I wouldn't be able to get it out of my head for weeks if I saw it for the first time on a big screen!!!!!!!!!
I saw it on VHS about a year or so after it came out. But getting to follow the story, and see Middle-Earth in all it's beauty, with a good crowd would have been an all-time great moment in my life. If you had this moment, DON'T take it for granted! You were part of something special.
I was enjoying it well enough. When it came to the smoke rings scene (Bilbo and Gandalf), I was really thrilled (I don't know... small moments like that seem magical to me). When the fireworks went off at the Long Expected Party, I leaned over to one of my sons and said, "I'm going to like this movie a lot."
I did and I saw it again a few weeks later (I was doing some off hand comparisons of the brightness of the picture at different movie theaters and I wanted to re-see and compare a film while it was still fresh in my mind). I liked it just as much.
But it was June of the next year when it came to my neighborhood vintage movie theater (now a special events and second run movie venue) that it truly and deeply clicked. It was a packed theater and the audience was very reactive (gasping, oohing, etc). Unbeknownst to me, a preview for TTT had been tacked onto the end of the movie. The credits finished, the screen went dark and then these words appeared:
This Christmas
The Journey Continues
in The Two Towers
while the Dwarrowdelf Theme began.
After that showing, it was if I was possessed. By the end of that summer, I had watched it 6 more times - making my total 9. A fitting number, I thought. I also decided to reread the books which I had originally read in the late 60s and the book resonated with me to a degree that was indescribable. I think, after all those years of living with lots of life stuff to process, it meant far more to me than it ever could have at 16.
A few observations about that summer:
I was in love with that TTT preview. It seemed full of magic and promise and mystery. I realized later that I liked the preview even more than I liked the film, The Two Towers.
At my 7th viewing (July 2002), I asked the ticket seller if there were a lot of repeat viewers. He replied, "Oh yeah... everyone here's seen it at least seven times." That made me chuckle. There were about 10-15 people in the theater at this point. No one exclaimed or laughed. We all knew what was going to happen. We all knew when to go to the bathroom. Some young person always got fidgety in the last 30 minutes.
My last theatrical viewing (and the last showing at this theater) of that year was August 1, 2002. A few more people were in the theater, maybe 20. There seemed to be some ‘virgins’ in the theater who delighted in the fireworks, smoke rings and jokes and gasped at the deaths. It was good to 'see' it fresh again through their eyes.
Since then that movie theater has run trilogy events that I attended a few years. The experience wasn't as joyful as I might have hoped mostly due to the behavior of adolescent kids who would get dropped off by their parents.
I also saw the re-release of FOTR and TTT just before ROTK premiered. For the TTT, I was supposed to pick my son up from school to get to the theater in time. He wasn't at school (high school). I went to the theater just in case he had met up with my husband there and he wasn't there, either. We figured he'd gotten on the bus and had gone home but there wasn't time to go home to get him and this was before cell phones! I worried through that whole dang movie. It turned out he had gone home and had not had his house key on him. He stayed at the library till it closed, then walked the streets in Dec in Minnesota till he got too cold and he went to a nearby friend's house asking for shelter. Yikes. I can still remember my anxiety and semi-relief that it had all turned out okay. Mothers. It's what we do, worry. :-)
But that's just to say that nothing has since replicated those 9 viewings I had in 2001-2002. For lots of reasons, it was my magical summer of Tolkien that changed my life in profound ways.
Minnesota? I thought you were from Britain for some reason, lol. I am dumb.
Unlike Mrs. Magpie, I only saw it twice. In all honesty, I don't really think I had huge expectations for it, and that might've been due to seeing Ralph Bakshi's adaptation first, heh... However, seeing it in the Whiteside-an old theater with a balcony and kinda gothic decor, now closed-it was pretty much my favorite movie-going experience, probably. The first time I saw Return of the King was one of my favorites as well, but I don't remember it like I remember seeing FotR. I remember having to go to the bathroom about a half hour before the end of the movie, heh... I also remember losing my wallet, coming back to the theater and retrieving it :/ lol.
I was enjoying it well enough. When it came to the smoke rings scene (Bilbo and Gandalf), I was really thrilled (I don't know... small moments like that seem magical to me). When the fireworks went off at the Long Expected Party, I leaned over to one of my sons and said, "I'm going to like this movie a lot."
I know it's not exactly the point you were making, but it reminds me of how much I like the acting duo of Ian McKellan and Ian Holm in those early scenes in Bag End. I feel like their performances really anchor the movie at the front end (nothing against Elijah Wood) and make that connection with the audience that draws us in to the story.
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It was a great experience, I enjoyed quite a bit, although my brother enjoyed it much more than I did. He was/is a huge LOTR fan and started reading the books when he was in 5th or 6th grade (he's 36 now). It was a dream come true for him. This is easily my favorite of the original trilogy.
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
I don't say this word often, but it was truly spectacular. Even as long as or was, I didn't look at my watch once. Who knows, maybe on the 20th anniversary they'll rerelease it.
I was about 12 when it came out and I remember how I was pulled in this story from the very first second, until the end.
I had never seen anything like it, and I couldn't believe that there was more coming up. 1 year seemed so long. I was sitting in a chair at home for a good 3 hours, wondering what I was going to do with my life.
Eventually though, being 12 years old, my obsession passed rather quickly, and although I did enjoy the following 2 Lord of the Rings very much, it was never the same compared to watching the first.
IMAX was my first FOTR experience, essentially with zero spoilers or even hype. The cold open 'The world is changed...' mere months after 9/11 was nicely heavy. This wasn't going to be Harry Potter which the world had just seen weeks prior. When Gandalf fell, that's when I knew this was going to be more than a family friendly jaunt.
Use your imagination... it's become my #5 film of all time.
It was special- amazing, breathtaking, magical... I went and saw it with my sister and we were both so blown away that after the show was over we went back to the ticket window, bought another ticket and watched it again straight away, lol.
I just can't believe that was fifteen years ago.... unbelievable.
Confession: I haven't read all of the posts; this may have been mentioned. From time to time the films are screened so I wouldn't give up. Also, on rare occasions they're screened with the accompaniment of a 'live' orchestra. I've seen the 1st two installments and it's a real treat.
I waited until the release of Return of the King because I was determined to see all three movies back to back. When I did it was at an IMAX cinema with a huge screen.
It was very trippy for me too. There were kids dressed as hobbits in the theatre along with all kinds of other LOTR nerds