Why is Return of the King so good?
LOTR3 Analysis!
Minas Morgul is a fabled city in the movie “The Lord of The Rings III: The Return of The King” directed by Peter Robert Jackson. In Jackson’s Middle-earth, humans and other races are fighting for the rings with incredible power. The scenario in this part is that Gollum, who is leading Frodo and Sam and passing by the Minas Morgul, Meanwhile, the Witch-king of Angmar, who is the chief servant of Sauron, is taking his army out of the Minas Morgul. In brief, the movie talks about the journey that they went to destroy the rings, and this scenario is a part of their journey. In this paper, I argue that the building structure of Minas Morgul in “The Return of The King” uses Gothic architecture features, including arched doors and sculptures to show that Gothic is an architecture model in the movie.
The scene that I analyzed in the movie gives audiences a general view of the city, the surroundings, and the atmosphere in this area by color, building structures, and weather. The wall exudes the green light, and there is green light in the city. In general, the most common color used in the movie is green and black. Green is a cool color, meaning to say it makes the audience feel bleak and emphasizes the deathly stillness in the city. Two demon’s sculptures are the symbol of evil.
Moreover, two demon’s sculptures tell the audience that the owner and citizens in the Minas Morgul are demons, and it is a dangerous place (Minas Morgul, 39:40-43:24). Gorge and endless mountains give people a feeling of hopelessness and nowhere to escape. Above the arched gate, there is a huge decoration that seems like a big mouth. The audience might think the huge mouth will eat everything that wants to enter the city including the lights. I think it is similar to the hellmouth in middle age. The hellmouth is a kind of artistic assumption that the entrance to the hell is a gaping mouth of a huge monster. The arched door, the decoration above the door, and sculptures are similar to the Gothic architecture styles or Romanesque architecture styles(Minas Morgul, 39:40-43:24).
The building structure changing in the movie is similar to the Gothic architecture changing in reality. Demons control the Minas Morgul, and the city has arched doors, a great decoration above that (Minas Morgul, 40:50-41:10). In Gothic architecture, the arched door is a pretty common element in real life. “Temple and Liberty” is a meaningful building for gothic style and the hidden politics at Stowe House. Gothic style and pointed arch are seen as some different symbols for Northern Germanic people, and the elegance and clarity are displaced in the fallen empire. On the other hand, there are some unclassifiable creatures since the architect had their own opinion and taste in Gothic and the building. Strawberry Hill represents that situation (Ganim, ch.2). In my view, because Gothic is a kind of different symbol, in the movie, Minas Morgul is also controlled by demons.
Thomas combines Romanesque and Gothic architecture in Northern Europe which is important because the background story is Northern Europe myth. The Gothic architecture style evolves from the Romanesque styles. After the Roman Empire’s power declined, Gothic architecture started to be involved in human’s life. It looks like Gothic eliminates and replaces original styles at that time and age. These two similar construction styles show the invasion and changing of the culture. Mouths, demons, and crosses are shown in the Minas Morgul (Sculptures, 40:13-40:25).
Thomas argues that there is colonization between the urban Latin edifices and Gothic (Thomas, p.744).
I believe that there is a probability that the demons colonized the area with the Gothic style and combined the demons’ features and Gothic style. On the other hand, the monstrous becomes seen as decoration or domination of the religious. Either decoration or domination is the symbol of the Gothic. Two demons can become seen as monstrous so that both views follow the characteristics of Gothic. According to that, two monstrous Gothic symbols in Minas Morgul give better support to my argument.
Moreover, the author also argued that the Gothic architecture’s decoration formed by isolated images, and these images or paintings integrated into the Gothic building. On the other hand, Gothic architecture is likely to become colonized by other styles. The urban Latin edifices might combine Gothic and develop (Thomas, p.744). All in all, the colonization for the demons and Latin are similar because both of them have not only similar features but also have similar background situations. Also, To sum up, Gothic becomes treated as exotic elements and occupy the original culture. The demons also play a colonial role in the movie.
In the movie, the arched door is massive; some demons who can fly or mega-monsters can easily cross the door (Minas Morgul, 42:50-43:20).
In terms of size for the door, there is a huge difference; however, I think these kinds of “restriction” is useful and suitable for the size of the monsters or demons. For example, the novel called Stones of Venice shows the Gothic significant of Gothic architecture and politics. It shows that Gothic influences political gestures, and it can illustrate the styles of a government (Ganim, ch.2). He also provides others’ views about Gothic decoration combining the decoration, styles, complications, and religion in a specific area. The Gothic and demons are used in The Lord of The Rings in the arched door, which illustrates the evil and violent in that world. The characteristics and images for a whole city are provided not only for individual buildings or structures.
The building structures have some similarities with the Ely.
Moore claims that Ely has three levels (p.158-162), and I also have a similar thought about the door and building behind the door in Minas Morgul. The first level of that is the ground area and three-level height. The second level is the arched door. The third level is the large mouth above the arched door (Building, 41:47-42:41). The Ely also has three levels, the first level almost contains all the ground and height of three levels, and the second level is narrower for the window or clerestory. Finally, the third level is set for the triangle gable.
