The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Directed by: Peter Jackson | 179 minutes | action, drama, horror, war, adventure, romance, fantasy | Actors: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Bean, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Dominic Monaghan, Miranda Otto, Bernard Hill, Brad Dourif, David Wenham, Karl Urban

Filmmaker Peter Jackson stunned friend and foe by embarking on a massive project in the late 1990s – a film adaptation of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ – and in 2001 had an overwhelming success with the first (of three) part. of these, called ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. He had succeeded in converting Professor Tolkien’s book, which had hitherto been considered unfilmable, into film language in a compelling way. The whole world looked forward to the beautiful, detailed fantasy world, the captivating characters, and terrifying monsters, which Jackson really managed to bring to life. The world was now definitively acquainted with the hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd), the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), the humans Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), and Boromir (Sean Bean), elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). After this motley crew has been formed after much effort in part 1 of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, they fall apart in part 2 and the viewer follows three completely different storylines. A handsome boy who keeps the overview and knows how to enchant the audience just as with ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. And it seems unlikely, but ‘The Two Towers’ can stand with its head held high next to its predecessor.

It was difficult on ‘The Fellowship’ to introduce so many characters and history to the viewer in a quick and elegant way, but ‘The Two Towers’ has its own obstacles. As the middle film, because of the lack of a head and tail, the film has to work perhaps the hardest to find its own identity. A lot has gone into this film, so what’s the best way to start? Jackson opts for a flying start. He clearly assumes that people who go to see ‘The Two Towers’ have also seen ‘The Fellowship’ and so does not start with a retrospective or summary of previous events. Instead, he opts for a slight overlap, recreating the most exciting scene – Gandalf’s battle with the Balrog – but this time from different angles. It’s a brilliant solution. The film starts very quietly, floating along snowy mountain peaks, when suddenly the voice of Gandalf is softly audible, who is busy with his big confrontation in the heart of one of the mountains. “Go back to the shadows!” The shivers run down the viewer’s spine, and then you’re suddenly sucked into the mountain and you’re back in the middle of the fight. Not long after, the viewer sees what happens when Gandalf falls into the abyss – where Movie 1 left off – and the excitement only intensifies. It is a beautiful entry from Jackson, who immediately has the viewer by his side.

Jackson has a difficult task ahead of him, story-wise. The traveling companion has fallen apart, and so he now has to balance three separate storylines, which must be related, but also have value of their own, with characters that all have to go through development. In general, this happens very admirably. Sam and Frodo have their hands full with the schizophrenic creature Gollum, who is actually the star of the movie; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, in their search for Merry and Pippin, become involved in a war between Saruman and the horse people of Rohan, and Merry and Pippin end up near a pair of walking, talking trees, which may also spring into action. This last storyline is the least successful of the film. Scenes are regularly cut too quickly, so that the viewer never really gets the chance to get to know the tree herder Treebeard and experience what Merry and Pippin all experience and feel (off camera) in his forest. Perhaps Jackson feared that a walking tree, taking ages to get something sensible out of its mouth, would lull the viewer to sleep, but this is the other extreme. Also, Jackson has decided to deviate from the book by making the trees passive and rather uninterested in the war going on around them, in order to give Merry and Pippin more to do (as main characters). Merry and Pippin are clearly trying to convince the grafts themselves and devise ruses to get their cooperation. They do indeed do more now, but the (book) lovers of the grafts will probably be little charmed by this adaptation.

