21 years ago, no one could have imagined that this long-awaited film would start like this

It is December 2003. The Return of the King, the third and final part of the saga adapted from the works of JRR Tolkien, has just been released in cinemas, and fans of the trilogy are preparing to enjoy the final chapter of this spectacular epic that was already dreamed up in 2001 and 2002.

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Unbearable waiting

The wait for this last part was unbearable, and when the lights finally went down on the audience’s anticipation, as the New Line Cinema logo appeared on the giant screen, followed by the film’s title, everyone gasped. There’s no doubt that Peter Jackson would choose to open his third feature film with an epic fight sequence. Or with a majestic shot of Middle Earth, a vast landscape whose vastness can hint at the scale of the next ordeal the main characters are preparing for.

However, when the first image of The Return of the King finally appears, everyone in the room is stunned. Instead of trekking over a giant mountain, a vast plain or a huge army, an earthworm appears.

Surprise!

In the movie, the surprise is absolute: between the thumb and forefinger of a character, which we still have trouble identifying, hovers a small buzzer that will soon become the bait of a fishing trip. With the cane in his hand, he is none other than Smeagol, better known to us as Gollum, and interpreted by the brilliant Andy Serkis for the occasion without face paint or digital make-up.

To the surprise of all his fans, taking them into territory they absolutely did not consider, Peter Jackson makes a script choice that is both original and sensible. Before revealing the final act of the War of the Ring, and in order to best prepare us for the decisive showdown between Frodo and Gollum, he takes us 500 years into the past to tell us how “The Beloved” was transformed. The peaceful hobbit that Smeagol was treacherous and a creeping creature.

A genius idea

In particular, Andy Serkis’ masterful acting is able to convey the character’s uncontrollable shift in a single look (the first of which is Smeagol posing in the ring), a sequence that is also very dark, as the hobbit kills his cousin Deagol in pursuit of his loot.

Violent and affecting, the scene follows the long physical decline of the character, who wanders from cave to tunnel and keeps his “precious” at all costs, gradually transforming into the appearance under which we see him met in The Two Towers.

Beyond its narrative power and the visual shock it can deliver to the audience, this scene allows the New Zealand filmmaker to shed a welcome light on the troubled past of Gollum – the main character of the anticipated sequel – but also open the way for his latest opus, which is at once intelligent, confusing and sensational.

(Re)discover all the hidden details in ‘Return of the King’…