Not necessarily the best movies ever made, but these are twenty of my favorites, in no particular order.  Each post for the next twenty days will feature a brief discussion of one film (though one or two days will have multiple posts to make up for absences).

Day 19: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002 dir. Peter Jackson)

There is a difference between belief and faith. I can believe that the neurosurgeon can help me, but until they actually do I won’t have faith in them. I believed someone could make a film version of Tolkien’s magnum opus, a book I have reread many times. But until I actually saw the first film did I have faith in Peter Jackson and his team.

Don’t misunderstand, I think of The Lord of the Rings as one complete film split into three parts. A strong belief in the project, mixed with a healthy sprinkle of trepidation, got me into the theaters in 2001 for The Fellowship of the Ring. I genuinely felt disappointed at the end of that film, not because it failed, but because it was over; I wanted more.

And more I got, just the following year. I single out The Two Towers because it must necessarily do the most heavy lifting for the story to unfold. Having already established the quality of the filmmaking in the first part, this part takes what was done and throws the chracters into chaotic, unpredictable situations, as quality trilogy middle chapters typically do.

But could they pull off Treebeard? And would Gollum be fantastic or folly? There was a time when no one had heard of Weta Digital, but their work on this film in particular lifted the entire trilogy from epic entertainment into artistic amazement. The simplicity and creative genius involved in a sequence like Smeagol telling Gollum, through a reflective pool, to go away and never come back is evidence enough of the thoughtful storytelling at work here. That and Andy Serkis’ powerful acting.

And when the Ents release the river, flooding Isengard, my jaw literally dropped. It is thrilling, emotionally satisfying action. Gandalf’s charge with the Rohirrim down into Helm’s Deep is another example of faith rewarded, not just faith in the filmmakers to provide the pacing and imagery needed, but Aragorn’s faith in his friends. He listened. He took council. He made choices and he held out for as long as he could. That perserverence pays off when Gandalf keeps his word and routes the orcs from Rohan.

The Return of the King provides the emotional pay-off to the entire story. The Fellowship of the Ring gives introduction to the world and the characters. But The Two Towers, my favorite of the trilogy, establishes the artistic achievements and the story themes that echo until this day. It is a marvelous trilogy, never to be lost or forgotten.