(OLD) Why we'll never see anything like The Lord of the Rings Trilogy again

I highly recommend watching the new "Extended Edition" of this video instead!!

The scale, ambition, and risk behind Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a wild feat to behold. And looking at what a perfect intersection of it was of craft, talent, ability, technology, and innovation - coming at a time were studios weren't limited by the fear of needing to make a billion dollars with every movie - we can understand why we'll never see anything quite like it again.

This Lord of the Rings trilogy came at a formative time for me, and 20 years later, I still believe they are among some of the best movies ever made. I've always wanted to make a video on the series, and with this monumental anniversary, combined with my own fascinations with box office performances and behind the scenes movie-making, I saw a wonderful opportunity to lavish it with praise and share this love of mine.

00:00 Intro
00:53 Budget
10:23 Pre-production
18:02 Artistry
25:44 Lightning in a bottle
29:48 Ending
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[leftthumbs]

I have expanded upon and improved this video for my new film/TV channel, 2 Left Frames. I highly recommend watching that "Extended Edition" instead.

[LuxVi]

The trilogy is the absolute BEST because of 2 things
#1- True love for movie making
#2- Respect for the author and the lore he created.

[_permanence]

Proud I was an elven warrior extra in Helm’s Deep when I was 17 years old in 2000. Had the blonde wig, helmet, armour, tunic, long bow and rubber elven sword, but spent most of the shoot laying dead and being hacked with a large meat cleaver by an overly enthusiastic orc 😆 .

Folks in Wellington knew at the time the films were going to be great but we had no idea that our local eccentric director living down the road, who we saw at weekends filming low budget horror scenes around the neighbourhood, was going to be responsible for such cinematic classics.

Around 1998 they constructed the set of Bree at the old naval base near my home and it was essentially a small village of wooden buildings. From my house I could see the bright flood lights lit up at night and action taking place. I recall the construction and filming seemed to go on for months but it was all so mysterious and shrouded in secrecy. Great memories of that time and the anticipation for the films was really exciting.

[kathyastrom]

My favorite anecdote is from Bernard Hill on the actors’ commentary of TTT. He’s talking about how difficult it was to get comfortable sitting down in full armor when not on camera. One day, he left the set and passed by a garage sale on the way back to his rental house. He stopped to see what they had and saw two hip-height metal spikes with bicycle seats on top, to push into the ground and take a seat while fishing, etc. He thought they’d be perfect for him to rest his bum while in armor and took them to his trailer the next day. After a few days, a props person saw them, noticed the rather tatty appearance of the seats’ leather, and asked Bernard if he would like to have the seats reupholstered over the weekend. He gratefully agreed, expecting just new leather to be used. What he got instead were two seats, expertly crafted with Rohirric designs embossed into the leather so that they were truly fit for a king!

[biniaddi]

This trilogy has impacted my life directly. I fell in love with the costumes much (I was 15 when Return of the King came out) that I thougt: "You can make costumes like that? 😲 I want that!" So after school I trained as a dressmaker and am now making costumes for theatre and opera in my german hometown Leipzig.
The trilogy will always have a special place in my heart. 💓

[eclectic_nerd]

One of my most striking memories, I a dark theatre, hearing my mum (in her 40s) saying with absolute wonder
"it looks just like I imagined it"
when the scene opens on Hobbiton

[halfey]

The two chainmail makers were the true lords of the rings.

[zaidlacksalastname]

One of my favorite facts about the movies is that they were made with the assumption that this was real. Peter told them to consider this a historical epic and that's why it's gritty and takes itself "seriously" by not winking to the audience

[Xargxes]

The one thing I'm missing in this video: The music. It's the soul of the trilogy and just spot on perfect.

[reesespieces]

It's not "one" of the best trilogies ever made. It's THE best trilogy ever made.

[artemiskingsley]

I also loved the dedication of Peter Jackson to find the 2 prominent LOTR book artists John Howe and Allan Lee to hire for the film. That journey alone for finding them really amazed me.

[nilusk]

Part of what made the miniatures look so amazing is that the team building them didn’t just draft master Hollywood miniature makers but they also recruited a lot of people in the table top gaming industry who had years of experience making Tolkien-like miniature for Mia the war games and RPGs.

[EntreriSeraph]

What Viggo said about the slow creep towards CGI really resonates with me. Fellowship has always stood out to me as the most organic, with the least amount of "immersion breaking" moments. But we were lucky, because the entire trilogy held onto that "real" feeling, and much of the necessary CGI holds up pretty well. Gollum for example is still incredible.

It's all the unnecessary stuff, like Deagol being pulled by the fish, the wispy green spirits of the mountain... nothing super offensive like we see in the hobbit, but you can recognize a growing reliance on CGI shortcuts, in places where it might not have been needed.

With the Hobbit trilogy, as much as I tried to love them, these excessive moments just started happening more frequently. It just feels...cold.

[HeidiBird]

This trilogy is beyond compare. It maintains an incredible quality standard through all three films AND is ageing exceptionally well. This was proven to me recently on an IMAX LotR marathon. It's easy to believe that something like this will never come again.

[TorontoHobbit]

Not only will we likely never see anything like this again, these movies and these books will probably NEVER be successfully remade or readapted in our lifetimes; any attempt will undoubtedly fall short of this masterpiece. It would be like trying to paint a modern version of the Mona Lisa - whatever resulted would never be better than the original.

[Fuzzy_Spork]

I'm just glad the LOTR trilogy came out in my lifetime. Going to see them in the theater was better than any amusement park. Being absolutely transfixed and transported by what was on the screen has never happened with any other movie I've ever seen. It was magic.

[NourArt]

Every single person who worked on this trilogy absolutely loved what they were doing, I watched another documentary about the animators and how they animated every single muscle in Golum's face which took them days and sometime weeks working even after hours to complete one take .. i'm so glad this movie happened

[meggy]

Being 11-13 when these came out, and living in Wellington, New Zealand I really look back at these movies with such happiness. Seeing the sets on my daily walks, seeing the cast walking in the city, going to every red carpet and premieres, they are all memories I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. LOTR inspired me to get into film, and I got to work on the Hobbit, while not quite the same as LOTR, it was still a wonderful moment. Jackson changed the trajectory of my life, and I will always be grateful to him.

PS: Weta is pronounced wetah like it rhymes with feta ;)

[TheDragiix]

What really made this movie trilogy stand out is in my opinion... balance.

As a hardcore Tolkien fan let me tell you, these movies are by no means perfect portrayals of the books, nor do they even cover all plot points, some things are even made up. But the balance between these things is extraordinary. I feel like so much genuine love and care went into the creation of this trilogy, and you can see that in every scene. The acting is fantastic, the costumes, perspectives, the props and backgrounds, it's all so REAL for a movie THAT old. These movies are proof that true, while you can never portray a book 100%, you can still do it to a level of perfection if only you put legit thought into it.

Sad is only that they did not accomplish the same with the hobbit.

[seriousnesstv]

I can even watch the entire extended trilogy in a row. That’s how you know a trilogy is perfect, when you have about 12 hours of your life you can dedicate to three masterpiece films.