Friday Minute
No. 21 | January 29, 2010

Best of the Decade

Our theme this week
Best movies of the decade at Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes

Featured this week
Monday         —   The Hurt Locker
Tuesday         —   Ratatouille
Wednesday    —   4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Thursday        —   Pan’s Labyrinth

“The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy

The essentials
The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) / The Two Towers (2002) / The Return of the King (2003)
Metacritic:  92 / 88 / 94
Rotten Tomatoes:  92% / 96% / 94%

Considered together (and I can’t see why you’d do it any other way), the three films in The Lord of the Rings saga were the movie event of the decade.  Filmed under the direction of Peter Jackson in his native New Zealand, the films were released in successive Decembers.  All were hits at the box office and with critics, and they are beloved by legions of devoted fans around the world.  The series won 17 Academy Awards (of 30 nominations), including Best Picture for the finale.  The trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide, surpassing the record-setting movies in the original Star Wars trilogy.

The films are adapted from the three volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic series.  Set in the mythic world of Middle-earth, the story follows the adventures of the hobbit Frodo Baggins on his quest to destroy the One Ring, an object of supernatural and malevolent powers.  Frodo is aided by members of the Fellowship, including his companion Sam and the wizard Gandalf, as they battle the forces of darkness, including a twisted little creature named Gollum who seeks to regain possession of the ring (which he affectionately calls “my precious”).  The ring was created by Sauron, the dark lord whose forces pursue Frodo on his mission to Mount Doom, the volcano where the ring was forged and is to be destroyed.  The tale culminates in an epic battle between good and evil, before peace, at last, is restored.

Conceived and filmed as one continuous story, the trilogy runs about nine-and-a-half hours (more than eleven hours in the extended version on DVD).  Even for epics, that’s not the scale of storytelling we’re used to seeing.  Thankfully, it was split into three films—no one had to sit through the whole thing at once.  Was it altogether too long?  I think you could make the argument, yet it’s hard to argue with success.  Many  fans eagerly await the Blu-ray version coming in April, with its seven hours of extras, and future versions with even more scenes not seen before.

Beyond the final credits
The selections this week were taken from top-rated films based on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores.  In choosing from two lists I had a little wiggle room on what to write about.  Here are some runners-up, highly rated movies that, on another day, may have made the short list:  Spirited Away (94/97%), Sideways (94/97%), 35 Shots of Rum (93/96%), Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (92/96%), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (92/93%), and There Will Be Blood (92/91%).

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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Trailer

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Final Friday Five, the monthly mini-quiz
1.  What is the name of the theater in Inglourious Basterds?
      a.  Der Stolz der Dreyfus
      b.  The Bijou
      c.  Le Gamaar
      d.  Le Royale
      e.  The Quentiplex
2.  For the acting duo below, list the movies in which they co-starred in chronological order by release date.
      Robert De Niro / Joe Pesci
            Casino
            Goodfellas
            Raging Bull
            A Bronx Tale
            The Good Shepherd
            Once Upon a Time in America
3.  The three historical figures below were portrayed by three of the actors listed to the right.  Name the one actor who did not play the character on film.
      Jesus Christ:  Jim Caviezel, Willem Dafoe, Charlton Heston, Max von Sydow
      Abe Lincoln:  Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Walter Huston, Raymond Massey
      John Dillinger:  Johnny Depp, Harvey Keitel, Warren Oates, Lawrence Tierney
4.  For the four films below, select the following four:  release date, director, actor, actress.
      a.  Manon of the Spring
      b.  (500) Days of Summer
      c.  Legends of the Fall
      d.  The Lion in Winter
      Release dates:  2009, 1968, 1994, 1986
      Directors:  Marc Webb, Edward Zwick, Claude Berri, Anthony Harvey
      Actors:  Peter O’Toole, Brad Pitt, Yves Montand, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
      Actresses:  Julia Ormond, Emmanuelle Béart, Zooey Deschanel, Katharine Hepburn
5.  Rearrange the mixed-up titles below to form the names of five films nominated for Best Picture.
      a.  Nazi Necktie
      b.  Bearcat
      c.  Xavier Dirt
      d.  Christ’s Ills End
      e.  Altair God
      (Hint:  the film titles for a. through e. are in chronological order.)

Answers here.

…58…59…60.