortal life for the Elves is that they can grow weary and literally die from losing the will to live. It’s the reason Sauron was able to trick the elves into creating rings of power for him, as he promised that they would allow the elves to maintain their magical kingdoms (Which is the reason why places like Rivendell and Lothlorien look the way that they do, Elrond and Galadriel are ring bearers) Elves also never truly die, their spirits aren’t allowed to leave the world and return to The Undying Lands when their bodies die (The reason why mortality is called “The Gift of Men”) This makes Arwen’s situation that much more poignant and significant; Half Elves in a past age were gifted the choice to be Mortal Men or Immortal Elves, which also applies to their descendants, meaning Arwen has a choice in her mortality. Choosing to be mortal means that when she dies she’s dead forever, and can’t be reunited with her family/people in The Undying Lands.
James, thank you! My cheeks hurt from smiling! Your insight and your enthusiasm are both incredible. It has been a privilege to see this film through your eyes and share your excitement!
i think they spent over a year in pre-production just making all the armor and shit. Tons of preparation and it shows. Must be the greatest series of films to date
I'm really happy that you took such notice of the shot at 9:10 - it's totally one of my favourite shots in the whole series but hardly anyone ever seems to notice it. Until now.
Hey James, you're not the first reaction I've seen to make this mistake, but his name is AragORN, with an -ORN at the end. Love the reactions by the way, seeing you get blown away by the movie making techniques you're pointing out in the films is pretty fun.
James face when Gandalf comes into view... Love it. Wish I could have my memory wiped so I could experience these films for the first time again and feel that magic.
JRR Tolkien was a devout catholic and actually based a lot of his mythology on Christianity. With Eru Illuvatar being God, and he also was a linguist so he was influenced by other cultures and languages and introduced a pantheon below the one God. They were called the Ainur (spirits) and the greatest were called Valar, similar to Archangels or Greek/Norse gods . The Valar include Melkor/Morgoth which is the devil character in the story. All Valar except Melkor helped to shape the earth with the music of Eru Illuvatar. There were many spirits under the Valar called Maiar this includes: Sauron, Gandalf (which is how he is resurrected/ given new powers), and Saruman among others. Each Maiar had their specific Valar they studied under and were associated with, Sauron initially studying under Aule (the smith god and creator of the dwarves) but betrays him for Melkor (Satan) early on. Gandalf studied under MANY which is why he’s so drippy and he stays blazing so he’ll always be the 🐐.
@@johnharkness7114 well that would make sense since Zoroastrianism began a lot of the mythology and concepts of monotheism like heaven/hell, angels/demons.
11:40 I don't know if by reference you mean "inspiration", but the reference for the Dead Marshes is actually a pretty terrifying one. Tolkien was a WWI veteran that fought in the Battle of the Somme, a nonstop, 4-month long meat grinder in the south of France. The battle became famous because autumnal rains reduced the battlefield to a gigantic mudland/swamp and, since it was difficult to retrieve corpses in the no man's land, it is likely that Tolkien saw a lot of dead bodies floating in the water there.
If people are mentioning the music and you say it's like a character in the movie, I gotta mention New Zealand. The main protagonist in LoTR is Middle Earth, and NZ deserves an Oscar for playing Middle Earth.
I've never "watched" these movies. I've always been "in" it, like a helpless child of rohan, who could do nothing to help but hope. So intense. Actors, make ups, landscapes, storytelling...just amazing. Now waiting for the return of the king. Hope you're ready for the "boss mode". 😆
Love how hyped you are during these movies. You've got so much cool behind the scenes stuff to dive into once you're done. Making the movies was as epic at they are.
You’re really gonna get a lot from the making of documentaries my guy. Sooo much detail, and you really get a sense of how much love went into these movies.
When you asked what other films had scenes with a comparable sense of scale, I thought of the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959). And none of those extras was CGI in 1959.
The entire Peter Jackson team, cast, crew, everyone, they all brought their "A" game, but that said, the story really was that solid to begin with in the source material. The great achievement of Jackson & co. is that they managed to not screw it up, they delivered a cinematic experience that was worthy of the original books - and that is something that none of the several previous attempts to bring this epic story to the screen were able to do.
Glad you enjoyed it again James. I haven't revisited these in a minute either - maybe 15 years since I watched my DVDs. Remember seeing them on opening day (Boxing Day) here in Brisbane without even meanig to. Just went to the city to buy cheap clothes at the sales after Xmas. So glad I did and I remember Two Towers being my absolute favourite. IIRC, the Academy finaly realised what the meta was and what the audience/world was in love with and gave Return of the Kings the awards but maybe Fellowship and Towers are far stronger? Nice that you noticed those cool lines, sets and the world that's shown off. Incredible stuff.
Kinda lost it at 31:51ish when he pronounced Aragorn like Eragon, and my first thought was "wrong series, bud!" In all seriousness though, I love seeing James getting into this trilogy, man.
So much to say about this movie and the reaction video. I only wish my memory were good enough to recall all the things I wanted to mention. Another call out to the music as a character. Part of the collector's soundtrack, and other featurettes, show how Howard Shore developed his themes and what they represented. Every part of the music has meaning, it's not just there to sound epic. All those chills? I get it! I have no wish for war and I hate that part of humanity, but there's something about the willingness to make these heroic/military sacrifices on behalf of others that really gets to me. Even the scene with Ents advancing and Treebeard acknowledging this battle may very well cause their extinction caused me to tear up a bit... not to mention Theodred's speech before charging out, and other moments.
I luv how much ur enjoying this trilogy. Makes me remember how much I luved them when I saw them in the theatre and helps me relive it all over again. ur comments r insightful and interesting. Keep em comin'!
I love your reactions to these films. I’m learning so much about art from you. I love this trilogy and I have never read the books. The reaction I’ve always had to these films knowing nothing about filmmaking speaks volumes. Masterpiece isn’t a strong enough word.
As a LOTR fan and a huge film appreciator, I respect the hell out of you for sticking to the theatrical versions for your first viewing after so long. The extended editions, in my opinion, do remarkably well for the pacing, and actually aid in the roundedness of the films (ESPECIALLY in Return of the King). But, if you like these movies enough, they'll convince you more than any fan can to get you to watch them. It makes sense to watch them first as they were originally released to the public. Keep up the great work!
Legolas has a lil backstory but what you should know is he’s the prince of the woodland realms and his drippiest feat wasn’t even portrayed in the movies, in the books he kills one of the Fell Beasts( mini dragons ) with ONE SHOT that he takes in the COMPLETE DARK.
33:42 Dude yes! The old Two Towers game on Play Station 2 was legit amazing. As was Return of the King. I remember having to kick those siege ladders down and everything. Great gameplay design.
Sam’s talk at the end always brings me to tears. More than anything else in the franchise. Also, it’s a crime that Andy Serkis was never nominated for an Oscar for this!
Glad to hear you are interested in the making of these movies. I absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed all the making of. All the models, costume details, etc.
