Favourite Movie Between Friends: Lord of The Rings

The CineTV Community released a new prompt, which sounds like a lot of fun, CineTV Contest #68 - Favourite Movies Between Friends.

We all share a love of certain films or even an entire franchise, that we enjoy and talk about with friends. Everyone has that special thing that they cannot help but endlessly chat about when in like-minded company.

I actually have a love of Star Wars which I share with some good mates of mine and - while we don't talk about it all the time - as soon as someone mentions the slightest thing about it when we're in a group, the floodgates open and it could be a while until we shut up about it - much to the dismay of @xkasabian as he isn't really into it, and at this stage, once the conversations begin, he reels in terror at the prospect of more time wasted listening to the chats unfold.

While he isn't a fan of Star Wars, he is a fan of Lord of The Rings, and it's a trilogy that the two of us and a few other mates love.

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Which Film?
My favourite was always The Two Towers, but as I got older I started to really appreciate The Fellowship of The Ring, and I think it is such a great setup to the entire Trilogy, so much so that upon finishing that film, it almost feels like only a third of the movie has been watched. There's something special about those movies and the fact that instead of feeling like three separate films, they instead feel like 3 parts of one.

For this post though, I'm going to talk about The Two Towers, and maybe @xkasabian can chime in with his own post about one of the other films in the trilogy, or perhaps The Hobbit?

The Two Towers
When I was a kid I heard so much about Lord of The Rings, but didn't know anything about it. Obviously, there was a buzz about the films prior to their release, and everyone was anticipating them. One day, me and my mum were down in Tesco here in my hometown, and to my surprise, LOTR was on VHS and she picked it up for me.

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I actually still have it, but it's in my mum's house and I'd have to route it out, so this picture from Google will have to do

To be honest, it was kind of cool, but I remember eight or nine-year-old me wondering what the hype was about it. I mean, it was good, but I didn't think it was the best thing in the world.

The film takes the story of the first two books and kind of blends them into an hour and half animated feature film. I remember the end is kind of abrupt. It is the battle of helms deep, with these stark silhouettes of the orcs against a bright red plain background, complete with blood stains that act as a transition swipe to the next orc being killed.

The Ring Wraiths look really scary in this movie, and the balrog, in fact, everything looks kind of scary, in that old-school animation kind of way.

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I'd actually like to re-watch it, as it has been years. I remember me and @xkasabian talking about this one a while back and reminiscing about how strange it was.

Anyway, that was my first introduction to LOTR, and I'm glad I watched the real one when it came out, rather than being scared away from the franchise as a whole.

The Fellowship of The Ring
I never got to see it in the cinema, but after it came out my parents rented it and I thought it was such a cool film. I wanted to watch the continuation of it, but I did so a few years later and in the wrong order.

The Two Towers came and went, as did The Return of The King, and once the third was out of cinemas and on DVD, my mum rented it for me, so I missed the middle part of the trilogy on my first viewing, thank god for the video games because since I played The Two Towers game, I kind of knew what was happening in that movie.

The hype for LOTR was real though, I think we were in 6th class and I remember @xkasabian and a bunch of the other lads in the class got together and drew this huge panoramic picture of all three films which included different characters, backgrounds, and battles, it was really cool and they showcased it on our final day of primary school.

The Two Towers
Maybe it's because it was the one movie of the trilogy I didn't see until after the others, but it instantly became my favourite, and when in each other's company we can talk about it continuesly, whether it's little factoids about how it was created and behind the scenes information, or we could talk about ideas or alternative situations, but mostly we just like to quote the different characters. I love doing the Uruk-hai voices, and I have to say, I'm not too bad at them.

"What is it? What do you smell?"

Snorts at the air. "Man flesh!"

We sometimes get into back-and-forth banter where we send random lines with no context as voice clips into the group chat.

Also, I think the film is seared into my mind because I physically can't walk past some chopped-down trees without somberly looking at them and saying, "Many of these trees were my friends." Poor ole Tree Beard.

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Going Back In Time
While I never got to experience them on the big screen back in the day, I was able to experience it not too long ago when a local cinema decided to play the three of them, and what's even better, they played the extended editions.

@xkasabian was the one to hear about it, and he picked me and my partner up and the three of us headed down and met another of our mates there. It was so good being able to watch them like that, with a real sound system. However, we did miss The Fellowship of The Rings, but we managed to watch The Two Towers and The Return of The King, it was such a great experience.

LOTR Live
He actually contacted my partner back around Christmas time and asked when the baby was due, she told him the date was to be the 6th of April - he wanted to know because he heard about a live event where an orchestra played the music and it was presented by some of the cast and crew of the film, and all of this while scenes were played alongside the score.

As the time grew nearer, I had to give up the ticket he bought me as a gift, to one of the other lads, as the baby arrived on the 9th and the event was actually the next night and I couldn't make it.

That's my choice for this contest, and I'd actually like to read his own entry into it, especially being able to talk about how he first got into it and he can also talk a bit about that live event.

This post got a little bit longer than expected but, "If... something... is worth.. saying.. it's worth... taking... a long time.. to say."