The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
July 2004 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Notice a pattern emerging at the local multiplexes? It’s a sickness that continues to plague the Hollywood system: a bulimic imagination, coupled with the belief that special effects alone make a good film. This summer, two films obviously imitate the digital imagery that The Lord of the Rings trilogy revolutionized. Watch any trailer for Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy or Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur, and you’ll witness swooping camera moves that reveal a cast of thousands on the brink of epic, computer-generated battles.

In fairness, King Arthur has yet to open as of this writing, and may prove better than online chatter suggests. Not every Hollywood formula falls flat the second time around. Troy was not so lucky. After a strong opening weekend, the film was quickly overshadowed by rivals within a couple of weeks. The Greek epic is an example of how Hollywood executives often miss important details: story, context, and characters are required for compelling and memorable cinema. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King doesn’t hide poor character development by bludgeoning its audience with non-stop action. Every battle has a logical context within the story’s arc. More importantly, the filmmakers never lose track of the intensely human element that gives perspective to the fight for Middle Earth.

It is the relationships within the Fellowship that give weight and meaning to the conflict. When orcs and trolls are breaking down the last door of defense within the walls of Gondor, Gandalf takes a moment to reassure Pippin that the end of this life is simply the beginning of another. Howard Shore’s brilliant and beautiful orchestral cue symbolizing the Grey Havens ebbs faintly in the background, and for an instant, the chaos stops. The filmmaker’s expert handling of this scene makes the afterlife palpable. It is a profoundly touching moment in a film that has humanity and heroic drama to spare.

Image quality on the final DVD installment is very good. Considering that three-plus hours of film are on a single DVD makes the final product even more impressive. There are times when the image looks a little soft; the most obvious occurs as the camera pans across fields of grass or captures Frodo, Sam, and Gollum on the rock face above Minas Morgul. The film’s deep blacks serve as a mesmerizing backdrop for the arresting visuals and seamless special effects. The whites within Gondor and atop Gandalf the White exhibit an appropriate level of angelic sheen, without any nasty clipping or overshoot.

The audio is fantastic. The level of detail I heard on this DVD indicates how much of the soundtrack was veiled in the theater. Subtle wisps of atmosphere, along with the hiss of the Witch King and shriek of the Nazgul, sent shivers up my spine. The soundtrack is never harsh, while bass dynamics and detail are beyond impressive. The release of catapults, the charge of oliphants and the collapse of stone towers caused colossal waves of tight, well-defined bass energy to shake my room. And for the first time, I could clearly make out the snippet of dialogue "for Frodo" as Aragorn ignored temptation and charged the Black Gate. This is a reference-grade soundtrack, which makes me doubtful as to how much better the DTS mix on the inevitable extended version will be.

Like the trilogy’s other two theatrical releases, the extras make a mockery of an otherwise splendid presentation. New Line does little more than waste a second DVD with junket-quality interviews and "making of" featurettes. The content offered glosses over the immense work that went into this film. Only the "National Geographic Special" offers the viewer a little bit of class, as well as some interesting trivia.

The studio would have been smarter and more honest to have released the extended version, with its excellent package of extras, and the theatrical version, with zero extras, at the same time. That way everyone would have had a choice. Not everyone wants the full-blown version. What New Line has done simply cheapens the series and disrespects those fans that contributed to the trilogy’s lucrative success.

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