I believe Christopher Lee was one of the only one in the movie who actually KNEW Tolkein, & Lee was a certifiable badass (WWII special forces, released Metal albums)
Lee WAS a certifiable bad-ass. And he did indeed know Tolkien. And he read the novels on a near yearly basis. His greatest wish was to play Gandalf. But he acknowledged that by the time this film was in production, Ian McKellen was the better choice and he was pleased to play his SECOND greatest wish - Saruman. There's probably a clip of this on youtube somewhere - but look up what he said to Peter Jackson about how a man REALLY reacts when stabbed in the back. He knew... because he'd seen it (Probably was responsible for it... ) during his years in "spec-ops" in WWII.
Again, I think you’d really enjoy all the BTS footage. Casting, stunts, model sets, forced perspective filming, mass latex prosthetic production, motion capture and coding, coding, coding. This trilogy taught modern day blockbusters how it’s done. The Superhero worlds of today owe a huge debt of gratitude towards LOTR.
The thing that makes this trilogy the best there is, is the fact that everything works. The art design, the set design, the character design, the CGI holds up, the actors give it their all, the cinematography is amazing, the music is amazing, the storytelling is next level. It just all works, not one thing feels off or out of place. That’s why it will stand the test of time.
There’s been almost 70 years of fan art about this story. Of course they have good scenes to draw upon. There are many scenes that are close duplicates of famous art.
@@jackal1221 Was just about to mention those guys. Worth mentioning also are the Hildebrandt Brothers. If you want to see a film where THEIR take on the characters is more on display - go watch Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings. It's a WEIRD film. And obviously it was kinda too far ahead of its time to be successful - so it didn't get the sequel it needed to be complete. In fact - you can tell in certain areas that Bakshi FLAT OUT RAN OUT OF MONEY to animate things and went with straight up rotoscoping. However - the character designs are definitely of that "earlier generation" that the Hildebrandt brothers represented. I actually PREFER the character and costume designs from this trilogy and the artistic sense that Howe and Lee brought. But it's historically interesting to see how the fan and official artwork evolved over time.
@@logandarklighter I saw the Bakshi version in the theater when I was about 10yo and not able to spot the cheapness - it looked like a lot of cel animation looked back then. But I remember rewatching it on VHS 20-or-so years later and just cringing at the production level. There was a rotoscoped shot in the Moria sequence where the Fellowship walked across screen, and I’d swear in court that the guy playing Legolas had Adidas on his feet.🧐🤯😅
33:55 broo you're talkin about Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers game!! Where you gotta kick the ladders down from the ramparts and fight off the orcs. That game is sick, I played it all the time on GameCube.
I am RIGHT there with you with seeing people at full speed on a horse!! I have literally ZERO training in horseback riding but would absolutely LOVE to know what it's like to just straight up RIP on horse! It has to feel super badass! From what I've seen in my (admittedly) small amount of research tho... Horseback riding lessons, in general, are pretty expensive and I've yet to find a place near me (30 miles north of Boston / 15 miles south of New Hampshire) that will even train people to haul ass on a horse. Everywhere just has you trot around and jump barrels or whatever lol. I want to be whipping those reins back and forth, tucked low, like I'm being pursued by Nazgul!! Sidenote: learning to drive a carriage pulled by 4-6 horses would be badass too!! But that's got to be WAY harder and WAY more expensive
I was the typical horse girl when I was a kid. Including special holidays at stables, suited for kids with at least a little experience in the saddle. That meant two riding lessons a day, mostly 1 lesson, 1 joyride in the fields and of course caring for the horses. One day our group (around 20 people plus horse, incl trainers) rode an 'attack'. The trainers had checked the field for holes and stuff that could trip the horses beforehand and put a barrel with a flag at the other side of the field. Then we lined up. At 'GO' everyone of us immediately fell into gallop, racing each other for the flag. I FELT the hooves pounding through the dry grass. That was nearly 25 years ago and I still feel it in my stomach when I see movie scenes like the ride of the Rohirrim. It's an unbelievable experience. It's the same thing with flying on an airplane, how can you describe the feeling you get when you're on the tarmac and the pilot turns up the engines to someone who has never flown? Edit to add: hauling ass over a field isn't something you can just do unprepared and even if prepared, it's still really dangerous. If your horse trips, that's it. The horse will most likely have to be put down and you'll be very lucky if you haven't snapped your neck. That's why you have to trot around for a while before any respectable trainer would even think about letting you do something like that.
@@ichmeiner4531 what an awesome story!! Thank you!! I know that one would need EXTENSIVE and probably very EXPENSIVE training to get to that level of riding but I'm curious what kind of places teach to that level. It gives me a new found respect for the actors who do all their own horse work! It's definitely not something they learned overnight or over a weekend haha! You mentioned how people were out in the field checking for holes, that's something I never thought about haha! You see the movies and people are hauling on (fictional) unknown terrain without issue! I'm sure, if we could talk to people who lived in the mid-1800s frontier, they would tell us that horse chases were probably a lot slower than we'd think! And that you only push your horse to top speeds (on unknown terrain) in the most dire of circumstances! I could be wrong but, like you said, if your horse topples over at break-neck speed... It's not just your neck you'll be worried about breaking!!
@PhatNana237 if you want more horse stories, no worries, I've got plenty 😂 I helped in a stable with racing horses for a while (lots of cleaning, not much riding, but still awesome), rode an Icelandic horse that went to tolt championships in Iceland and played soccer with horses (bareback, with those huge gymnastic balls, it's a blast). Horses are mostly just huge, derpy dogs. If you have very friendly horse and great balance, you wouldn't need much training for riding a full on charge, it's more about the preparation and potential dangers. A broken leg is likely a death sentence for a horse. Knowing all that, a stable that doesn't only train in an indoor riding arena, but does rides outside, too, will usually plan for that, you'd need to look for one of those. Everyone who likes riding through the bushes enjoys a hard gallop over a field, most horses do, too. Regarding LotR, they made a huge casting call in New Zealand for people who own a horse and got some time to spare. Most of the manly riders of Rohirrim are indeed bearded women, the behind the scenes for the charge in the 3rd movie is both hilarious and impressive. Edit to add: back when cavalry charges were still a thing, it was just that. A charge. A couple more or less reaching the enemy didn't matter with the numbers they got and a horse wasn't more than part of the equipment. Although, sure, the more horses, the slower the whole unit.
Treebeard's voice is done by Gimli, Mr Rhys Davis. The Witch King rides a fell beast not a mini dragon. Faramir is the actor who was the narrator, with one eye, in 300. The horse who saves Aragorn, Brego, was bought and kept by Viggo.
When I first read Lord of the Rings, I always imagined them as some sort of Pterodactyl. There's a line that goes something like "beasts that had somehow suvived from a previous age..." which made my 12yr old self think 'dinosaurs!' (Yes I know Pterosaurs aren't strictly dinosaurs but when I was 12 I did not know that.)
There is another video on UA-cam called: “Why We’ll Never See Anything Like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Again” by UA-camr 2 Left Thumbs It gives a great over all information on what it took to make LOTR in 30 minutes. It goes into the extraordinary efforts they took in making these films like how two guys personally made by hand all the chain mail, working morning to night attaching each metal hoop. They estimate that they attached about 13,000 links a day for something that most of the time was warn under their clothing. It’s a great video. But what I took most out of it was the comment, “No one has or will ever create anything close to what Peter Jackson made with LOTR trilogy. Not even Peter Jackson himself.”
The perfect storm, everything just fit together seamlessly, from the main actors to the guy making sure that the coffee is right and ready. Cast and crew so dedicated and hellbent on doing it perfectly are surely every director's wet dream.
