Movies - TV
Peter Jackson's Pick For The Best Scene In The Lord Of The Rings
By RAFAEL MOTAMAYOR
“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy remains a monumental accomplishment of adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary books through old-school cinematic techniques and new technological advances in filmmaking. Even after 20 years, one particular scene encapsulates the cinematic achievement of the films and is Peter Jackson’s choice for the best scene in the trilogy.
Jackson said “The Two Towers” was his favorite film and claimed that, despite his arduous personal battle to get it made, “the Battle of Helm’s Deep sequence in that film” is the film’s best scene. What makes the scene special is Jackson and his team turning a short, straightforward battle into an emotionally resonant and visually stunning moment that follows a three-act structure.
The Battle of Helm’s Deep sets the standard for big-scale battle scenes in cinema and is a testament to the stunt team and the late cinematographer Andrew Lesnie’s ability to capture the action clearly and understandably. The Helm’s Deep sequence has a balanced rhythm, and Jackson’s use of practical armor, makeup and weapons gives the battle a sense of realism.
Jackson and his team invented a software called Massive to portray the scale of an orc army 10,000 strong that uses AI to treat each CGI character individually. Jackson told Stephen Colbert that he didn’t know how the battles would turn out since he didn’t control what the armies did with some of them fleeing, and he had to “dumb them down and tell them to stay fighting.”