Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson revealed his favorite scene from the trilogy and his choice may surprise fans. Jackson famously helmed all three Lord of the Rings films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's seminal fantasy novels. The third film in Jackson's trilogy, Return of the King, holds the record for the highest sweep at the Academy Awards. The trilogy is widely heralded as reigniting the fantasy genre and bringing us shows like Game of Thrones.
With a new show from Amazon on the way that will take place during the Second Age of Middle Earth and a 4K remastering of the original films, interest in Jackson's trilogy is being reignited. While Amazon's show is still a ways off, the series has managed to stay in the public eye through the sheer force of its achievements, both technically and narratively. The films are near perfect and, while the 4K version is controversial, fans will discuss the films for years to come, making Jackson's choice for his favorite scene all the more interesting.
In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jackson revealed his pick for his favorite scene. Colbert, known Lord of the Rings superfan, avoids asking the question as to Jackson's favorite film and gets the director to reveal the quieter scene that he says is his favorite. The scene comes early in the second film, The Two Towers, and it focuses on Gollum. Jackson says the film needed a scene to exemplify Gollum's split personality and the scene he picked is one that finds Gollum battling himself as to whether or not he will murder Frodo and Sam and steal back the ring for himself. The scene was written and directed by Jackson's partner in work and life, Fran Walsh. Jackson said:
We were shooting Two Towers and it was introducing Gollum. A key thing with Gollum is that most people know he's Sméagol and he's Gollum, it's like a split. But we hadn't got a scene where you really got the idea of, "This guy is two people." So we knew that we needed it but we had no time to shoot it. So Fran wrote a scene where Sam and Frodo are asleep, so they can be just lumps in the bed, we don't even have to have Elijah and Sean. We didn't have anyone to direct it, so I said to Fran, "You wrote it, you should shoot it." So she went in for a day and she wrote and directed a scene which has become pretty famous now.
There are plenty of amazing scenes to choose from in the trilogy, so Jackson's pick is somewhat surprising. It's one of the quieter moments in the trilogy, especially compared to some of the epic battle scenes and confrontations in the films. With battles like the one at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers and the final Battle at Pelennor Fields, one would be hard-pressed to pick their favorite action scene. Jackson skirts around that problem by choosing this scene with Gollum, which is more important than fans may think.
Gollum is such a pivotal character in the trilogy, though, and also represents some of the behind-the-scenes achievements of the films. Gollum was one of the first motion-capture characters on film. Played by Andy Serkis, the character's split personality is pivotal in Frodo's journey to Mordor. The scene is also representative of the power that the One Ring has over those who wield it and the evil that can consume them. Sméagol, Gollum's original human name, was transformed by the ring over thousands of years, becoming the creature we see in the film because of the ring's power. Lord of the Rings wouldn't be the same without the character, so while Jackson's choice may seem surprising at first, it makes a lot of sense.
Source: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
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