LOTR, a rare movie (trilogy) and a rare book

I just finished reading review of Two States by Chetan Bhagat on Navneet's blog. I felt that I should also share the best movie (trilogy) that I have ever seen, Lord of the Rings, LOTR in short.

Peter Jackson is the director of the trilogy, and it is one of the rare occasion where the movie adaptation is better than the book. Later, I saw one more film by Peter Jackson, King Kong and I must say now I am a fan of his.

From 1930's to 1950's, the world was passing through turmoil of world wars. That was the time when J.R.R. Tolkien wrote this wonderful story, Lord of the Rings. LOTR is continuation of the successful early book The Hobbit by Tolkien. Tolkien has created this mystery world of imaginary characters, Hobbits, Elfs, Men, Orcs and so on. There are some other books which are also related to characters of LOTR.

I, as a regular non-English reader, had no idea of the book till I saw the first part of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. The first part won 4 Oscar awards. It was the time when first part of Harry Potter had also released. But, LOTR was far better a fantasy than HP (film). The character of Head Master Albus Dumbledore of HP is a clear replica of the White Wizard Gandalf of LOTR.

Well, I was not impressed with the first part of LOTR on my first view. But when I saw it again, I liked it. And since then I liked it more with every viewing! The second part,The Two Towers was even better, though it won only 2 Oscars. The battle of Helms Deep is one of the best fights I have ever seen. It is much better than critically acclaimed The Gladiator. My eagerness to see the third part was ever more after seeing the second part. Characters of Gollum and Ents, i.e. the large walking and talking trees were just superb.

Unfortunately, the third part, Return of the King, did not last for long in India hence I could not see it in cinema hall. When I saw it on DVD, I was awestruck! Just wonderful! The city of Minas Tirith, The Black Gate, Mount Doom and everything that was created on screen was just superb! No wonder the third movie won all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated, becoming only the third movie to win 11 Oscars after Ben Hur and Titanic.

The book is good, but it is not as interesting as the films. Many think that LOTR is a trilogy but it is only a single book, though the film is in three parts. If you really want to enjoy the films, what you should do is this: Buy DVDs of all the three movies and start them at night. One by one finish all three, without any break of continuation.

Comments are welcome.