Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers

Film Review by Janet Bishop

The Two Towers is the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy written by J.R.R. Tolkien and beautifully brought to the movie screen by director Peter Jackson.The villains of the story, Sauron an evil angelic type being and Saruman an equally evil entity each have a tower; from which comes the title of the book and this film: The Two Towers.

Is it coincidence that The Lord of the Rings movies appeared just as its base plot of overarching evil pitted against ordinary mortals would ring true against the background of terrorist states and rising global conflict? At the same time the films also highlights the conflict inside each individual between good and evil.

As the film begins,Frodo is screaming himself awake. Gandalf the Grey makes the Balrog fall int a deep pit. Balrog is a giant minataur beast who is always on fire. Gandalf too gets dragged down into the abyss, unfortunately.They both fall into a lake which is far below the surface of the pit. Frodo's screams awaken Sam Gamgee, but Frodo tells his friend that it was just a dream.

At this point Sam and Frodo, walk around in circles and then realize they are lost. This is where we meet one of the film's most intriuging characters, Gollum a wizened creature, who has a split personality.One personality is evil (Gollum) and the other good.(Smeagle).Gollum/ Smeagle is a CGI creature based on digitizing areal actor's motion. Andy Serkis, is the voice of Gollum/Smeagle and provides the the creature's movements . Gollum carried the ring for years, until it was taken from him by Frodo's uncle Baggins, and Gollum is obscessed with the ring, which he calls "my precious." Sam has no use for the creature but Frodo has compassion for it. It seems to me that keeping Gollum around helps Frodo resist the temptations of the ring as Frodo knows Gollum was once a like hobbit himself, before gave in to the alluring power of the one ring.

My favorite performance of the film was that of Viggo Mortenson, playing Aragorn. He brought a lot of emotional and physical power to the role, which offered him a great deal of variety. He showed a lot of range as he played the part of both a love sick swain, and stalwert warrior.

I'm looking forward very much to seeing the final segment of the Ring trilogy; only then, will we be able to fully explore and appreciate the depth and brillance of this production.