The Lord of the Rings - The Lord of the Rings Exhibition

Editor's Weekly Ramblings 26

Friday 19th September 2003

The Lord of the Rings - The Exhibition

This week I found myself happily engaged in West London with Wizards, Hobbits and Dwarves at the new Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Exhibition on currently at The Science Museum. The Lord of the Rings was always ripe to bear fruit on film; but until very recently the technology to do the project justice (with anything other then animation) was technologically out of the question.

The 'problem' is that the Lord of the Rings is not your boring 'misunderstood man finds true love in Manhattan' Hollywood fodder, which requires the props of a man, a woman, two flats and some naff dialogue. The Lord of the Rings is an epic which requires years of planning, a ton load of props and a cast of thousands to do it justice. And it is only with the advent of digital technology in the last couple of years that those thousands have been cost effective to produce in the bowels of a computer. Moving battle scenes of carnage and chaos from inside the pages of the three tolkien books and onto our film screens. Even then, as this exhibition makes abundantly clear, the process is far from straightforward.

This exhibition focuses on the version of The Lord of the Rings that has been brought to life by director Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema, over a period of several years, and so it is that vision that this exhibition looks at, (rather then the books themselves), between now and the 11th January 2004, when it will be moving on to Singapore, Boston and finally Sydney (no dates are currently available). The Science Museum will also be showing the first two films, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers in their IMAX cinema (though NOT in IMAX format I should stress) and you can find out details here. If you can get along to see the films here then do it! It will be a great experience, because although they are the normal format films, the IMAX cinema has great seats and sound and the view is terrific because of the elevated seating position. No worries about irritatingly tall people obstructing the view! (See you at the double-bill in October!)

© 2003 NLC Orc Head

The exhibition itself primarily uses the perspective of the main characters as a linchpin to explain the process that goes in to making such a large scale project. And largely it works. There is plenty of good information here. Props a'plenty and lots of nicely spaced video presentations of about a minute or two each to explain the different exhibits. With the subject of these driven by the particular character who is being presented. Fittingly Hobbits are first as you enter the auditorium space, which is nice and dark (as should befit a land balanced precariously between good and evil), and you can learn about the making of Hobbiton which on its own took over a year to build in Matamata, New Zealand where the pictures were filmed.

Plus, make sure you see the terrific picture near the entrance by Gus Hunter called 'Sauron's Lidless Eye' which the Science Museum really should be negotiating to scan and turn into a poster fit to hang on any angst ridden teenagers bedroom wall. (with the framed version for mine!) In fact though, the merchandising of this exhibition was one of the few areas that did seem a bit of a disaster area. Almost none of the cool stuff on show was available to buy as pictures, mugs, mouse-mats (if that floats your boat) and hence happily suck money from the publics wallets. Not a single poster was available, and very little of anything else.