The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

IF YOU have not yet seen The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in Peter Jackson's epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous fantasy trilogy, then you may want to rent the video before seeing The Two Towers. Like the previous film, the new one is about three hours long, but Jackson wastes no time on prologues or recaps -- he dives straight into the action, and he does so in a way that captures two of his films' biggest strengths.

First, he begins with an aerial shot of snowcapped mountains, and the breathtaking natural beauty of this scene far surpasses the synthetic backdrops that we have come to expect from, say, the Star Wars and Harry Potter films. Then the camera goes deep inside the mountain, and we revisit a pivotal moment from the first film: the fiery and mutually fatal confrontation between the grey wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the Balrog, a huge horned beast that seems to have lava for skin. But this time, when the two combatants plunge to their deaths, the camera follows them, and the screen is filled with dazzling special effects.

Thus primed, we are ready to embark on the second chapter in a story that, ironically, and despite Tolkien's avowed hatred of allegory, is partly about the war between nature and technology. Saruman (Christopher Lee), the rogue wizard who has allied himself with the titular dark lord Sauron, cuts down trees and openly talks of consuming the natural world "in the fires of industry," and as the monsters he has created roam the countryside and burn the villages, only two forces stand in his way: the men of Rohan, a kingdom whose iconography revolves around horses and their riders, and the Ents, a species of ancient living trees who walk through the forests on tall trunks and take their time thinking about things.

But as the story begins, neither of these forces pose much of a threat to Saruman. The Ents are still officially neutral, while Theoden (Bernard Hill), the king of Rohan, is sick and under the spell of Saruman's henchman Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), who has somehow held on to his position at the king's right hand even though he is obviously manipulating the old man. If the Tsar's relatives could bump off Rasputin, then it is amazing no one in Rohan seems to have considered doing the same to this creepy fellow.

If you're wondering what has become of the hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood) and his quest to destroy the One Ring -- the receptacle of Sauron's evil -- by taking it deep into the land of Mordor, don't worry, that story is told here too. But unlike the first film, which was driven by the relationships between Frodo and his fellow hobbits, between Gandalf and his fellow wizard Saruman, and between Frodo and Gandalf themselves, The Two Towers is more concerned with Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), the exiled heir to the throne of Gondor, who finally begins to grow into his destiny as a leader of men when he helps Theoden defend his people against an invasion of Saruman's super-orcs.

The 40-minute battle at Helm's Deep that closes the film is a thrilling action setpiece, graced with moments of comic relief, most of which come at the expense of the short, stout dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). But there is something about the simple moral dimensions of this battle -- humans good, orcs bad -- that perhaps should give us pause in these war-on-terror times. The heroes in this episode are more likely to wrestle with their reluctance to go to war than with any possible sin in their own hearts; and apart from the multi-cultural friction between humans, dwarves, and elves, if the heroes have any dark tendencies, these can usually be blamed on someone else -- the Ring, Saruman, Wormtongue, whoever.

The one person in this film who wrestles with inner demons as much as outer ones is Gollum (voice of Andy Serkis), the pitiful creature who once owned the Ring and now wants it back; in one poignant scene, the two sides of his personality have an argument that is oddly reminiscent of the villain's conversation with himself in Spider-Man. Gollum, who was once tortured in a prison in Mordor, offers to help Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin) find a way into the country, and while Sam is suspicious of Gollum's intentions, Frodo puts up with Gollum out of empathy -- he can feel the Ring corrupting him, and he hopes it is possible, not just for Gollum but for himself too, to be redeemed from the Ring's evil influence.

There is, of course, something to be said for stories about characters who embody the best virtues, and one of the reasons I, for one, keep returning to these stories is because I consistently leave them wanting to be a better person. Fortunately, Jackson is as good a director in the film's more character-driven moments as he is in its more spectacular scenes, and despite its length, The Two Towers is over in no time at all; it could well leave you itching to see more. And so, next December, we will.

-- Peter T. Chattaway

Internet Movie Database | Movie Review Query Engine
USA: PG-13 | BC: 14-A | ON: AA