This is nice to have a filmmakers perspective. Most reactors are like "hey, cool!" Which isnt bad, but from your perspective you really appreciate sounds, set designs, costumes, etc and it's nice to see :)
I think the coolest part is the a lot of the set peices were really big miniatures model that the production staff called "Bigatures". Isenguard, aka Sarumons tower, was 60ft wide and had to be built outside. Helms Deep, The Mines of Moria, Rivendale, etc were all built for real. They made 64 bigatures for all three films, some of the best ones will be revealed in the next film.
11:43 one of the main references were the no man's lands in WW1 aka The Great War in which Tolkien fought and incorporated many aspects of it into his Lord of The Rings books. He drew lots of parallels to the hopelessness of such a war, the friendship found in your friends through such a hard time, the PTSD represented by Frodo's wound, the jokes to lighten up the mood in such a dark hour and etc
The Battle of Helm's Deep takes place at night and in the rain because that's how it occurs in the book, not so that they could hide CGI, though that was a CGI-hiding benefit.
Technically, the elves are older than the ents, (and Gandalf's even older) but even with them, the only reason they know the Hobbits exist is because Gandalf made it a point to go exploring.
This was some legendary filmmaking here..!
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Be safe out there and enjoy the day!
I wont spoil it but you really have to watch the third one extended.. at least for the beginning.. i still dont get how they could cut that out.. so yeah for the first two movies, extended is mainly fanservice, but for the (beginning of the) third one it is just necessary
These movies could only happen once in the history of mankind, it is so unique (doesnt matter how many bad copies there are out there;)).. so enjoy :)
As well as the entire world Tolkien created.. i dont get how anybody wouldnt do a deep dive into the lore, reading (or listening) the books and watching the making of these movies.. (dont bother with the Hobbit, except for a few scenes and good moments..)
I dont even am into fantasy at all, honestly besides everything LotR, i only love The Witcher 3, nothing else really, this is just special ❤
James, I'd like to see your reaction to the "behind the scenes of LoTR" . That's something I'd get behind hear your reaction and seeing if you were right on how they did some of the things they pulled off.
not knowing every orcs name??? unsubbed :-P
I think I heard you say it was 2023 at the end of this video… I’ll admit I do tend to sleep in heavy but I didn’t think I slept in *THAT* long
Everyone has said it already, but you'll absolutely adore the behind the scenes. It's fucking amazing the amount of effort they put into these movies.
The best thing was the old-school blog posting Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen were doing, during the lead up to the movie releases. I was glued to it.
Such great marketing...
The behind the scenes/appendices are god tier. Almost as good as the movies themselves
@@94germy I think I said that almost verbatim on the Fellowship video lol.
The behind the scenes is a saga unto itself, as enjoyable as the movies themselves. The journey, the friendships or "fellowship" that grew throughout filming, the hardships, the craftsmanship... it's so emotional.
I would honestly watch him react to the appendices.
The production team went above and beyond on these films. They created a world that truly felt lived in. These films still look incredible these 20 years later. What makes it all work was the smart filmmaking. Knowing what to film practically, when to use CGI, and using miniatures. They used every trick in the book and even made some new ones along the way. I bet in 100 years, these films will still be amazing.
I suggest you watch the films in 4K to really see the level of detail on the remastered versions.
It's a classic. Even now, 20 years young, you know it will be mandatory material in film school 50 years from now.
39:18 "I'm getting chills in my chest. Do you understand that?"
Oh yes. We understand. Believe me, we understand that reaction at almost every level.
The reference for the swamps is actually Tolkien's (the man who wrote the books that the movies are based on) experiences. He was a soldier in World War 1, and fought in the Somme in 1916. It was a field of mud, and as he walked through, he saw bodies under the water in the craters (millions of cannon shells had blown the farmland into something thay looked like the swamps in the movie).
It stuck with him.
Also, as an officer he had an assistant assigned to him (called a batman) who he loosely bases Sam off of.
"My Samwise Gamgee is indeed a reflection of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war and recognized as so far superior to myself." - JRR Tolkien
@@lawrencedockery9032 So your saying that there is no opponent that Sam Gamgee couldn't beat with enough prep time?
I'm sorry. I could not resist.
🎶Shelob in the way, hmmmmm🎶
So what's up with Gandalf coming back is that he's a "special" type of entity called Maiar. Saruman is one too, as was/is Sauron. And there's a couple others. The "god" of this universe made them and put them in Middle Earth to watch over things. But limited in the powers they can use; and they can be EXTREMELY powerful, as you've seen. And they have a hierarchical structure.
Saruman was the Head, but after his turn toward Sauron, and then Gandalf dying (Maiar can't actually die) "god" sent him back as the new Head, and thus allowed to use much more of his potential powers.
It's certainly good to start with the "simpler" theatrical releases for those not familiar with the lore, but the extended versions certainly answer some questions. Still, a bit much for a new-to-it-all viewing.
Thanks! Be well.
Ay! Thank you for this info!
To elaborate and simplify terms, Maiar are Angels (and Demons, or at least the ones who followed Morgoth). They work for the Valar, who are treated as gods in much of the narrative but are clearly meant to be a higher class of Angel (one of whom, Morgoth, is a direct analog for Lucifer). The Valar serve Eru Eluvitar, who is straight up intended to be the Christian God. Tolkien, who was a devout Catholic, maintained the fiction within the text that he was merely relating a lost mythology that the people of pre-Christian England had followed, and I think he just thought too highly of his imagined storytellers to picture them as being ignorant to God as he himself understood it.
Doesn't make a single page he wrote less enjoyable for non-Christian readers, though, unlike CS Lewis whose otherwise fantastic works often groan under the weight of their allegory.
@@JamesVSCinema also the balrog was a maiar as well
The simplest way to explain it is that the Maiar are basically angels of the second highest level.
@@matthewhearn9910 Very helpful, thanks! Agree re: CS Lewis - oh ok so Aslan dies to save Edmund's sins and then returns after three days?🤔
In case no one has mentioned it, Treebeard is voiced by John Rhys-Davies (Gimli). In the making of videos he explains that he would inhale while speaking Treebeard's lines :-)
Holy sauron I never knew that
The BTS show the crazy wooden box the sound designers built to run JR-D voice through: ua-cam.com/video/J1SRFZo2IXI/v-deo.html
The few times I've tried that I sound like a dying fish.
That is so cool! We do this sometimes in Norwegian, the swedes laugh at us for it though😄
... this makes so much sense 🤯
That speech by Sam near the end, in that darkest of moments, is one of the greatest in film history. There’s a clip of just that speech on YT, and it’s one of the things I sometimes share with friends or family when they’re having a particularly bad day.
One of the best Sam moments for sure
The craziest part (and the part I love the most, as a linguist) is that Tolkien (himself a linguist) wrote these books just so the languages he created as a hobby could have a world to exist in.
My daughter turns 1 next sunday and I'm literally counting down the days until I can show her these movies
Legolas knows how to do only two things: point out the obvious & style on enemies.
