I came to Lord of the Rings the same way that many folks who are fans my age likely did: We were slightly young for the books but just at the right age to be absolutely enthralled by the Peter Jackson films. Tolkien purists shudder, but that’s how it happened for me. I devoured the extended edition DVDs. Watched every commentary track. Watched and rewatched the films. In high school, this series made me want to go into filmmaking. I didn’t end up doing that, but Tolkien has stuck with me now for twenty years all thanks to the thousands of people who made The Lord of the Rings one of the most beloved film trilogies of all time.
I went into There and Back Again: The Unofficial Oral History of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy with a bit of hubris. I didn’t think I’d learn anything new. Yes, yes, Viggo really broke his toe when kicked that helmet. Sir Ian McKellan really did smack his head on the Hobbit doorway. Sean Bean walked up the side of a mountain because he was scared of helicopters. Don’t play Lord of the Rings trivia with me. You’ll lose.
But Moore dives into a story I never knew. It turns out that what folks talk about on camera for the film’s DVD commentary track is a whole lot more reserved than what gets spoken about some twenty years later. The whole first part of There and Back Again covers how the film got made. There’s a wealth of information here that I never knew and had never even thought about. Moore shows how easily LOTR could have been bad. Like, real bad. He navigates the intricacies of the now-infamous Harvey Weinstein being both the film’s savior and almost killing it. Using first-hand accounts, he tells the story of just how unlikely it was that any film got made, let alone three films that combined for seventeen Academy Awards.
Moore also goes deep into the pre-production story, talking with a number of behind-the-scenes folks who made everything work. There’s so much that goes on in filmmaking that’s not in front of the camera or even directly behind the camera. There are lighting and makeup and casting and all the things little and big that most folks just assume that really can be the most interesting parts of filmmaking. I won’t spoil all the stories. Just go read it yourself!
There and Back Again devotes a chapter to each of the films. Gollum gets his own chapter. Editing, Sound, Makeup, and Set Construction all get a chapter. There are bits on marketing and finally the Oscars success. Moore goes from beginning to end and does not leave anything out. Weighing in at 384 pages, this is a veritable tome of Tolkien information.
I do have a couple of criticisms. First, and this could be a criticism or a praise, Moore is content to let his interviewees do the talking. The book relies heavily on quotes from interviews with very little or no connective tissue between them. Parts of the book feel unfinished, like I’m reading Moore’s research notes that never got pieced together. Now, this is called an oral history. So. Probably the goal was to make it come off feeling like an oral retelling rather than a structured narrative. But there are parts where I would have liked a little more structure. It often felt like reading the transcript of a documentary.
Second, and this one is somewhat tied to the first, in letting the interviews speak for themselves I think there might be points where the book doesn’t reflect reality. I could be wrong. Mainly, there’s a point in the book where Weta special effects artist Jamie Beswarick claims that Christopher Lee had his “nose bone” removed and Lee “proceeded to press his nose flat across his face.” It’s a great story but a bit unbelievable. And I’ve found no other evidence of it being true. Please, Sam, confirm this for me somehow. I want a photo of Sir Christopher Lee smashing his honker flat. Until then, I’m afraid I don’t believe this one.
Overall, though, this is a must for the Tolkien collector or the fan of the films. It manages to unearth new stories, new details, and new insights into a film series that remains a beloved classic. There and Back Again is a testament to the enduring love of Tolkien, Middle-Earth, and the vision of it that Peter Jackson created.