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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

Continuing on in my Favourite Film series, this post looks at the films that opened my eyes to filmmaking and made me realise my passion for film. Based on the huge novel by J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings trilogy consists of Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King and follows Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), a respected hobbit who lives with his adventurous Uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm) who is forced to carry the One Ring to Mordor where he must destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom before the evil Lord Sauron claims the Ring and uses it to rule over Middle Earth. Frodo is accompanied by the Fellowship that consist of his best friend, Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin), fellow hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), men Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean), elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Frodo must resist the lure of the ring and cross Middle Earth in a bid to save mankind from ruin. The trilogy also features a strong supporting cast with Hugo Weaving as elf Lord Elrond, Liv Tyler as his daughter Arwen who is Aragorn’s love interest and Miranda Otto in badass form as Éowyn. I know it seems a bit unfair to cram the whole trilogy in one post but it is impossible not to consider the vast achievement and scope that Peter Jackson has achieved.

It cannot be underestimated how well these films did upon release. The trilogy well surpassed the $1 billion mark and became instantly iconic around the world with masses of people en route to the premieres at their local cinemas. All three won big come award time with Fellowship of the Ring winning four Academy Awards, The Two Towers winning seven and The Return of the King sweeping the board with eleven nominations and eleven wins, tying with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) for the most wins at the Oscars. All three were critical and commercial smashes and boasted a spectacle despite being a film with fairly indie roots. It was different from other mainstream films because of this and I think the story’s message of fighting for good and friendship is one that resonates with a lot of people.

The cinematic releases see the films lengths at a minimum of 150 minutes per film but the extended editions bring the total running time an amazing 12 hours and what a 12 hours it is. The film achieved critical and commercial success upon release, has dated extremely well and remains one of the best loved franchises in history. Everything about it is perfect to me. I think it is a brilliant adaptation of the books and think the changes and omissions that were made were completely justified for the big screen. I know some people have trouble with the multiple endings at the end of the third film but remember that it is the end of one extremely long epic and that the ends need to be tied nicely. I think it’s a credit to the brilliant screenplays written by Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens that each member of the Fellowship is loved and has their own story. The films are so spectacular and huge that it becomes an immersive experience for the viewer. Jackson contrasts this with moments charged with emotion such as Sam’s speech at the end of The Two Towers which gives the film its heart and separates it from other blockbuster films that have come before it. I couldn’t tell you how many times I have watched these films and I am still noticing new things every time. It’s such a rewarding experience to watch these films and I think Jackson’s direction captures the imagination that Tolkien gives in the novels perfectly.

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The film is cast brilliantly. There are three main storylines when the Fellowship splits with one following Frodo and Sam, another following Merry and Pippin and the third following Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Each actor embodies their character personally, particularly Mortensen and McKellen as Aragorn and Gandalf, respectively. Aragorn’s transition from outlaw Strider to the King is amazing as we see him emerge from the shadows and take the lead in the Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers (I will be discussing Helm’s Deep in further detail soon). On the other hand, we see Gandalf undergo a physical transformation as we shifts from being Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White, giving him even stronger powers. Frodo’s development from a hobbit who has never left the Shire to crossing lands and encountering creatures that he would never have seen before. Much like his Uncle Bilbo, Frodo’s sense of what is right helps to combat his fears but his morality is tested when the manipulative Gollum (Andy Serkis) “assists” in helping him reach Mordor. The rapport between the cast offscreen is reflected onscreen and makes for great viewing in scenes such as the Fellowship’s inception and the scenes when they are forced to split up. The intensity of the Fellowship’s bond is so strong and the direction is so intricate that the audience feels as though they are going on the same journey. When watching the climactic scene of The Return of the King unfold, you can’t help but feel relieved when everything is over.

One of the aspects that also makes these films so spectacular are the special effects which are provided by WETA. Led by the amazing Richard Taylor, CGI is only used when an effect is humanly impossible. The behind-the-scenes on the extended editions are fantastic and well worth watching as we watch the creation of Middle Earth unfold. Richard Taylor is the best of the best when it comes to special effects (his multiple Oscars reflect this) and his team are super brilliant and creative. From the intricate details in the designs and the make-up, every single aspect of the film is thought out and executed beautifully. Taylor and his team tie together the make-up, the props and the special effects together that enhances the fantastical elements in the film. Even the effort that goes into collecting short sounds for sound editing and mixing and the process behind it is remarkable to watch. Seeing the passion and the heart that the crew put into the film is touching as everyone has a respect for each other no matter what job they do. Howard Shore’s score for the trilogy is also something that seems revolutionary and new in film. Somehow, he captures the tone perfectly and created that perfect violin solo for “History of the Ring” that is instantly synonymous with the film itself. My favourite piece in the trilogy is “Riders of Rohan” from The Two Towers because it captures that anticipation for battle perfectly and grandeur of marching. The use of delicate strings contrasting with a strong brass sound helps to elevate the film to its epic heights. Shore is one of the best film composers out there and he knocks it out of the park with these scores.

