Summative Movie Analysis

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7YllAOqpF4

Plot Summary: http://www.ruinedendings.com/film2746plot

1) The setting conveys darkness as it is set in Mordor, a dark and barren land. Mordor is covered in smoke which gives and eerie effect and is where the Evil Lord Sauron lives. The setting is an obvious layer.

2)  The film maker conveys darkness and evil through the setting, characters, and plot.  The setting in Mordor conveys darkness and evil.  There is a volcano that makes the land covered in black smoke that gives it a dark effect.  Characters such as Golem and Sauron convey evil and darkness.  Golem kills his cousin to get the ring.  Sauron is the evil ruler of Mordor and has killed many people.  The plot conveys darkness as Frodo must travel to Mordor to destroy the ring, but as he holds the ring he becomes dark.  The ring corrupted Golem, and makes him do whatever it takes to get the ring. He also tricks Frodo into thinking that he is good, so that he can get close to him and try to steal the ring.  The expression of darkness that impacted me most was when Golem killed his cousin to get the ring.  This showed that Golem was evil and would do whatever it took to obtain and keep the ring.

3) A character can represent evil by his actions, whether it is acts of revenge, selfishness, or greed. Golem represents evil because he shows all of these actions. He bites off Frodo's finger in an act of revenge to get the ring back; he also kills his cousin in an act of greed and selfishness to obtain the ring.

4) The connection I thought of was text to text. I connected Lord of the Rings with Harry Potter. In both stories, there is an evil dark lord trying to gain power by doing evil deeds. There are also main characters that try to stop the evil lords but sometimes show their own evil. For example, when Frodo wears the ring he becomes dark and gloomy. He even has second thoughts about destroying the ring. Harry on the other hand sometimes uses his magic to get back on his cousin and when he uses magic to get revenge on Voldemort for killing his parents. In response to Josh and Rigel's post, the expression of darkness that impacted me most was when the Joker blew up the hospital. This showed that he was willing to kill many people just to get to Batman. Just like in Lord of the Rings where Golem kills his cousin just to keep the ring.

Does evil or fear lead to one infliction of violence or the observation of violence?

Yes, in the lord of the Rings, fear of the ring's power causes people to fight with one another to have the ring destroyed. Basically the good side want to destroy the ring because they fear how much power it has and how much damage it can do, whereas the evil side want to keep the ring so they can use its power to take over the world. Also Frodo observes violence as he tries to take the ring to Mordor. He watches as his team fights Sauron and his men. 

To improve my piece I added the connection and the character questions because I had not included them before. I also added another example in the second question.