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See the articles on The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King for plot summaries.
The book has been accused by a few for containing racist and elitist elements. The main concept is the Free Peoples (who could be identified as Europeans) against the slaves of Sauron who are Easterlings and Southrons. Also, many speculate that the Orcs represent blacks or Mongols having some of their distinct features.
Other points of literary criticism have been aimed at the pacing of the book. The book is accused of having long sections of building tension that dissipate without climax, such as the crossing of the Emyn Muil and the Dead Marshes. The mood of the tale often flicks between gloomy and cheerful, making it difficult for the reader to empathise with the characters. Tolkien made use of extensive descriptions to a point that can be excessive and detracting from the drama.
There were plans for the Beatles to do a version of The Lord of the Rings but they came to nothing. It was even said that Stanley Kubrick had looked into the possibility of filming the story, but he abandoned the idea as too "immense" to be made into a movie. In the mid-1970s, renowned film director John Boorman collaborated with film rights holder and producer Saul Zaentz to do a live action picture, but the project proved too expensive to finance at that time.
In 1978, Rankin-Bass studios produced the first real film adaptation of any Lord of the Rings related material with an animated television version of The Hobbit, which is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings.
Shortly after, Saul Zaentz picked up where Rankin-Bass left off by producing an animated adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring and the some of The Two Towers in 1978. The Lord of the Rings, originally released by United Artists was directed by Ralph Bakshi and featured an animation technique in which the shadows of live actors were recorded onto the film and then drawn over. This film was of uneven quality (perhaps a result of budget pressure or overruns, or difficulty grappling with the magnitude of the book). Some portions were fully- and well- animated, while others used Max Fleischer's rotoscope technique, where animation is laid over live action sequences. Additionally, the film ended somewhat abruptly after the battle of Helm's Deep, but before Sam, Frodo and Gollum traverse the Dead Marshes. Despite his best efforts, Bakshi was never able to do a Part II (covering the rest of the story), leaving the door open for Rankin-Bass to do the work for him with the 1980 animated television version of The Return of the King.
Since these films were targeted to a younger audience, adult enthusiasts have complained that much of the depth and darkness of the stories was discarded.
These efforts seemed to suggest that a satisfactory movie treatment of The Lord of the Rings was not practicable. Moreover, since overall interest in the novel had waned somewhat, prospects for a visual treatment seemed poor. However, advances in filmmaking techniques, in particular the development of computer graphics, made a movie treatment more feasible.
Miramax Films developed a full-fledged live-action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with Peter Jackson as director. When financing began to fall through, New Line Cinema assumed production responsibility (Miramax executives Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein remained on the production crew throughout the films' making).The three live action films (supplemented with extensive Computer-generated imagery, for example in the major battle scenes) were filmed simultaneously. was released in December 2001. was released in December 2002 and was released in December 2003. All three films won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years.
Although some have criticized these films because they have altered the story somewhat and, arguably, have a substantially different tone from Tolkien's original vision, others have hailed them as remarkable achievements. Noted critic Roger Ebert wrote, "[Jackson] has taken an enchanting and unique work of literature and retold it in the terms of the modern action picture. [...] To do what he has done in this film must have been awesomely difficult, and he deserves applause, but to remain true to Tolkien would have been more difficult, and braver."
Peter Jackson's film adaptation garnered seventeen Oscars (four for The Fellowship of the Ring, two for The Two Towers, and eleven for The Return of the King); these cover many of the awards categories (in fact, The Return of the King won all the awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture), but oddly, for none of the acting categories. The Return of the KingThe visual-effects work has been groundbreaking, particularly the creation of the emotionally versatile digital character Gollum. The scale of the production alone —three films shot back to back over a period of one and a half years— is unprecedented.
The films have also proven to be substantial box office successes. The premiere of The Return of the King took place in Wellington, New Zealand on December 1, 2003 and was surrounded by fan celebrations and official promotions (the production of the films having contributed significantly to the New Zealand economy). It has made movie history as the largest Wednesday opening ever. The Return of the King was also the second movie in history (after Titanic) to earn over 1 billion $US (worldwide). At the 2004 Academy Awards, The Return of the King won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for —equalling the number won by Titanic six years earlier.
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