Also this issue:

Jack's Back
The caustic About Schmidt showcases Jack Nicholson’s greatest performance in decades.
-Sam Adams

Gunga Din
Gangs of New York is an epic so noisy you can't hear a thing.
-Sam Adams

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Life, art and fantasy get jumbled up in Adaptation.
-Cindy Fuchs

Screen Picks
-Sam Adams

December 19-25, 2002

movies

Straight to the Points

WHAM BAM THANK YOU SAM: Frodo (Elijah Wood) and protector Samwise (Sean Astin).

The Two Towers cuts to the chase.

by Sam Adams

The Empire Strikes Back notwithstanding, the middle parts of trilogies don't have the best of reputations, composed as they are mainly of connective tissue, the bits that fall inbetween the introduction and the conclusion. It's no surprise that the characters in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers spend an awful lot of time walking. Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) spend at least an hour of screen-time being carried through the forest by an ambulatory tree (known to Tolkien fans and crossword buffs as an Ent), while more intrepid Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) make it all the way to the gates of the dread forest Mordor before backing off and circling around to try an alternate route.

Even if you're not familiar with the scope of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, this can't come as much of a surprise. Having decided in The Fellowship of the Ring that all their hopes rest on the success of Frodo's quest to drop the ring of power into the molten heart of Mount Doom, destroying it and the dark lord Sauron with it, the characters have but one objective -- which is to say if they actually made it all the way to Mount Doom in part two, all that would be left for part three would be three hours of people standing around going, "Whew, that was a close one." But the reduced burden of plot actually allows The Two Towers to be a better realized and more satisfying experience than its predecessor (even in the superior, more leisurely version released on DVD). For all the sorcery and swordplay -- and, it should be noted, The Two Towers has plenty of both -- what the film really offers us is a chance to inhabit Tolkien's world, which this time we get to do without worrying about how we got there or where we're going next.

If you look back at the movie's end, you may realize that very little has happened to the major characters, but it's hardly likely to occur to you while you're watching the movie. It begins with a great bang, a dream flashback to Gandalf's demise, this time expanded to show the frail-looking wizard plummeting through space, grabbing a sword out of the air and hacking at the flaming Balrog as they both descend. And it ends with one, too: the battle to protect the human stronghold of Helms Deep, which in the book occupies only a few dozen pages, but is here expanded to occupy most of the movie's last hour, in one of the most elaborate and complex battle sequences ever committed to film. Since all three films were shot concurrently, there's no noticeable difference in style, but the digital effects, which progress one film at a time, are noticeably improved, particularly when it comes to Gollum, the shrivelled creature who once held the ring, and has been reduced to a reptilian hulk by its loss. Entirely digital (though based on the movements of actor Andy Serkis), Gollum seems nearly as real as the furry-footed hobbits he shares scenes with -- which is to say, real enough, but not too much so. And in essence, that's the secret to Jackson's approach, emphasizing the physical combat and military maneuvering without losing the historical and ecological underpinnings of Tolkien's tale. None of the great films are epics, but this is about as good as they get.

(sam@citypaper.net)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Directed by Peter Jackson, A New Line release, Now playing at area theaters