And we love him for it
YOU ARE THE FIRST PERSON I HAVE WATCHED REACTING TO LOTR THAT ACTUALLY APPRECIATED THE MUSIC WHEN THE TREES STARTED TO MARCH. THAT MUSIC GIVES ME CHILLS EVER SINGLE TIME
James, this is one of the best reactions you’ve done, good sir. You were both absolutely hilarious (“…WIFE”) and crazy insightful. Props on picking up on some of those special moments of sound design. Just wanted to say thanks for being one of the best reactors in the game.
Looking forward to seeing your reaction to Return of the King!
An that’s love!! Thanks for this!
Yep. That line about Worm Tongue going down those steps like he was thrown out the club was a trip. I laughed for at least a full minute
@@JamesVSCinema you missed that when Saruman grabs the candlestick in wormtounges hand and pulls it away, he’s doing it because he’s making a bomb to take out the wall at helms deep. It’s likely some equivalent to gunpowder and he stops him because he is using an open flame to try to get a closer look at it.
Part of what you are seeing is that the screenplay was written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens, all of whom are superfans who have read the books dozens of times. Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee were also well versed in the stories and offered changes they thought merited. Then, it was kind of a happy accident that New Line, who was previously known for slasher films, gave Jackson a three film deal and a lot of creative control. Weta Workshops made great props. And they got an amazing cast. Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001. Some marketing noob at New Line didn't understand what they had and arranged a promotional tie in with Burger King for collectable (sic) glasses. There was no more of that after opening weekend.
No, it wasn't a happy accident. They got three films for the same reason that the script and the acting were so faithful - because the guys at New Line _were also Ringers._ Mark Ordesky and Barrie Osborne were also great fans of Tolkien, so they just suggested the three films as being the obvious choice. (I don't get why more people don't realize that producers and executives can also be lifelong fans.)
Weta Workshop and Weta Digital did outstanding work....the Big-atures, the Motion Capture, armor, weapons....the sets created based upon the art and design work of John Howe and Alan Lee...mind blowing.
I dig these rewatches dude, it’s fun to hear someone who went to film school comment on these pictures. Stay up James and keep up the good vids sir!
I appreciate that Zach! Happy you digging them.
Last March on the Ents is one of my fav moments in the series.
James regarding the soundtrack... A few years ago i had the privilege of watching these 3 movies in a Theatre (3 separate days )with one of Europe's best orchestras performing the soundtrack live. It was one of the most amazing experiences i have ever had.
That sounds like an incredible experience.
this sounds AMAZING
Same, it was as epic as the movies are.
That's gotta be so awesome
Nominated for 6 Oscars including Best Picture but won for:
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
@Gerald H I'm kind of salty about Denis Villeneuve not getting nominated for Best Director this year. It feels like the Academy treats him the same as they do with Christopher Nolan.
@Gerald H It's not just genre films, either. Genre novels and comic books/graphic novels are routinely ignored because they aren't Literature with a capital L to snobs who refuse to see and acknowledge the merit of science fiction, high/fantasy, horror, etc. Even children's and YA lit.
In my undergrad studies, even in creative writing courses, genre was looked down on by students who wanted to write - and I quote - "serious literature," not something they see as worthy and worthwhile; but honestly consider low, common art and frivolous pursuits.
Imagine calling The Twilight Zone, LOTR, Watership Down, The Giver, Hitchcock, Cameron, Spielberg, Houston, and Carpenter films, Sam Spade, and similar art "low," "unimportant," and "silly."
Imagine the audacity, the unmitigated gall.
It's ridiculous
@Gerald H I don't know who started it, but I wish they would've kept their pie hole shut. I mean, each of the examples you give are legit. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein isn't Literature? It's taught in university Literature courses.
Shakespeare wrote genre. He simply elevated it, like the authors you listed and many others; which is what separates Literature from literature.
It's the elevating quality of the elements - story, writing, style, characterization, themes, etc. It's tone, not whether or not it's toney. haha
The cloaks were given to them as a gift from the elves. Everything the elves make is inherently imbued with magic.
And they are especially good specifically at 'cloaking'! In the books, it clear that this is also why the Riders of Rohan at first ride right past Aragorn and company
@@johnharkness7114 yeah I remember that part, iirc they’re like a chameleon, shifting to the color of the ground around them or something
Which is interesting when you actually look at the cloak fabric consisting of different colors and shades of grey, green, and brown/tan hues
I can't be the only one who was disappointed that the Elven rope given to Sam didn't end up being relevant
The primary reference for the "Dead Marshes" was for J.R.R. Tolkien's experiences in running across dead soldiers in the mud in No Man's Land during WWI.
And yeah, the sound/Foley editing in this series is awesome. Lord of the Rings is one of the few series which still give me that emotional experience.
That background information adds more weight to the scene.
The in joke at the time of release of these movies was that it's a giant long commercial for New Zealand tourism. And it kinda was, as it suddenly put this small quiet country at the bottom of the world on the global stage, and tourism boomed! Before LOTR most people had never heard of New Zealand.
And I really like that the NZ government leans in on the fandom, they are so proud of how their countryside completed a masterpiece.
"It's 2023 right now!" Wait...James, you're speaking to us from *the future*?! What's it like, do we have flying cars yet?
When a movie gives you chills, it’s a sign you are witnessing art. A photograph shows you what is. A peice of art takes you inside of itself and allows you to feel some small part of its subjects emotion.
Simple answers:
This trilogy is Peter Jackson's love letter for his home of New Zealand
Every bit of armor worn by every real character was handcrafted and told a story.
Orlando Bloom loves skating boarding, surfing, and snowboarding.
They shot all 3 movies at the same time, so it was a HUUUUUGE gamble on everyone's part.
They were able to get studio backing by having literally the entire trilogy story boarded out.
Andy Serkis was on set to interact with things.
Two Towers is my favorite of the trilogy. I do recommend going back through the extended cut of TT for a glimpse into the background of Boromir & Faramir.
Howard Shore's Rohan theme is easily the best song of the series with its haunting strings, and once you know it, you'll hear where it is woven into other themes here and there where the Rohirrim are involved.
I would say - listen for it at "The Ride of the Rohirrim" in the next film. But... You don't HAVE to "listen" for it - it SLAMS YOU BACK INTO YOUR SEAT AND GRABS YOUR EARS LIKE AN EAGLE WITH A MOUSE IN ITS TALONS!! You WILL be overtaken by some kind of deep fuel emotion in that scene. Some people are HYPED - others weep. Others do BOTH. But you CANNOT ignore Howard Shore's masterpiece musical storytelling!
I’m sure someone has already said this, but it merits repeating: there will NEVER, EVER be another series of films like this.
Helm's Deep battle is still my most amazing theatrical experience of my life. There was something about the sound. The entire place shook with the spears being hit to the ground and the marching of the Urukhai. The audience was dead silent. I believe it took them 4 months to film Helm's Deep, most of it in the "rain". Everyone got shirts saying "I survived Helm's Deep". No, the elves did not come in the books. It was a change I preferred with the movies. The sacrifice of those who are preparing to leave Middle Earth and live for eternity is quite moving. You are right, they managed to introduce us to the characters very quickly. Especially to consider that we only got to really know quite a few of them better in this second film. You're in for a treat for Return of the King. Definitely check out the extended editions on your own. I believe you will enjoy them based on how much you're appreciating everything. You are going to be like a kid in a candy store when you get to watch all the behind the scenes videos. Something I have said: Usually with a trilogy or series, there's at least one movie that sort of falls short of the others. That doesn't happen with this trilogy. It just keeps building and building. It's a timeless masterpiece. See you at the finale. :)
Think the makeup department needs so much more love. The prosthetics added to the Urak Hai looks insanely terrifying. You really see the difference when comparing them to the CGI Orcs in the Hobbit. It’s almost night and day. Real makeup is so much more effective man. I love it.
