The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) on Netflix
PG-1320033h 21mAdventureDramaFantasy
Sauron's army marches on Gondor, and Gandalf rides to Minas Tirith with Pippin to warn its steward. Far off, Frodo and Sam carry the One Ring toward Mordor, with Gollum as guide.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb9.0/102,193,284 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sauron turns his eye toward Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. At Edoras, Pippin looks into Saruman's palantír, is briefly contacted by the dark lord, and Gandalf concludes that the enemy will strike the city. Théoden will not send his riders unless Gondor asks, so Gandalf and Pippin ride to Minas Tirith. There Denethor, the steward, resists them; his family has guarded Gondor for centuries, awaiting the return of a true king, and Aragorn is that heir. Meanwhile Frodo carries the One Ring toward Mordor, with Sam at his side and Gollum showing the path.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- At the 76th Academy Awards the film won all 11 awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture, the first fantasy film to take that prize, and tying 1959's Ben-Hur and 1997's Titanic for the most Academy Award wins.
SPOILER
The writers rewrote Gollum's fall into the lava of Mount Doom because a simple slip felt anticlimactic; an even greater change was planned, with Frodo heroically pushing Gollum over the ledge, but the team realized it would look as if Frodo were murdering him, so they staged a struggle for the Ring instead.- Christopher Lee's scene as Saruman was cut despite pick-ups and dubs, causing controversy with fans and a petition to restore it; Lee said he would never understand the reason and his relationship with Jackson was chilly, though they later reconciled when Lee was cast in Jackson's Hobbit films.
- The end title song "Into the West" was composed by Shore with lyrics by Fran Walsh and performed by Annie Lennox, formerly of Eurythmics, who also received a songwriting credit; it was partly inspired by the premature death from cancer of a young New Zealand filmmaker, Cameron Duncan, who had befriended Peter Jackson.
- Shore watched the assembly cut of the film and had to write seven minutes of music per day to keep up with the schedule.
- One piece of music required an instrument invented and crafted especially for the film: a fiddle strung with four pairs of strings instead of single strings.
