Lord of the Rings' Greatest Achievement Often Goes Overlooked

Fantasy and science fiction films come and go, even massive franchises of their time often dissipate and wait for their next generational reboot. However, there are the rare few that stand the test of time. Whether it's for their well-mixed effects and sweeping music that timelessly pass through new technological updates, or detailed costumes with the perfect actors to inhabit them and become the characters, a delicate balance must always be kept to make a franchise timeless. In the case of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, on top of all of these aspects and more which stand fast against the test of time, one of the hardest things for fresh generations of viewers to tolerate is the obsolescence of dialogue. Many great films suffer from this pattern of obsolete patterns of speech or terms that don't sit right with new audiences, or lines that are just "too cheesy or corny" for the contemporary ear. So how did The Lord of the Rings, based on one of the original series of contemporary fiction classics by J.R.R. Tolkien, maintain such a memorable and timeless screenplay that continues to hit hard to this day?

Not many franchises can boast a timeless script. Sure, the central Star Wars trilogy that began in 1977 has memorable lines, but many are still said in jest and dripping in melodramatic tongue-in-cheek rather than to inspire. When it comes to The Lord of the Rings, the simple dragging-out of the word "DEATH" is enough to give fans chills and shout along and pump their fists in the air, often with no air of irony whatsoever. When it comes to classic fantasy, especially from heavy source material of books as Tolkien was notorious for, it can be incredibly easy to soak lines straight from the book with camp and melodrama, luckily for The Lord of the Rings films, Peter Jackson and his fellow screenwriters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh were up to the task. Between their writing and Peter Jackson's incredibly obsessive desire to get the perfect variety of takes from actors, the films delivered an incredible epic that is still fully enjoyed and introduced to new fans to this day. So how was this done? Why are even the most melodramatic lines still hitting the right emotional notes? Some of it is about the script, a lot has to do with the performance, and the rest is the atmosphere built around the moment by the amazing team of filmmakers.

Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings With Only A Sprinkle of Imitation

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• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released to theaters on December 19th, 2001.
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy ended its sequential release on December 17th, 2023. Some special release screenings were preceded by a marathon of the previous two films.

J.R.R. Tolkien's extensive prose within his massive literary works of The Lord of the Rings required a delicate and understanding hand of the story to truly adapt these classics into films. It was difficult enough for the adaptation of Peter Jackson's predecessors, who made several animated versions of The Hobbitand two ofThe Lord of the Rings books, to really capture a grounded and immersive feel to the characters, especially in the dialogue. When it comes to picking and choosing what scenes to keep, which words to hold onto, and which lines to adapt, it took Peter Jackson and two other screenwriters, other than himself, to parse through the minutiae and prioritize and maintain the impact of the original words and convert it into presentable dialogue for a modern audience.

Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh both accompanied Peter Jackson on this adaptive writing epic. It was important to turn some dialogue into "Show not tell" moments, whereas previous generations of filmmakers might have taken a more literal dialogue-heavy approach. That being said, many key moments involving the characters were often only widdled-down rather than re-worded, so that the essence of Tolkien's voice was still felt through the words that remained. Although the editing of the script was a heavy burden to undertake alone, it would take much more to deliver this still very epic dialogue through the voices and performances of the actors. Luckily for The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson is obsessive about getting what he wants from a performance.

The Lord of the Rings Dialogue Was Filmed In A Lot Of Takes

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• Christopher Lee, who plays Saruman, was a great fan of the series and read the books once a year.
• BeforeThe Lord of the Rings franchise, Peter Jackson was best known for his gore-fest horror films.

Peter Jackson's reputation for getting the right shot and perfect take was infamous among the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings. His sheer passion for building such a rich world in such a well-contained and spirited trilogy was a huge undertaking and it would be the series that defined his career once he succeeded. Since the dialogue needed the right tone, atmosphere, and performance to pull off just right, Peter would shoot an immense amount of takes over several days of dialogue scenes, making sure he had every possible variety of delivery and performance he could get from the actors. In the case of Ian Holm, who played Bilbo, Peter Jackson loved Ian's method of varying his line delivery between every single take, rarely delivering the line the same. Although this would work wonderfully in both artists' favor, Peter Jackson's multiple takes even made a Hollywood great a little insecure.

Christopher Lee, who played Saruman, was quite taken aback by the immense amount of takes Peter Jackson filmed when he first started filming scenes. He was later assured by Ian McKellen who played Gandalf that he was not doing anything wrong and that it was just Peter's style to do so. Christopher Lee, being a great fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy his whole life, felt insecure that after being a decorated actor on stage and screen for decades, was asked to re-take his performances so frequently. Luckily Ian McKellen was able to ease his mind that he was doing great. The real genius of doing this, even though it is taxing on the actors, is that it gives Peter Jackson and the editors plenty of variety to cut and replace certain deliveries of lines depending on how they need to sculpt the scenes. Cuts of the film change constantly during post-production, so this huge archive of takes would have been a golden resource to get the most perfect delivery from each line.

The Atmosphere Of The Lord of the Rings Elevated the Dialogue

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• Of the 17 Oscars The Lord of the Rings trilogy raked in, one of them was for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Return of the King.
• The combined runtime of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is 558 minutes for the theatrical release and 683 for the extended editions.

A dingy firelit room at the Prancing Pony sets the stage for the anxious and sweaty Aragorn to ask Frodo "Are you frightened?" and when he replies, he quickly finishes with "Not nearly frightened enough, I know what hunts you." Without the firelight flickering on their faces and the moonlight shafting through the window making Frodo's large-eyed stare ominously glow with curious fear these lines would not be nearly as impactful. The passion of the script's brilliance cannot live on the pages of the screenplay alone, nor do they stand alone in elevating it. For every subtle line, tear-jerking exchange, and riling battle speech, there is an atmosphere worthy of its magnificence to truly portray the gravity of the words. A great personification of this would be imagining The One Ring as Tolkien's books, Frodo as the adapted screenplay and the actors, and Sam as the entire team that creates each scene's visuals and music as Sam says "Come on Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you." Without the flames, the soot-covered faces mixing with their tears, and the steep and sharp path ahead showing the impossible way ahead, Sam's optimism and motivation, swelling with Howard Shore's score, would just not hit the same.

A huge part of all of the great lines that have stood the test of time despite how antiquated the language or how dramatic the delivery is how their setting and scene composition match their circumstances. When Treebeard is led by Merry and Pippin to the clearcut part of the forest just outside of Isengard in The Two Towers, the great combination of visual effects to create the barren border of the forest creates a moment of loneliness for Treebeard's anger. No longer resilient to the idea of revolt his line "There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery..." would be incredibly hard to deliver seriously if it wasn't for the combined effort of the effects and puppetry team, mixed in with the special effects team to truly convey Treebeard's anger. The three Lord of the Rings films are filled with many moments like these that excite, sadden, and inspire audiences young and old, and it's from the hard work of Peter Jackson and this passionate cast and crew, that the dialogue in these films has stood the test of time.

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a series of epic fantasy adventure films and television series based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novels. The films follow the adventures of humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits and more in Middle-earth.

Created byJ.R.R. Tolkien

First FilmThe Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Latest FilmThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Upcoming FilmsThe Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim

First TV ShowThe Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power

Latest TV ShowThe Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power

First Episode Air DateSeptember 1, 2022

CastCharlie Vickers, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Bean, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Morfydd Clark, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Dominic Monaghan

Character(s)Sauron, Gollum

Video Game(s)The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth, LEGO Lord of the Rings , Lord of the Rings Online, The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

GenreAction-Adventure, Fantasy

Where to StreamMax, Hulu, Prime Video