By Kellie Gerbers
Graphics Editor ’04

If you didn’t catch this year’s Academy Awards presentation, let me sum it up for you: “The Return of the King.” “The Return of the King.” “The Return of the King.” While many viewers seem to grumble over the film’s clean sweep of the gold statues (tying the record at 11 wins in one evening [“Ben Hur,” “Titanic”]), I find it hard to complain. Director Peter Jackson’s final installment in the trilogy based on the popular Tolkien books represents a lifetime achievement for cast and crew members alike. The films themselves took over three years in the making (all three parts of “The Lord of the Rings” were filmed at the same time) and production costs totaled over $180 million dollars. The special effects used to create the films are not only groundbreaking but also visually phenomenal (for example, John Rhys-Davies, who played the dwarf Gimli, was in fact the tallest actor in the film…go figure). The film’s original score (composed by Howard Shore), makeup, film editing, and costumes were just a few other aspects that earned an Oscar, and after watching a behind-the-scenes featurette on the application of hobbit feet, I think the costume department deserved more than just a statue for its efforts. If you have an opportunity to watch any of the special features included on “The Lord of the Rings” DVD’s, I strongly recommend it; the features will give you an enormous appreciation for the work behind the trilogy and show you with several hours of documentation just why “The Return of the King” earned so many prestigious awards.