Rewatching the Lord of the Rings in 2020.

I rewatched The Lord of the Rings trilogy last week (theatrical versions). I hadn’t seriously watched the films in many years, and I was craving some classic fantasy and escapism. I finished the trilogy over the course of several days, and it was an interesting experience for numerous reasons:

– Gollum as a CGI character holds up remarkably well.
– The older I get, the hotter Eowyn and Rosie become.
– Theoden weeping at his son’s grave hits me a lot harder these days.
– Can we talk about how tender and affectionate all the men are? They weep, express their love for their friends, and exhibit strength without resorting to macho posturing. This is what masculinity ought to look like, in my opinion.
– While it’s no secret that I love misunderstood and/or lovable monsters, there’s old-school respect for Tolkien’s nasty, warped, evil orcs… and holy shit, the Uruk-Hai remain the best representation of that old-school monstrosity.
– “LOOKS LIKE MEAT’S BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!” may be my favorite line in the trilogy.
– Christopher Lee deserved to be in the theatrical version of The Return of the King.
– Frodo & Sam are the world-famous friendship, but Merry & Pippin’s bromance is seriously underrated.
– I bawled my eyes out at the end of the trilogy. I did not see that coming. I’d read the books and seen the movies before! But, in the throes of my weeping, I realized I hadn’t had a hard cry in a long time. 2020 has been rough on my headspace, and once “Into the West” started playing over the credits something in me just broke. I guess I needed that good cry.