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I don’t think I could justify discussing these films in length and not bring up the brilliance in structure and execution of the major battle scenes. Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers is probably the best battle in film history. Everything about it is remarkable from the set design to the intricate detailing in the costumes and props and then the performances are on top form to boot. It comes at a point in the story where Sauron has managed to accumulate a large 100,000 strong Orc army thanks to the evil Wizard, Saruman (Christopher Lee). The odds are stacked against the soldiers of Rohan but they still vow to battle until the very end. The arrival of the elves from Lothlórien, led by Haldir (Craig Parker), marks a significant shift in the Middle Earth universe as elves infamously refuse to involve themselves in war but the threat of darkness forces them to fight alongside. It makes for an epic battle and one of the most devastating deaths in the trilogy as Haldir meets his end defending Aragorn. Other scenes that are remarkable include Boromir’s death in Fellowship of the Ring which I remember being the first death that I encountered in film and being perplexed that a “good guy” could die in a film. The great thing about The Lord of the Rings trilogy is that it does not patronise the audience but it is suitable for all audiences (maybe not smaller children but from around 6/7 upwards). Even the ending is bittersweet as Frodo sails off for the Undying Lands, leaving the others forever. It isn’t afraid to delve into serious topics while remaining in that fantasy universe and being larger than life.

I would be lying if I said that these films didn’t change my life and my outlook on film. I watch the extended editions every few months and fall in love more and more. There is a strong argument that they are among the greatest films in history and deserve their place one of the most renowned series for its depth and scope. I remember seeing them for the first time in the cinema and being scared and in awe at the same time. I was so captivated that I would watch them on a loop for months on end. It’s amazing to think that these films were such a huge part of my childhood but they are so important to me and I’ll never stop loving them.

What do you think of the The Lord of the Rings? Which installment is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below!

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Top 5 Leonardo DiCaprio Performances

Leonardo DiCaprio is a rare sort of actor nowadays. He is the most profitable outside of those who have worked in superhero franchises and manages to still pull in an audience of all kinds. Beloved since his career-making turn as an autistic teenager in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? DiCaprio has evolved from child star to young heartthrob, playboy to a mature rounded actor who can seemingly master any role he plays. This year saw his second collaboration with renowned director, Quentin Tarantino and it hs propelled him into the race for the Best Actor gongs this awards season.

During a time where his star someone seems to still be on a rise despite being at the top of his game, I thought I’d compile a list of my top 5 performances from DiCaprio. This proved difficult and it’s not to say that anything excluded means that it’s bad, I just didn’t have the space.

Here’s my top 5 in chronological order:

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993)

The film that brought DiCaprio to worldwide attention and melted the hearts of a global audience, DiCaprio plays Arnie Grape, the younger brother of the titular character (played by Johnny Depp), who acts as his carer. Playing a role such as Arnie is deeply complex and requires much maturity that a lot of actors don’t possess, but DiCaprio shows his dedication to the craft beautifully. Arnie is a hopeful individual who Gilbert thinks the world of. DiCaprio’s performance is tender and layered as we see the character’s frustration rise throughout the film until it explodes. It earned DiCaprio a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor (many people even think he should have won). A role such as this would be a good enough highlight for any actor’s resume, but for DiCaprio, this is only the beginning of a blossoming career.

Titanic (1997)

I would be lying if I said this wasn’t my favourite DiCaprio performance. The iconic love story that defines the Hollywood blockbuster and tells the fictional story of two star-crossed lovers on the doomed 1912 liner that sank to the sea after hitting an iceberg. DiCaprio plays Jack Dawson, an artist with a hard-working attitude who wins tickets for the Titanic at a game of poker. He stays in a third-class cabin with his friend Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) and fate hands him a meeting with the beautiful first-class passenger, Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet). If What’s Eating GIlbert Grape? was a stroke of luck then Titanic cemented his superstar status. He lost out on a much-deserved Oscar-nomination but he was instantly recognised by fans everywhere. Jack and Rose’s story immediately became synonamous with classic Hollywood and the film is still loved around the world. I can’t even begin to explain how much I love this film. It must be among my most watched films of all time and partly because of the sincerity and heart in DiCaprio’s performance.