How Peter Jackson went from making Bad Taste to the biggest movie project of all time still baffles me.
The details he went to was insane, from building Theoden’s actual palace atop a mountain to even carving the inside of his armour, even though the camera would never see it, just so the actor would appreciate it. And a million more.
I still think this trilogy’s ‘making of’ is the best ever. And the bond it created between the whole cast and crew for me still hasn’t been topped. I mean, they got tattoos!!!
Well they did live an worked together for years in New Zealand. I mean the entire cast and crew of the movies got official citizenship of New Zealand. They live and work there so long that they were made citizens. So Eliza wood and the other cast and crew members are official citizens of New Zealand.
It's crazy how many shots in subsequent films echoed that shot of Gandalf and the Balrog falling into the lake. Aquaman, Pacific Rim, Underwater, The Tomorrow War, and that's just the ones that immediately spring to mind.
The scene with the orcs being blinded by the sun right before Gandalf and His allies demolished them was epic!
A lot of the questions you have about production are really well covered by the extended version’s “making of” features. For instance, the opening fight with Gandalf and the Balrog are because one of the concept artists, a professional Tolkien artist named John Howe, made a sketch of the battle. Peter Jackson loved it so much that he said, “This has gotta be in the film!” The arc of making these movies, from the amount of prop and set work done, to the 18 month initial shoot, to the advances they made in character CG work, to the way the production ended… it’s almost better than the films in some way. Check them out some time, they are THE gold standard for DVD extras.
The mark of a truly excellent score is being able to close your eyes, and envision the scene perfectly by the music. I don't even need to WATCH How to Train Your Dragon anymore. I have it memorized and now I can watch it via the sound.
Never before have I wanted someone so badly to react to the Behind the Scenes stuff as much as I do with you. You would find SO much enjoyment in them!
I very fondly remember seeing the trilogy in theaters. What’s important to remember from the early 2000’s is that visual effects of this level was not common, especially in a five-star movie. These bridge the gap between blockbusters and award winners. I definitely didn’t forget about “Titanic,” but it was considered a “pretty” movie or chick flick at the time. I’m glad opinion has changed on “Titanic,” and “Lord of the Rings” has also expanded to audiences it didn’t reach in its time. The pandemic gave everyone a spare nine hours for a long trilogy, to say the least, and adults who missed it in the years since release were brought around mostly because of the popularity of “Game of Thrones.”
I'm not sure that opinion has changed so much with Titanic. I remember at the time that the script was much criticised, and it hasn't improved with age. Cameron doesn't do subtle, as evidenced by the baddy/goody divide in Avatar. Titanic was a block-buster, but the level of attention to character was rudimentary at best, something that LOTR had in spades.
On the filmmaking side of things all three movies were shot over the course of a year. They came out over 20 years ago and the perspective tricks and cinematography is still next level.
Fun little trivia you might like about the lore, the wizards were all color coded based on their job. Gandalf as the Grey Wizard was tasked with uniting people, while Saruman as the white wizard was tasked with watching and eventually defeating the ultimate evil, Sauron. Over thousands of years Saruman went crazy and decided it was impossible so they had to join the evil. So when Gandalf died fighting the Balrog, he really did die, but was sent back as the new White Wizard because the spot was now empty
I'm looking at the Unfinished Tales right now and nothing in it describes why they are given colours unless I'm misreading
@Trashthlete I think no one really knows what the two blue wizards were up to. They just kinda went off on their own thing. Tolkien never really said much about them other than they were meant to do stuff in the far east and south of middle earth.
Radagast, as the Brown wizard, was tasked with studying the flora and fauna of the world, but mostly just got high on mushrooms.
Not exactly like that. They were all tasked to help Men and Middle-earth elves destroy Sauron, each chosen for their strengths and personalities to do it, the only one known not to fail was Gandalf because we don't really know what the Blue Wizards did, there's only the theories.
Gandalf was the wisest and compassionate and did not care for power either as Grey or White and made his choice out of wisdom forging alliances, uniting all the peoples, grooming people like Faramir, Aragorn for what to come, he knew that the only way to bring down evil was trough fellowship, union and great deeds of all the people of Middle earth, he was a chess player.
Saruman of All Colours was to proud, entitled and jealous, he was a scholar a master of the lore and knowledge and he believed that he could outsmart the greatest manipulator and he fell into his own trap, he looked for the ring for thousands of years and cared more to find and keep, believing that he could use it to overcome Sauron, than to destroy it.
Radagast the Brown was too enamoured of his wild creatures , he hurt so much watching the creatures he loved suffering that he lost perspective and forgot what his task was.
@Trashthlete One theory comes from a letter written by Tolkien, he described them as, "emissaries to distant regions, east and south, .... Missionaries to enemy occupied lands as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and "magic" traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron."
Later not long before his death Tolkien wrote that the two blue wizards arrived not in the Third Age with Gandalf and Saruman , but in the Second, around the time of the Forging of the One Ring. Their mission was to travel to the east and weaken the forces of Sauron. And it is said that the Wizards far from failed; rather, they had a pivotal role in the victories of the West at the end of both the Second and the Third Ages. On this later, more positive interpretation, the Blue Wizards may have been as successful as Gandalf, only in a different place beyond the borders of the map in The Lord of the Rings.
I wasn't going to watch these reactions at first since you had said you saw LOTR before, but getting into them it's lovely to see you turning into a super fan before our very eyes...at least that's the way it appears. Also, as much as I love the extended versions and feel like several scenes in them greatly deepen the story, I actually believe the theatrical versions are superior from a pure filmmaking aspect and am not unhappy you chose to react to these.
Hey, love the reaction! Real quick, the reason Legolas can easily lift himself on the horse is because elves are known to be light footed people, you can notice this in the first movie, when the fellowshio are walking on snow, Legolas is the only one not breaking the snow floor. Also, ents (tree people) dont know about hobbits because hobbits are relatively young in the realm, only like 500 years compared to other races.
Is it explained where hobbits came from? Are they a subspecies of an already existing species or they evolved from something else? I never thought of this before
@@artsysabs thats actually a good question never thought of it either. Apparently their origin is unknown
@@artsysabsHobbits are an offshoot of the race of Men that emerged sometime within the last age. Tolkien is unclear when they came into being, but the Shire is about 1400 years old and the ancestral families of the Hobbits moved around quite a bit before settling there.
"Dude, the music man! Im getting chills in my chest. Do you understand that? Do you guys understand? Do you even know what that means? I don't even know what that means, but I feel it!"
😂😂 Bro that had me rolling and I feel ya 100%. The epic is taken to new heights with these films.
For your question for me the closest to this experience has been the new Dune. The movie is crazy gorgeous and the effects are so damn good. You can tell there was a lot of love and talent that went into that movie. Also I love the lore of the universe. This movie got me in the Dune universe and I started reading the books.
