The Return of the King (1980 film)

On screen and on air the people are represented almost entirely by the few individuals the stories follow. Orson Bean voiced Bilbo in the Rankin/Bass television film of the earlier novel, and took the part of Frodo as well in the same studio's version of the last part of the longer book, where Roddy McDowall played Samwise. Bakshi's film cast Christopher Guard as Frodo, Michael Scholes as Sam, Dominic Guard as Pippin and Simon Chandler as Merry, their movement drawn in part over filmed actors. The BBC dramatisation used Ian Holm as Frodo, Bill Nighy as Sam and John Le Mesurier as Bilbo; Holm returned two decades later as Bilbo for Peter Jackson, whose four travellers were Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, with Martin Freeman taking the younger Bilbo in the second trilogy. Difference of stature there was managed by forced perspective, doubled sets built to two scales, and stand-ins of smaller build rather than by any effect applied to the actors.

The departures are consistent in one respect: the domestic material at either end of the book is the first thing cut. Bakshi, the radio series and Jackson all pass over the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-downs, and Jackson additionally compresses the long interval between the birthday party and the departure from Bag End, brings Merry and Pippin into the journey by accident instead of by the deliberate conspiracy of the novel, and drops the return home altogether, so that the four come back to a country that has never been occupied and needs no setting right. The Rankin/Bass treatment of the last part begins with the quest already far advanced and leaves most of the earlier narrative unrepresented. The radio version, longest of the older adaptations, is the only one of them to dramatise the retaking of the Shire.

The older adaptations give the sword much less room. Ralph Bakshi's animated film, which halts after Helm's Deep, compresses the Council of Elrond severely and passes over the smithwork and the naming; Aragorn, voiced by John Hurt, simply appears armed, and the blade is never distinguished from any other weapon in the picture. The Rankin/Bass television film of the last part of the story, in which Theodore Bikel voiced Aragorn, likewise omits the whole Rivendell strand, since it begins long after the Company has dispersed. The BBC Radio dramatisation, being the fullest of the three, is also the closest here: its twenty-six parts retain the broken heirloom as Aragorn's credential and the reforging before the departure from Rivendell, with Robert Stephens as Aragorn. Radio, of course, can carry the device on the blade only by describing it, so the sword exists in that version as a matter of speech and title rather than of appearance, and its weight in the drama rests almost entirely on how other characters react to hearing its name.

Aragorn has appeared in most dramatizations of The Lord of the Rings. In Ralph Bakshi's animated film of 1978 he was voiced by John Hurt, and in the Rankin/Bass animated television film The Return of the King (1980) by Theodore Bikel. The BBC radio serial of 1981 cast Robert Stephens in the role. In Peter Jackson's live-action trilogy (2001–2003) Aragorn was played by Viggo Mortensen, who joined the production at short notice after filming had already begun, replacing the originally cast Stuart Townsend.

In every adaptation of The Lord of the Rings he is a discovery rather than a character, and no performer is credited for him. Jackson's earlier trilogy keeps him as the tomb in the Chamber of Mazarbul, with Gimli's grief supplying what the book supplies at greater length, and the recovered record reduced to a few read passages; Bakshi's unfinished animated film treats the same burial chamber more briefly within a compressed Moria sequence. The BBC Radio dramatisation, having the room of a twenty-six-part serial, follows the novel most closely here and lets the account of the colony's end be read out at length. He falls outside the Rankin/Bass Return of the King entirely, since that film begins after Moria; in the same studio's Hobbit the thirteen dwarves are so heavily condensed that little beyond Thorin is individuated, and Balin has no distinct role.

The older adaptations reach the tower only partially, or not at all. Ralph Bakshi's animated film covers roughly the first half of the story and breaks off after the fighting at Helm's Deep, its planned second part never made, so that Mordor's fortress stays a matter of narration and distant threat and its destruction never arrives on screen. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 takes up the closing part of the story independently of Bakshi's unfinished version, condensing it into a television hour built around song and framing narration, with the result that the tower's end registers as a brief consequence of the Ring's unmaking rather than as the long-prepared collapse of the book's ending. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation, running to twenty-six half-hour parts, has no images to offer and conveys the tower entirely through speech, narration and sound design; its greater length lets it keep episodes the films abridge or cut, including the embassy sent out from the tower to treat with the captains of the West.

Bilbo has been portrayed across the major screen and radio versions of both books. In the Rankin/Bass animated television film of The Hobbit (1977) he was voiced by Orson Bean, who returned to the role in the same studio's The Return of the King (1980); in Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings (1978) he was voiced by Norman Bird. The BBC's 1968 radio serial of The Hobbit cast Paul Daneman as Bilbo, and in the 1981 BBC radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings the part was taken by John Le Mesurier — alongside Ian Holm as Frodo, the actor who two decades later played the elderly Bilbo in Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003). In Jackson's three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit (2012–2014) the young Bilbo was played by Martin Freeman, with Holm reappearing in framing scenes as the old hobbit writing his memoir.

