Lord of the Rings in Concert

 

One ring to rule them all

One ring to corrupt them all

One ring to destroy it all

One ring to make their world go round

One ring is what it all is about

It gives purpose 

Takes your joy

Is it power?

Is it ploy?

One ring is all our hope

Why do we all want it?

Why does it leave us haunted?

One ring to bend us all

Why can't we let it be?

Are we in it way too deep?

We are in a free fall

One ring to bring eternity

One ring fills us with misery 

One ring to set us free

 

I felt like conceptualizing what it is about this ring as a motive, as a myth, as a macguffin that fascinates me so deeply. It is an all encompassing temptation. It is rotting the character of the most powerful beings. Some can withstand it but none are unaffected. At its core this is where I see the absolute genius of the Lord of the Rings.

I always knew the Lord of the Rings was great, but now that I have witnessed it in concert I have started to feel the love for it many fans have felt before. The visual effects are still impressive, even more the practical ones, Peter Jackson brought many of his horror-trash quirks into the epic and it improves the fantasy genre sooo much. The acting is way deeper and smarter than I used to think, the temptation of the ring really can be felt in every single character and yes the music always was my favorite aspect of those movies so watching it performed by a live orchestra was beautiful and moving.

There are aspects where I wonder whether I just realised them for the first time or whether the different presentation made it come across differently. For example I used to think most of the characters to be pretty black and white: Either you fight against Sauron or you are evil. Gollum used to stand out to me. He was the one addict struggling between relapse and recovery but now I am not so sure about that anymore. Almost every character has a form of struggle facing the ring. Boromir of course being another stand out example, constantly struggling like Sméagol but still dying a hero's death. Gandalf and Strider also can be seen struggling while Saroman arguably might have lost that struggle in the past. Not to forget about Frodo and Bilbo of course. I don’t know about the whys and the hows but somehow all that temptation, desperation and struggle came across way more visceral to me and kinda changed my perspective on the whole franchise for the better. Aside from that obviously are the action scenes more astonishing in this kind of setting than what they were at home - I just love moria.

Genuinely this is the first time I say this about the fellowship, but I loved everything about it. It is funny to compare an “in concert” version to a cinema experience or a home release, but I am surprised to say that it still works. The movie is still the same, dialogue is played loudly through speakers and the notes played live are  written just the same as they were for the screen. It is a different kind of Immersion, different focus in presentation, but still the same movie. I watched “princess mononoke” on demand, in a regular cineplex and the imax re-release, every experience was different and now I can say a similar thing about the Fellowship of the Ring. 

I just watched my favorite version so far and it turned me from an appreciator into a fan.

 

Short: Great movie, great presentation, great experience