When you said of Gollum, the acting in the eyes, you are so right. When I first saw this movie in the theaters the scene that really sold me on Gollum was when Frodo is talking to him and calls him Smegole . Gollums eyes, at that moment, there is so much emotion showing in those eyes, it just blew me away. That scene alone sold me on the idea of Gollum being his own character and not just a CGI special effect.
Great reaction. I love these films!
I've been desperate for someone to do a reaction video to the Making Of videos of LOTR. They're just so fascinating, and the craftsmanship and sheer magnitude of work that went into these movies really has to be seen to be believed.
the CGI is mind blowing! especially for 20 years ago. yes you will really love the behind the scenes. they actually had to create a lot of their own effects and programs. I just remember about how they had to create their own fire and water effects for the first film for the river that washed away the wraiths and the balrog (demon that Gandalf fought) because the effects at the time for those elements were really obvious.
And they were pioneers when it came to motion capture. Originally Andy Serkis was just going to voice Gollum and basically just record his voice. They had already designed Gollum's look and face. But after doing some tests with Andy they realized that he put so much facial expression into it when he did the voice they would have to use it. They meshed the design they already had of Gollum with Andy's face and he actually ended up being on set everyday in his motion capture suit. He IS Gollum. Pretty much all of the amazing physicality of Gollum is due to his amazing acting. Even all the climbing on the rocks and splashing down the stream.
Of course the effects team did in an INCREDIBLE job, but it's also cool to note that Andy Serkis actually got involved with his own effects company after LOTR to continue supporting and expanding CGI and motion capture technology.
When you begin checking out behing the scenes stuff I definately recommend watching the side by side comparison of the famous Gollum/Smeagol scene where he's arguing with himself, live action vs CGI
I think what LotR did so very well (and you touched on it) is these sweeping landscape shots. Many movies/directors underestimate the power of a good landscape shot. It reminds me of the great movies of old times (like Ben Hur and the like)...
This trilogy was truly a magnum opus. I love watching people react to it, but especially filmmakers because they can appreciate the genius of the artistry. Thank you for your reactions!
Bunch of trees start marching and James gets chills in his chest. And we did too. Enjoy The Return of the King. Prepare yourself for the conclusion to the greatest trilogy ever made.
Howard Shore is a God-tier composer. I love me a lot of other composers, but I don't think any of them could have done what he did with this. He was absolutely the right choice. Edoras, the home of Theoden on that hill... they freaking found a valley in New Zealand that fit the description in the book, and they built a damn city on it. Facades all, but they built a physical city, multiple buildings, the wall, all of it. The set design on this is difficult to even describe. They built layers of history into every set. This is what was originally built, this is what the next generation added. This is what was changed/added on to that. A fire happened and this section is new. They took into account the cultures, materials, etc. All of Rohan's architecture involves horse motifs. This was like the dream project of pure love for everyone involved. I can't think of another movie that has put this much care and love or raw talent into a production. And it holds up to this day incredibly well. The DP and cinematographer are just having all the fun in the world with the camera. Peter Jackson wherever he was shooting at the time would have live satellite uplinks to all of the other units. There are shots of him sitting behind a bank of 6 or 7 monitors, just keeping track of the sprawling enormous production taking place on 4 sound stages and often times multiple locations at once all over the country.
Watching the battle Helms Deep in theaters was such an awesome experience.... the sound design is 🤌 👌
I’ll be honest, when I saw the battle at Helmsdeep scenes in the theater, and the massiveness of the armies, I don’t think I’ve ever matched that feeling again with a movie in terms of scale and dread.
Tolkien crammed every redeeming quality of his entire WW1 trench into Sam. Of this I am convinced-- and like the goosebump-moments, the heroics just escalate in the last one.
You totally get it with the immortality part. Elves are incapable of suicide, and sometimes see the mortality of Men as a gift, because every second of a mortal life is more meaningful.
As I'm watching this with absolute joy, my daughter comes up behind me looking over my shoulders. "This guy's reactions are so good. Everything I've seen you watch from him is always so good. I need to start watching him."
Elaborating on the immortal life conversation: The downside of an immortal life for the Elves is that they can grow weary and literally die from losing the will to live. It’s the reason Sauron was able to trick the elves into creating rings of power for him, as he promised that they would allow the elves to maintain their magical kingdoms (Which is the reason why places like Rivendell and Lothlorien look the way that they do, Elrond and Galadriel are ring bearers)
Elves also never truly die, their spirits aren’t allowed to leave the world and return to The Undying Lands when their bodies die (The reason why mortality is called “The Gift of Men”)
This makes Arwen’s situation that much more poignant and significant; Half Elves in a past age were gifted the choice to be Mortal Men or Immortal Elves, which also applies to their descendants, meaning Arwen has a choice in her mortality. Choosing to be mortal means that when she dies she’s dead forever, and can’t be reunited with her family/people in The Undying Lands.
James, thank you! My cheeks hurt from smiling! Your insight and your enthusiasm are both incredible. It has been a privilege to see this film through your eyes and share your excitement!
The elvish cloaks also keeps the wearer at a constant warm temperature regardless of heat or cold.
i think they spent over a year in pre-production just making all the armor and shit. Tons of preparation and it shows. Must be the greatest series of films to date
Howard Shore is a musical genius, his music for the lord of the rings films and Cronenberg's The Fly remake is absolutely amazing
after a week from hell, this is exactly what i needed. can't wait to watch your reaction!
Hope you enjoi!
I'm really happy that you took such notice of the shot at 9:10 - it's totally one of my favourite shots in the whole series but hardly anyone ever seems to notice it. Until now.
Your love and appreciation for this movie is so contagious. Smiling the whole time I watched this ☺️
Hey James, you're not the first reaction I've seen to make this mistake, but his name is AragORN, with an -ORN at the end. Love the reactions by the way, seeing you get blown away by the movie making techniques you're pointing out in the films is pretty fun.
James face when Gandalf comes into view... Love it. Wish I could have my memory wiped so I could experience these films for the first time again and feel that magic.
JRR Tolkien was a devout catholic and actually based a lot of his mythology on Christianity. With Eru Illuvatar being God, and he also was a linguist so he was influenced by other cultures and languages and introduced a pantheon below the one God. They were called the Ainur (spirits) and the greatest were called Valar, similar to Archangels or Greek/Norse gods . The Valar include Melkor/Morgoth which is the devil character in the story. All Valar except Melkor helped to shape the earth with the music of Eru Illuvatar. There were many spirits under the Valar called Maiar this includes: Sauron, Gandalf (which is how he is resurrected/ given new powers), and Saruman among others. Each Maiar had their specific Valar they studied under and were associated with, Sauron initially studying under Aule (the smith god and creator of the dwarves) but betrays him for Melkor (Satan) early on. Gandalf studied under MANY which is why he’s so drippy and he stays blazing so he’ll always be the 🐐.
A beautiful epic intertwining paganism and Christianity together. 😍
I suspect influence from Zoroastrianism, as well
@@johnharkness7114 well that would make sense since Zoroastrianism began a lot of the mythology and concepts of monotheism like heaven/hell, angels/demons.
11:40 I don't know if by reference you mean "inspiration", but the reference for the Dead Marshes is actually a pretty terrifying one.