The Aviator (2004)

DiCaprio’s first collaboration with Martin Scorsese showed that DiCaprio is more than capable of leading a dramatic feature at top billing. He does so perfectly in this Howard Hughes biopic in his turn as the legendary producer through the high times of his career. DiCaprio won a Golden Globe for his performance and lost out on an Academy Award. The Aviator is an interesting insight into the Golden Age of Hollywood and what people will do to hold onto the power and fame that they have. Even against a strong supporting cast, particularly Cate blanchett in an Oscar-winning turn as Hughes’ love interest, Katharine Hepburn, DiCaprio holds himself with ease. I was torn between this and his more recent Scorsese collaboration, The Wolf of Wall Street but I think that this film bridges the gap between his heartthrob days and his breaking into “serious” acting as he isn’t afraid of allowing him to become immersed in the role.

Django Unchained (2012)

After scheduling conflicts got in the way of him playing Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Quentin Tarantino cast DiCaprio as the evil plantation owner, Calvin Candie who is introduced into the 3 hour film halfway through but manages to make such an impact that it influences the entire film. The film follows former slave, Django (Jamie Foxx) as he and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) seek to track down and free Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) who has been sold to Candie and works at his Candieland plantation. It’s a film that was mired in controversy from the beginning due to its excessive use of racial slur and extreme violence. The hard-hitting parts of the film come from Candie’s treatment of the slaves such as forcing them to partake in “Mandingo fighting” where two black men are forced to fight to the death for their owners’ entertainment. The scene is brutal and hard to watch as Django looks on helplessly as Candie cheers as his man wins. What makes this role so different for DiCaprio is that this role is the first where his character is not lovable in any way. Candie’s evil nature is clear when he has a slave ripped to shreds by dogs in front of Django to show his power as a white man.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

In his second collaboration with Tarantino, DiCaprio is promoted to the leading role as fading actor, Rick Dalton. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is witty and shows DiCaprio in top form. I have written a full review which you can read here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see DiCaprio’s name filling up nomination spots come awards season as this is a role that he pulls off fantastically as the self-pitying, alcoholic actor.

As I come to the end of this list, I want to give a really special shoutout to his mega turn as Jordan Belfort in martin Scorsese’s 2013 hit, The Wolf of Wall Street. Admittedly, this is the top 5 that my gut went with and it breaks my heart not to include this or his Oscar-winning turn in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant but as I said in my introduction, there are so many performances to choose from and they are the five that made the biggest impact on me.

What do you think? What’s your favourite Leonardo DiCaprio performance? Let me know in the comments below!

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Top 5 Kate Winslet Performances

After writing my post on Leonardo DiCaprio (which you can read here), it only makes sense to follow this on with a post on his most famous co-star, Kate Winslet. Following a meteoric rise during the 1990s, she also was nominated for a ton of Academy Awards before finally landing one in 2008. Her extensive resume has seen her play in period pieces, quirky indies and big-budget blockbusters. Winslet has become synonymous with the great British actresses of all time and is certainly among the best actresses working today.

Compiling a list of my top 5 performances was tricky because I knew instantly what they were; however, they come from the rise and peak of career so the last instalment is 2008. That isn’t to say that she hasn’t done good films since (the HBO series Mildred Pierce and Danny Boyle’s 2015 film Steve Jobs are proof of this) but these are the performances that stand out to me.

Here are my top 5 in chronological order:

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Peter Jackson’s graphic retelling of the controversial Parker-Hulme murders shows the imagination of two teenage friends as they descend into madness and fix fantasy and reality. Melanie Lynskey plays working-class Pauline Parker and Kate Winslet plays the affluent Juliet Hulme. Proving her acting chops at a young age, Winslet commands the screen as sickly Juliet. Winslet is magnetic in her role as a neglected teen, crumbling in the aftermath of her parents’ travelling, her fight with tuberculosis and her parents’ eventual divorce and lack of love for their daughter. She creates a world with working-class Pauline and together the two become completely entwined in their fantasyland known as Borovnia where artists are celebrated and religion is frowned upon. We see the girls become violently inseparable as reality and fantasy become one until the film’s horrific conclusion. The film catapulted Winslet into the public eye and served as a great debut that has made a lasting impact and showed how fearless an actor she is from a young age. Juliet is headstrong and has a brilliant imagination which is underlined with severe manipulation and a cruel nature.