‘The Two Towers’ has a very different tone than ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. Literally and figuratively, the film is darker. ‘The Fellowship’ had a fairytale feel and locations while ‘The Two Towers’ is quite dark and gray in tone, and focuses on the human world. Wars, manipulations, politics, kings and shield maidens: yes, we have really entered the chivalric age. While it’s the brilliantly crafted and acted character Gollum that most stick with me in “The Two Towers,” it’s the storyline of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, and their support of the people of Rohan, that dominates. In a way, this is a bit of a shame, because in the end it should be about Frodo and the Ring (the longer DVD version solves this somewhat) and now that the battle for Helm’s Deep is central to the film (which takes only a few pages in the book). takes), but it must be said that Peter Jackson is using an excellent build-up to this moment. For a long time the fight is only talked about or lived towards, but this only adds to the tension. It is wonderful to see how the heroes prepare for this violent confrontation. How Theoden (a brilliantly cast Bernard Hill) allows himself to be hoisted in his battle gear by his men, how even young boys and old men have to fight along, and are insecure, how Aragorn slowly but surely shows his royal side by advising King Theoden (and sometimes speaking out of turn), and how all the men finally stand ready on the shore, and silence, and it begins to rain gently, and the drops fall audibly on the armor. It’s these subtle, elegant touches that keep ‘The Two Towers’ so interesting.

The human aspect comes to the fore (again) very well in this film. In the midst of all the chaos and clatter of arms, there is always an eye for the emotions of those involved. Theoden who hears of his son’s death and mourns at his grave in a heartbreaking scene; two children – Freda and Éothain – who appear briefly when their mother – crying – mounts them on a horse and sends them away, as the village is attacked by orcs; the children and women who anxiously look around in the caves of Helm’s Deep and listen to what is happening outside… it is precisely those scenes and shots that keep all the violence of war in the right perspective and the right balance.

The casting is again excellent in this film. Bernard Hill plays the part of his life as King Theoden – with the right balance of pride, uncertainty, melancholy, and combativeness. Miranda Otto is indelibly his niece Eowyn, a feisty swordsman who also fights loneliness and would like love in her life (from Aragorn). Brad Dourif is suitably smooth, underhanded, and intelligent, like the Rasputin-like Wormtongue, who controls Theoden on behalf of Saruman.

That leaves one character who is one of the biggest achievements of the entire production: Gollum. This pathetic creature, always on the lookout for the Ring and who will have to serve – to Frodo – in order to stay near it, is a marvel of computer animation. The motion capture technique is now widely used (as in ‘Avatar’), but Gollum was one of the first characters to be conjured up on screen in this way. In short, a real actor – in this case Andy Serkis – plays the scenes with the actors, and later his movements and facial expressions, with the help of special sensors on his body, are translated into computer images and the look of Gollum is born.

But not only technically, Gollum is an achievement: his character is also extremely interesting. Especially the two sides of his personality – in one scene, in which he has a conversation with himself, literally portrayed – are fascinating. Based on Frodo’s actions and the bond that Gollum seems to develop with his captors, you see how his good side (if it exists) begins to gain the upper hand. There are even moments when he really evokes pathos and a bond is created with the viewer. When, at the end of the film, Sam gives a monologue about the good in the world worth looking out for, the sad expression on Gollum’s face speaks volumes. He probably can’t remember the good things in his life and he also sees a bleak future for himself. The ambiguity in his character – because actually he still wants the Ring and he also means evil – is very interesting. In the end, his evil side comes back in full (which is made a little more plausible in the long version of the DVD), and it will also take over completely in the third part, ‘The Return of the King’, but luckily he stays in’ The Two Towers’ a character with many dimensions.

Technically speaking, the film is again a showpiece, although Rohan’s landscape is somewhat desolate and not as majestic as the music would have the viewer believe. A lot of attention has again been paid to details in armor and buildings and the compositions of shots and scenes are sometimes breathtaking. It’s wonderful to watch the orcs besiege the wall of Helm’s Deep with their ladders, or to get the overview when the orcs overwhelm the walls and our heroes have to retreat (while Legolas keeps sifting through arrows like a mad orcs). And the action is sometimes finger-licking good, with the final march of the Ents, when they storm Saruman’s tower in Isengard, being one of the highlights.

‘The Two Towers’ has done something almost impossible by reaching (almost) the same level of quality as ‘The Fellowship’. The tone is different, more earthy, more human, but also darker, because more and more is at stake. The battle for Helm’s Deep is top-notch spectacle, and the intriguing Gollum is the film’s big surprise. But Peter Jackson’s bag of tricks isn’t empty yet. There is of course the grand finale of ‘The Lord of the Rings’: ‘The Return of the King’. Delicious.