Tolkien was a WWI veteran that fought in the Battle of the Somme, a nonstop, 4-month long meat grinder in the south of France. The battle became famous because autumnal rains reduced the battlefield to a gigantic mudland/swamp and, since it was difficult to retrieve corpses in the no man's land, it is likely that Tolkien saw a lot of dead bodies floating in the water there.
If people are mentioning the music and you say it's like a character in the movie, I gotta mention New Zealand.
The main protagonist in LoTR is Middle Earth, and NZ deserves an Oscar for playing Middle Earth.
I've never "watched" these movies. I've always been "in" it, like a helpless child of rohan, who could do nothing to help but hope. So intense. Actors, make ups, landscapes, storytelling...just amazing.
Now waiting for the return of the king. Hope you're ready for the "boss mode". 😆
Love how hyped you are during these movies. You've got so much cool behind the scenes stuff to dive into once you're done.
Making the movies was as epic at they are.
You’re really gonna get a lot from the making of documentaries my guy. Sooo much detail, and you really get a sense of how much love went into these movies.
When you asked what other films had scenes with a comparable sense of scale, I thought of the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959). And none of those extras was CGI in 1959.
"The lore in this is great" The understatement of the century🤣 Awesome video man, glad to see you're enjoying lotr!
The entire Peter Jackson team, cast, crew, everyone, they all brought their "A" game, but that said, the story really was that solid to begin with in the source material. The great achievement of Jackson & co. is that they managed to not screw it up, they delivered a cinematic experience that was worthy of the original books - and that is something that none of the several previous attempts to bring this epic story to the screen were able to do.
Glad you enjoyed it again James. I haven't revisited these in a minute either - maybe 15 years since I watched my DVDs. Remember seeing them on opening day (Boxing Day) here in Brisbane without even meanig to. Just went to the city to buy cheap clothes at the sales after Xmas. So glad I did and I remember Two Towers being my absolute favourite. IIRC, the Academy finaly realised what the meta was and what the audience/world was in love with and gave Return of the Kings the awards but maybe Fellowship and Towers are far stronger? Nice that you noticed those cool lines, sets and the world that's shown off. Incredible stuff.
Kinda lost it at 31:51ish when he pronounced Aragorn like Eragon, and my first thought was "wrong series, bud!"
In all seriousness though, I love seeing James getting into this trilogy, man.
Samwise Gamgee will always be the realest ride-or-die best friend to ever exist, fictional or otherwise.
So much to say about this movie and the reaction video. I only wish my memory were good enough to recall all the things I wanted to mention.
Another call out to the music as a character. Part of the collector's soundtrack, and other featurettes, show how Howard Shore developed his themes and what they represented. Every part of the music has meaning, it's not just there to sound epic.
All those chills? I get it! I have no wish for war and I hate that part of humanity, but there's something about the willingness to make these heroic/military sacrifices on behalf of others that really gets to me. Even the scene with Ents advancing and Treebeard acknowledging this battle may very well cause their extinction caused me to tear up a bit... not to mention Theodred's speech before charging out, and other moments.
I luv how much ur enjoying this trilogy. Makes me remember how much I luved them when I saw them in the theatre and helps me relive it all over again. ur comments r insightful and interesting. Keep em comin'!
I love your reactions to these films. I’m learning so much about art from you. I love this trilogy and I have never read the books. The reaction I’ve always had to these films knowing nothing about filmmaking speaks volumes. Masterpiece isn’t a strong enough word.
As a LOTR fan and a huge film appreciator, I respect the hell out of you for sticking to the theatrical versions for your first viewing after so long. The extended editions, in my opinion, do remarkably well for the pacing, and actually aid in the roundedness of the films (ESPECIALLY in Return of the King). But, if you like these movies enough, they'll convince you more than any fan can to get you to watch them. It makes sense to watch them first as they were originally released to the public. Keep up the great work!
Legolas has a lil backstory but what you should know is he’s the prince of the woodland realms and his drippiest feat wasn’t even portrayed in the movies, in the books he kills one of the Fell Beasts( mini dragons ) with ONE SHOT that he takes in the COMPLETE DARK.
I'm so glad I got to see all three of these movies in the cinema... It was an absolutely mind-altering experience!
33:42 Dude yes! The old Two Towers game on Play Station 2 was legit amazing. As was Return of the King. I remember having to kick those siege ladders down and everything. Great gameplay design.
Yeah loved it on the gamecube too!
Lord of the Rings Conquest was also an absolute beauty of a game
Sam’s talk at the end always brings me to tears. More than anything else in the franchise.
Also, it’s a crime that Andy Serkis was never nominated for an Oscar for this!
Glad to hear you are interested in the making of these movies. I absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed all the making of. All the models, costume details, etc.
I believe Christopher Lee was one of the only one in the movie who actually KNEW Tolkein, & Lee was a certifiable badass (WWII special forces, released Metal albums)
Lee WAS a certifiable bad-ass. And he did indeed know Tolkien. And he read the novels on a near yearly basis. His greatest wish was to play Gandalf. But he acknowledged that by the time this film was in production, Ian McKellen was the better choice and he was pleased to play his SECOND greatest wish - Saruman.
There's probably a clip of this on youtube somewhere - but look up what he said to Peter Jackson about how a man REALLY reacts when stabbed in the back. He knew... because he'd seen it (Probably was responsible for it... ) during his years in "spec-ops" in WWII.
Again, I think you’d really enjoy all the BTS footage. Casting, stunts, model sets, forced perspective filming, mass latex prosthetic production, motion capture and coding, coding, coding. This trilogy taught modern day blockbusters how it’s done. The Superhero worlds of today owe a huge debt of gratitude towards LOTR.
The thing that makes this trilogy the best there is, is the fact that everything works. The art design, the set design, the character design, the CGI holds up, the actors give it their all, the cinematography is amazing, the music is amazing, the storytelling is next level. It just all works, not one thing feels off or out of place. That’s why it will stand the test of time.
There’s been almost 70 years of fan art about this story. Of course they have good scenes to draw upon. There are many scenes that are close duplicates of famous art.
@@jackal1221 And now Amazon has hired an idiot to shove diversity and identity politics into the new show lmao.
@@jackal1221 Was just about to mention those guys. Worth mentioning also are the Hildebrandt Brothers. If you want to see a film where THEIR take on the characters is more on display - go watch Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings. It's a WEIRD film. And obviously it was kinda too far ahead of its time to be successful - so it didn't get the sequel it needed to be complete. In fact - you can tell in certain areas that Bakshi FLAT OUT RAN OUT OF MONEY to animate things and went with straight up rotoscoping. However - the character designs are definitely of that "earlier generation" that the Hildebrandt brothers represented.
I actually PREFER the character and costume designs from this trilogy and the artistic sense that Howe and Lee brought. But it's historically interesting to see how the fan and official artwork evolved over time.
@@logandarklighter I saw the Bakshi version in the theater when I was about 10yo and not able to spot the cheapness - it looked like a lot of cel animation looked back then. But I remember rewatching it on VHS 20-or-so years later and just cringing at the production level. There was a rotoscoped shot in the Moria sequence where the Fellowship walked across screen, and I’d swear in court that the guy playing Legolas had Adidas on his feet.🧐🤯😅
33:55 broo you're talkin about Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers game!! Where you gotta kick the ladders down from the ramparts and fight off the orcs. That game is sick, I played it all the time on GameCube.