Titanic (1997)

So I have spoken about my love for this film in my Leonardo DiCaprio post and yes, this is the quintessential Winslet performance. James Cameron’s masterpiece sees Winslet stars as aristocrat passenger, Rose Dewitt Bukater, on the doomed 1912 liner. It’s the modern classic blockbuster that brings tears to my eyes every time. Winslet’s performance brought her a second Oscar nomination (the first being for 1995’s Sense and Sensibility) and first for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Winslet is perfect in the role of Rose, a young privileged woman crippled by the expectations of society. She longs for freedom and finds it when she meets the carefree, Jack (DiCaprio), a working-class artist who got his ticket through a lucky game of poker. They go through a lifetime of love within the space of a few days before the ship’s fate is sealed. We see Rose evolve throughout the film as the first act sees her trapped and unhappily engaged to Cal (Billy Zane) to finding love and freedom with Jack (DiCaprio) and the final act sees her lose that love but keeping her freedom. Rose’s evolution to unshackle herself from the expectations of society is a testament to Winslet’s ability to show Rose as more than a damsel in distress.

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This film marked a huge turn in Winslet’s resume as she has become known for starring in period films. Charlie Kaufman’s insanely brilliant  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind follows the hopeless Joel (Jim Carrey) as he becomes enamoured with the mysterious and colourful Clementine (Winslet). When their relationship falls apart, Clementine goes to the controversial Lacuna Incorporated where people have their memories swiped of a specific person to rid . Joel attempts to do the same towards Clementine but tries to resist as he longs to hold onto the memories. The film is quirky, confusing and dazzling. It won the Academy Award for his brilliant screenplay and Winslet gained her third Oscar nomination. Clementine is deeply flawed but she is full of wonder and is a perfect opposite to Joel’s constant pessimism. Whereas Joel’s memory erasure comes out of malice for Clementine, hers came from the sadness of living a life in sadness. She is on a constant push to find belonging and love. I remember seeing this film for the first time and being mesmerised by Winslet’s performance. The character of Clementine is among my favourites of all time (as I discussed in my post on women in film which you can read here).

The Reader (2008)

The film that finally bagged Winslet the Oscar,  The Reader is a World War II period film following a young teenager, Michael (David Kross), as he becomes involved in an affair with an older illiterate woman, Hanna Schmitz (Winslet), who is eventually arrested and tried for her involvement with the Nazi party. The first act of the film shows the affair and then skips straight to the trial as Michael has read about Hanna’s arrest in the paper. As we only hear about Hanna’s crimes rather than seeing them in the film, we see the other guards from the camp coerce her into taking the full blame for signing a document that authorised a mass killing despite the fact that she is illiterate. Her humiliation in being illiterate forces her to accept that it is her signature and she is sentenced to life in prison. It’s a deeply complex performance that shows a human beneath a monster. We see Hanna deteriorate as she truly understands what happened in the camp and it begins to destroy her as she teaches herself to read and write. It’s as though Hanna functioned in her own world which we saw at the beginning of the film and as she learns to read and write, her world opens up and she realises that reality exists and suffers the consequences of her actions. Winslet won the Best Actress in Leading Role for this but I firmly believe that she should have won the Supporting Actress gong for this and the Lead for  Revolutionary Road but sadly her performance in  The Reader was classed as lead for some reason. It’s a supporting role but a bloody good one.

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Revolutionary Road (2008)

Now for the film that should have won Winslet the Leading Actress Oscar, Revolutionary Road reunites Winslet and DiCaprio for the adaptation of the novel that centres on the Wheeler family and their struggle to achieve the American Dream in the 1940s. Winslet plays April Wheeler, the failed actress who is stuck in a life as a stay-at-home mum. This film was among the most hyped of the year as it was also directed by Winslet’s then-husband Sam Mendes as well. The film itself is brilliant and passionate as we’re taken through the couple’s relationship from its hopeful start to its tragic end. The character of April is extremely interesting as she refuses to fit the template of the 1950s housewife. She gets a job as a secretary and saves up money to move to Paris to start a new life. Aside from the two leads, Michael Shannon provides a very intense performance as the Wheelers’ neighbour, John, who has recently been discharged from an asylum and his mother, Helen who is played brilliantly by Kathy Bates. April’s descent into hatred for herself and her life is a distressing one to watch but the performance is breath-taking.

It goes without saying that Winslet is one of my favourite all-time actresses and I am excited to see what future projects she takes part in. She demonstrates time and time again her amazing range and the strong women she chooses to portray.

What do you think? What are your favourite Winslet performances? Let me know in the comments below!