Furthermore, the middle part of the building is protruded and higher than others. The third level is the cylinder behind the door. I think two of them have lots of similarities, so I believe this also illustrates that Minas Morgul follows Gothic architecture. This city was The Elf’s state and occupied by demons later. The demons can be seen as foreign culture, and the background of Gothic architecture is similar to the demon’s behaviors. Ganim also mentioned that different architects would make the building by their taste and opinion (ch.2).
Pointed Gothic in the movie and the book is similar since they might have similar meanings behind that.
I think Minas Morgul’s styles and Gothic architecture have the meaning of the highly-centralization. Like demons, only follow the leaders without revolt, and the Northern Germanic people want to make the aggression and reunion. Other architecture’s work in Medievalism style is given and explained like Pugin, William Kent, and Walpole. The book mentioned that different people have different tastes so that there are some changes when making architecture (Ganim, ch.2). According to that, the demons have their taste, which is blood stuff, or something related to violence.
Thus, these kinds of illegal or unbelievable things also are Gothic productions (Botting, p.2). The mouth beyond the arched door also illustrates that. It looks like the demons are going to eat everyone in the city. He uses a lot of historical shreds of evidence to prove his view and others’ view, which make this book more reliable and comprehensive. Their views and explanations for Medievalism or architecture are useful in the paper.
The book is “The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism,” published by Cambridge University Press. It was published in 2016 so that the information is generally new and reliable. The author is Ganim, John M, who is a famous researcher and writer about Medievalism and architecture. In my personal view, the author and publisher make this source more and more reliable. He combines reality and the scenes in the Novel and gives me the relationship between science fiction purpose and real-world purpose.
Sculptures in the Minas Morgul show some hidden information about the demons.
At the head of the bridge, two demon sculptures are lying on the two sides of the bridge. Two demons have two different faces, but they both show a ferocious expression (Sculptures, 40:13-40:25). I think these demon sculptures and crosses are decorated for the building behind them so that it supports me to prove that the movie did use Gothic architecture in Minas Morgul. Moore argues that the sculptures for Gothic after the beginning of the thirteenth century are “the monstrous and the grotesque” to make the comparison with the beauty (p.265-266). The ferocious expression is a kind of “monstrous or grotesque.” It looks like an exaggerated decoration for the building. This exaggerated decoration follows the Goths trait. Goths have bellicose disposition so that they usually have superfluous decoration in their buildings (Mateo, p.10)
Also, Moore mentioned that Gothic architecture is a unique system of construction, and the sculptures decorate this construction. Mouth and demons both are part of the monsters. Both could be decoration, and they also could be religious. Two different demons might be the “Door-God.” The demons respect them; Others who want to attack the city will get the punishment from the “Door-God.” Thomas E. A. Dale is the writer for the book called “A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe.”
In the chapter about the Monstrous, the writer mentioned that there are two main views for monstrous. The first part is that the monstrous are decoration only, and the second part gives them the meaning of religious (Thomas, p.358). Basically, the demons have their own beliefs, and their belief becomes connected with the constructions. They combine their culture into the buildings, and also Gothic culture will do that.
Conclusion
According to the research above, the argument from the article and point of view from the authors support my thesis statement. Firstly, the sculptures of two demons or monstrous crosses follow the Gothic architecture style. Gothic sculptures have creepy decorations, and demons are part of it.
The demons and cross also represent some religious symbols, and the evil in the movie could be seen as the evil religious so that it also supports my view. After the sculptures and bridge, the door behind it has noticeable features for Gothic, arched. The arched door and three-level structures all follow the Gothic architecture characteristics.
The arched door and the building in the movie compared with Ely, which is a traditional Gothic building. Ely also has three level structures, which is highly similar to the building in the movie, and the construction in the movie and reality for the arched door is the same. According to the above research, I am still confident about my argument. In the politics and ideology area, the gothic sometimes symbolizes the cold, violence, and aggression.
Thus, these are precisely the same as the ideology of the demons. In terms of this research, I conclude that the building structure in the movie called the lord of the rings in Minas Morgul uses the Gothic architecture structure. In the future, there should be more visible shreds of evidence to compare since I lack the information about the images; for example, it is better that there is an exact image as pieces of evidence for the demos’ sculptures with the cross in the real world. Lastly, the next step for me is doing more work on the images in detail and making the comparison between reality and science fiction.
Citation Why is Return of the King so good? Why is Return of the King so good?
- Botting, Fred. “Gothic.” Taylor & Francis e-Library, Routledge, 2005.
- Ganim, John M. “Medievalism and Architecture.” The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism, edited by Louise D’Arcens, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016, pp. 29–44. Cambridge Companions to Culture.
- Moore, Charles Herbert. Development & character of Gothic architecture. Рипол Классик, 1899.
- Peter, Jackson, dir. The Lord of the Rings. New Line Cinema and WingNut Films, 2003.
- Thomas E.A. Dale, A companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe. Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.
- Mateo, Matilde. “In Search of the Origin of the Gothic: Thomas Pitt’s Travel in Spain in 1760 *.” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 15, 2016, pp. 10. ProQuest, http://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1850136240?accountid=9783.
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/reviews#:~:text=the%20film%20floats%20by%20at,dropping%20moments%20to%20choose%20from.
