#14 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

In Summary

The middle chapter of The Lord of the Rings saga, The Two Towers has the most difficult job of the three films in taking the various narrative strands from point A to point B, ahead of the point C of the grand finale, while providing a narrative in and of itself in order to keep the audience engaged.

With the Fellowship now broken, The Two Towers has three main plotlines to keep track of. Frodo and Sam's journey towards Mordor with the ring, Pippin and Merry's kidnapping by the orcs, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli's attempts to track down Pippin and Merry. In addition, there is Gandalf's journey after his fight with the Balrog, as well as the ensuing battle between the men of Rohan and Saruman's army.

In short, there is a lot that needs to happen in The Two Towers.

The triumph of Peter Jackson's vision for The Lord of the Rings film series is the sense of the wider world of Middle-Earth. Aided by the source material, side characters feel like they have dense histories, they do not feel as if they exist purely to serve the plot and are compelling in and of themselves.

The Two Towers is the film that properly introduces the iconic character, Gollum, to the series - although he makes a brief appearance in The Fellowship of the Ring. It is through Gollum that we get a deeper insight into the corrupting power of the ring, brought to life through a pioneering and excellent motion capture performance by Andy Serkis.

This is also The Lord of the Rings film with the best battle sequence, The Battle of Helm's Deep. The battle flows in a compelling manner, you can feel the lead characters' backs against the wall as they desperately scrap for survival against an all-powerful foe. It manages to capture a sense of chaos that comes with war, without making it impossible for the audience to follow.

A Memorable Quote

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?

Things You May Not Know

• According to J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers refers to the towers of Orthanc - Saruman's abode - and Cirith Ungol - where Frodo is taken to by the orcs in The Return of the King. However, many had believed The Two Towers referred to the Dark Tower - housing the eye of Sauron - and Minis Tirith - the city of men featured in The Return of the King.
• Andy Serkis based his portrayal of Gollum on heroin addicts.
• The Sam line 'by rights, we shouldn't even be here' is a nod to the derivation that film takes from the book - in which, Frodo and Sam never passed through Osgiliath.

One of the Greatest of All-Time?
Depending on how into The Lord of the Rings film series you are, The Two Towers is either a welcome additional three hours - or more, in the extended cut - inside Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth, or the least memorable of the three The Lord of the Rings films.

Both viewpoints have their merits. There are some compelling sections of further world-building in this film - not least the introduction to the internecine politics of the world of men - but there is little in The Two Towers that isn't done at least as well, if not better, in the other two films.