Movie Project Summative Piece-The Lord of the Rings the Return of the King

Synopsis
For our movie, Jake and I decided to do the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy- The Return of the King. This movie follows several sets of different characters so I will describe the movie as best as possible from all different perspectives. The War of the Ring reaches its end as the dark lord Sauron(the huge orange eye which looks for the Ring) plans to wage war once and for all at Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. Meanwhile, the members of the Fellowship, minus Frodo and Sam, are in Rohan and are warned of the battle that is sure to occur soon. Unfortunately, Pippin looks into the evil Sarumon's palantir and is contacted by Sauron, and sees the image of a white tree burning. Gandalf realizes this must be Minas Tirith that Pippin saw, as it has a white tree just as Pippin described it. Swiftly, Gandalf and Pippin ride to Minas Tirith in an attempt to decipher the situation more clearly and warn them of what might come. There, they meet the resistance of Denethor, who is steward of the city and whose family has acted as interim rulers while waiting for the real line of Kings to re-emmerge. This moment was soon to come, as Aragorn was to be the King of Gondor, as soon as he could overcome his own self-doubt. Meanwhile, Frodo, Sam and Gollum continue the treacherous trek to Mount Doom, the only place where the Ring could be destroyed once and for all. Along the way, Frodo is faced with many difficult decisions, all of which were influenced by the evil of the ring which he bore around his tired neck. Gollum manipulates Frodo and Sam's friendship by pinning the blame of lost rations on Sam, turning Frodo against him. They separate, with Sam on his own. This an example of some of the corruption that occurs, with the Ring putting a negative influence on Frodo. This, however, proves costly when Gollum leads Frodo to a trap where he is nearly killed, but saved by Sam who came back, knowing he could not leave Frodo in Gollum's evil hands. The goodwill of Middle-Earth rested on Frodo's shoulders, and his task became tougher by the minute with the Ring's power weighing him down. All the while, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimley attempted a task deemed impossible by normal men- find the Army of the Dead and return alive. They accomplished this through Aragorn's promise to them that they would be set free once their duty in the future battle is complete. The members of the Fellowship were brave people, and their efforts gave Frodo a better chance of destroying the Ring and returning peace to their kingdom. The final scenes of the movie are of the enormous battle in the plains in front of Minas Tirith, where the Riders of Rohan and Gondor fought the 10,000 enemies from Mordor. All seemed lost, until Aragorn arrived with The Army of the Dead, which swept through the Mordor ranks effortlessly and saving countless good lives. Frodo and Sam were also faced with their impassable task of destroying the Ring and succeeded through great determination and courage. The final scene showed Aragorn being crowned as King of Gondor and the hobbits being honoured for their brave efforts.

What are the layers of context/setting in this film?
In the first layer, you can see that Sauron Sarumon and Mordor are evil because you see their intent is to destroy the human race and stop Frodo from restoring peace. These elements are a huge part of the story because they are what cause the problem that must be resolved, without them, there would be no story. The mood and lighting of the whole movie is also quite dark which adds to the sense evil.

In the second layer, you see the less apparent sources of evil- Gollum and the Ring. Gollum used to be good, that was before he saw the Ring though. However, the Ring pulled Gollum towards its own evil. The power of the Ring is too much and has completely corrupted Gollum to the point where he will do anything to get the Ring. The Ring itself is a source of evil because of the mailicious power it contains, corrupting whomever dares to bear it. This is where Frodo comes into his own: he was meant to destroy the Ring and his mental strength had to go to a whole new level to cope with the mental weight of the Ring and then also the near-impossible physical demands of the journey itself.

Connection - Text to World
We can connect this film to Hitler and the Nazi Germans of the 30s and 40s- Hitler's main objective was to destroy his opposition and obtain full power of the world much in the same way Sauron and Sarumon sought to destroy the humans and good beings in general in their quest for dominance. In both cases, there is an opposition who will do anything to stop them from realizing their goals and in the film, this is the Fellowship, and the people of Gondor and Rohan. In World War Two, this was the Allies, working together for a common goal of ending the war and restoring peace, like with Frodo destroying the Ring to save his kingdom. In both cases there were soldiers, and in both cases they fought with passion to bring an end to the madness of Hitler/Sauron and do their duty for their homelands.

Connection - Text to Text
The Return of the King can be connected to the movie Paulo did, Inception, in the sense that Frodo and Mr. Cobb and Frodo face similar challenges. Frodo is stuck with the Ring and he can't stop his journey or throw the Ring away because he knows if he did, everything that had been accomplished to that point would have been for nothing and Frodo would let everyone down and be guilty for the rest of his life. Cobb on the other hand is stuck with guilt that has already been with him since his wife committed suicide. He lives with his guilt every day and you can see how it could affect Frodo too. You can see how such profound guilt can affect someone, and in Frodo's case, the fear of having such guilt encouraged him to reach his goal. Both characters are doing something extremely dangerous, risking their lives in the process, both for good reasons. Frodo will return to having a peaceful life once the evil of the kingdom is gone, and Cobb will finally get to see his children, after painful times without them.

EQ Connection - How can a reader/viewer infer the author's intentions based on the text?
The main intention of J.R.R. Tolkien was to show how individuals working together for a common goal can achieve the impossible. They did it in The Return of the King, which is fiction, but the principle still stands that when a group of people unite with that amount of passion, friendship, courage and determination, impossible is nothing. Frodo and Sam beat the odds which were stacked miles high against them and Gondor and Rohan won the enormous battle despite being outnumbered 10 to 1. Those are examples of what the movie truly showed and how evil can be conquered and that good will prevail in the end.