LOTR games were built different back then.
Yeah you know what’s up!
I am RIGHT there with you with seeing people at full speed on a horse!!
I have literally ZERO training in horseback riding but would absolutely LOVE to know what it's like to just straight up RIP on horse! It has to feel super badass!
From what I've seen in my (admittedly) small amount of research tho... Horseback riding lessons, in general, are pretty expensive and I've yet to find a place near me (30 miles north of Boston / 15 miles south of New Hampshire) that will even train people to haul ass on a horse. Everywhere just has you trot around and jump barrels or whatever lol.
I want to be whipping those reins back and forth, tucked low, like I'm being pursued by Nazgul!!
Sidenote: learning to drive a carriage pulled by 4-6 horses would be badass too!! But that's got to be WAY harder and WAY more expensive
I was the typical horse girl when I was a kid. Including special holidays at stables, suited for kids with at least a little experience in the saddle. That meant two riding lessons a day, mostly 1 lesson, 1 joyride in the fields and of course caring for the horses.
One day our group (around 20 people plus horse, incl trainers) rode an 'attack'. The trainers had checked the field for holes and stuff that could trip the horses beforehand and put a barrel with a flag at the other side of the field. Then we lined up. At 'GO' everyone of us immediately fell into gallop, racing each other for the flag. I FELT the hooves pounding through the dry grass.
That was nearly 25 years ago and I still feel it in my stomach when I see movie scenes like the ride of the Rohirrim. It's an unbelievable experience. It's the same thing with flying on an airplane, how can you describe the feeling you get when you're on the tarmac and the pilot turns up the engines to someone who has never flown?
Edit to add: hauling ass over a field isn't something you can just do unprepared and even if prepared, it's still really dangerous. If your horse trips, that's it. The horse will most likely have to be put down and you'll be very lucky if you haven't snapped your neck. That's why you have to trot around for a while before any respectable trainer would even think about letting you do something like that.
@@ichmeiner4531 what an awesome story!! Thank you!!
I know that one would need EXTENSIVE and probably very EXPENSIVE training to get to that level of riding but I'm curious what kind of places teach to that level. It gives me a new found respect for the actors who do all their own horse work! It's definitely not something they learned overnight or over a weekend haha!
You mentioned how people were out in the field checking for holes, that's something I never thought about haha! You see the movies and people are hauling on (fictional) unknown terrain without issue! I'm sure, if we could talk to people who lived in the mid-1800s frontier, they would tell us that horse chases were probably a lot slower than we'd think! And that you only push your horse to top speeds (on unknown terrain) in the most dire of circumstances! I could be wrong but, like you said, if your horse topples over at break-neck speed... It's not just your neck you'll be worried about breaking!!
@PhatNana237 if you want more horse stories, no worries, I've got plenty 😂 I helped in a stable with racing horses for a while (lots of cleaning, not much riding, but still awesome), rode an Icelandic horse that went to tolt championships in Iceland and played soccer with horses (bareback, with those huge gymnastic balls, it's a blast). Horses are mostly just huge, derpy dogs. If you have very friendly horse and great balance, you wouldn't need much training for riding a full on charge, it's more about the preparation and potential dangers. A broken leg is likely a death sentence for a horse. Knowing all that, a stable that doesn't only train in an indoor riding arena, but does rides outside, too, will usually plan for that, you'd need to look for one of those. Everyone who likes riding through the bushes enjoys a hard gallop over a field, most horses do, too.
Regarding LotR, they made a huge casting call in New Zealand for people who own a horse and got some time to spare. Most of the manly riders of Rohirrim are indeed bearded women, the behind the scenes for the charge in the 3rd movie is both hilarious and impressive.
Edit to add: back when cavalry charges were still a thing, it was just that. A charge. A couple more or less reaching the enemy didn't matter with the numbers they got and a horse wasn't more than part of the equipment. Although, sure, the more horses, the slower the whole unit.
My favorite reaction of yours & I’ve seen 90% of your content & I vote in the polls!
Return of the King is going to melt his brain. You know of which sequence I speak...
Which one? There's multiple ones that are shockingly good for the very early 2000s.
@@jayclean5653 charge at Pelennor Fields
@@MasterBetty69 oh duh. I should've guessed that one.
I've been having health problems all week. This makes my week so much better. Thank you!
Treebeard's voice is done by Gimli, Mr Rhys Davis.
The Witch King rides a fell beast not a mini dragon.
Faramir is the actor who was the narrator, with one eye, in 300.
The horse who saves Aragorn, Brego, was bought and kept by Viggo.
Its not known if they're actually called fell beasts, as fell is an adjective meaning something like 'evil' and not necessarily a creature name
When I first read Lord of the Rings, I always imagined them as some sort of Pterodactyl. There's a line that goes something like "beasts that had somehow suvived from a previous age..." which made my 12yr old self think 'dinosaurs!' (Yes I know Pterosaurs aren't strictly dinosaurs but when I was 12 I did not know that.)
There is another video on UA-cam called:
“Why We’ll Never See Anything Like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Again” by UA-camr 2 Left Thumbs
It gives a great over all information on what it took to make LOTR in 30 minutes. It goes into the extraordinary efforts they took in making these films like how two guys personally made by hand all the chain mail, working morning to night attaching each metal hoop. They estimate that they attached about 13,000 links a day for something that most of the time was warn under their clothing.
It’s a great video. But what I took most out of it was the comment, “No one has or will ever create anything close to what Peter Jackson made with LOTR trilogy. Not even Peter Jackson himself.”
A true Lightning in a Bottle situation, everything lined up perfectly for them when making the film.
The perfect storm, everything just fit together seamlessly, from the main actors to the guy making sure that the coffee is right and ready. Cast and crew so dedicated and hellbent on doing it perfectly are surely every director's wet dream.
This is nice to have a filmmakers perspective. Most reactors are like "hey, cool!" Which isnt bad, but from your perspective you really appreciate sounds, set designs, costumes, etc and it's nice to see :)
I think the coolest part is the a lot of the set peices were really big miniatures model that the production staff called "Bigatures". Isenguard, aka Sarumons tower, was 60ft wide and had to be built outside. Helms Deep, The Mines of Moria, Rivendale, etc were all built for real. They made 64 bigatures for all three films, some of the best ones will be revealed in the next film.
11:43 one of the main references were the no man's lands in WW1 aka The Great War in which Tolkien fought and incorporated many aspects of it into his Lord of The Rings books.
He drew lots of parallels to the hopelessness of such a war, the friendship found in your friends through such a hard time, the PTSD represented by Frodo's wound, the jokes to lighten up the mood in such a dark hour and etc
The Battle of Helm's Deep takes place at night and in the rain because that's how it occurs in the book, not so that they could hide CGI, though that was a CGI-hiding benefit.
6:45 *“FIND THE HALF-LING!!!”*
24:59 Legolas is dope indeed; always there to aid his friends & stylish even in battle 🎯🧝♂️✨
Are you planning to react to the "Making Of" appendices as a seperate video? The wealth of work put into these movies is astounding.
Technically, the elves are older than the ents, (and Gandalf's even older) but even with them, the only reason they know the Hobbits exist is because Gandalf made it a point to go exploring.