Lord of the Rings

The film trilogy The Lord of the Rings was directed by Peter Jackson, also known for directing King Kong. It was based on a trilogy of novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1954. The story features many epic qualities, including a vast geographic setting, supernatural forces, and an epic hero. This isn’t the only story with those qualities, as Star Wars and Brutal Legend have shown, but Lord of the Rings was one of the first novels with such characteristics.

The Lord of the Rings features an epic hero in the form of Aragorn. An epic hero is someone who represents the ideals of their people, is capable of almost superhuman feats, and most important, they go on a quest. In this case, Aragorn goes on a quest to destroy the ring. Sure, Frodo winds up being the one who winds up going into the Crack of Doom and destroying the ring, but Frodo, to me at least, isn’t really the hero, simply the protagonist. Some people don’t feel that there’s a distinction, but I do. Aragorn, in my opinion, is the actual hero of the story. In his part of the story, he travels the road, searching for the young hobbits, who were kidnapped at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring. In terms of superhuman feats, Aragorn manages to survive being thrown off a cliff by a Warg, which has a really sweet eye level angle shot, as well as being blown up with gunpowder in the battle against the Uruk-hai at Helms Deep. He also ages unbelievably slowly, being eighty-three at the time of the story.

In terms of supernatural aid, Aragorn is aided on the journey by Gandalf the wizard. Through the story, Gandalf offers Aragorn aid and advice. On the fifth day of the battle of Helms Deep, Gandalf came riding down the almost 90 degree angle hill leading a huge army, with an epic long shot, and helped push back the Uruk-hai. It was a lot like at the end of Star Wars, where Han Solo comes riding out of the sun, shooting at Darth Vader. It gave the hero, in this case Aragorn, the opportunity they needed to defeat the villains and be heroes.

However, there are also supernatural threats to our heroes. A prime example is Saruman, who uses magic to create the horrible Uruk-hai. He also used his magic to create an avalanche on the mountain (I don’t remember what it was called), forcing the Fellowship into the Mines of Moria. Then, there’s Sauron, the giant eye and ruler of Mordor. He uses his horrible influence to send out Orcs to challenge the Fellowship, as well as forging the ring that caused the whole story in the first place. There’s also the Balrog in Moria, which manages to kill Gandalf. But, like any good super being, Gandalf refused to stay dead.

Then, there’s the shear geographical distance of Middle Earth. The world is divided into multiple different nations, just like our own. There are all the nations we see, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, Rivendell, and the land that Galadriel rules, but there are also nations we never see. This is supported when we see the long shot of the army from the south, marching to aid Mordor. We never see the lands in the south, and we can only guess about how many there are. So, the world they inhabit is expansive, and populated by all kinds of people and creatures.

The Lord of the Rings is an epic in all senses of the word. It has a brave hero, supernatural occurrences, and a vast geographical distance. The quest for the Ring is indeed one of great difficulty, which would test any man to their absolute breaking point.