Nothing beyond that had been settled through the seasons broadcast to date. The older screen adaptations do not supply the balance. Ralph Bakshi's animated film breaks off after Helm's Deep, and the Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 takes up the closing part of the story without returning to Lothlórien, so that the events in which Celeborn acts on his own account—the crossing of Anduin, the taking of the fortress, the division of the forest afterwards—have never been dramatised for the screen at all.

Earlier and later adaptations cast the figure differently. In the Rankin/Bass animated television film of The Hobbit (1977) Elrond is voiced by Cyril Ritchard, and in Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings (1978) by André Morell. Jackson's Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014) returns Hugo Weaving to the role and enlarges it beyond the novel: Elrond attends a White Council meeting shown on screen and joins an invented assault on Dol Guldur to free Gandalf.

The Elves reached the screen first in the Rankin/Bass television film of the shorter novel, where Elrond was voiced by Cyril Ritchard and the wood-elves of the forest keep their part in the story, though the compression to roughly ninety minutes leaves them little room. Ralph Bakshi's animated film of the following year gave Legolas to Anthony Daniels, Elrond to André Morell and Galadriel to Annette Crosbie; because the film breaks off after the fighting at Helm's Deep, the elven strand of the narrative is reduced to the council, the passage through the golden wood and the gifts that follow, and Glorfindel's part at the flight to the Ford is transferred to Legolas. The same studio's later television film of the last volume keeps the Elves largely to a framing scene in Rivendell. The most faithful of the older versions is the BBC radio dramatisation in twenty-six parts, with Hugh Dickson as Elrond, David Collings as Legolas and Marian Diamond as Galadriel; its length allows the elven episodes, including the meeting with the wandering company on the road out of the Shire, to be played out at something near their proper weight.

Frodo has been portrayed in every major dramatization of The Lord of the Rings. In Ralph Bakshi's animated film of 1978, which covers roughly the first half of the story, he was voiced by Christopher Guard; in the Rankin/Bass animated television film The Return of the King (1980) the part was spoken by Orson Bean. The BBC radio serial of 1981 cast Ian Holm as Frodo — the same actor who two decades later played the elderly Bilbo in Peter Jackson's live-action trilogy (2001–2003), in which Frodo was played by Elijah Wood. Wood reprised the role briefly in the prologue framing of Jackson's first Hobbit film (2012).

Gandalf has been portrayed across animation, radio, and live-action film. In the Rankin/Bass animated television film of The Hobbit (1977) and its later companion piece The Return of the King (1980), the character was voiced by John Huston; in Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings (1978), which covers roughly the first half of the story, William Squire provided the voice. Michael Hordern played Gandalf in the BBC radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings (1981). The most widely known portrayal is that of Ian McKellen, who played the wizard in Peter Jackson's live-action film trilogies The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014), receiving an Academy Award nomination for the first film.

Gollum has appeared in nearly every dramatisation of the books. In the Rankin/Bass animated television film of The Hobbit (1977) he was voiced by Brother Theodore, who returned for the same studio's The Return of the King (1980), where the character was drawn as a distinctly frog-like, greenish creature. In Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings (1978) the voice was supplied by Peter Woodthorpe, who played the part again in the BBC's 1981 radio serial of the novel.

In the older versions the realm is thinner. Ralph Bakshi's animated film breaks off after Helm's Deep, so Gondor exists in it only as Boromir's report at Rivendell, voiced by Michael Graham Cox, who took the same part again in the radio dramatisation three years later. The Rankin/Bass television film takes up the final volume alone and compresses it to about ninety minutes, with William Conrad as Denethor and John Huston as Gandalf; the Paths of the Dead, the fleets and the muster of the fiefs are dropped, and much of the war is carried by narration and song. The twenty-six-part radio serial has room for what the screen versions cut, and Peter Vaughan's Denethor is given the long arguments with Gandalf and with Faramir at length.

Ralph Bakshi's animated film reaches the wood but has little room for it. The halt is reduced to a brief episode, Galadriel is voiced by Annette Crosbie, and the long stay that occupies several chapters of the book is passed over in a few minutes of screen time; the departure from the realm leads more or less directly to the river journey, so that the parting gifts and their later uses drop out of a story that in any case breaks off after Helm's Deep. The BBC Radio 4 serial, running to twenty-six parts, has the space the film lacked and uses it: Galadriel is played by Marian Diamond, and the dramatisation keeps both the questioning of the company and the scene at the Mirror, together with the giving of gifts before the boats are launched. Of the older television adaptations neither has any occasion for the realm — the Rankin/Bass Hobbit precedes the events entirely, and the same studio's Return of the King takes up the story after the Fellowship has left the wood behind.

The city has fared unevenly on screen. Ralph Bakshi's animated film never reaches it: the picture breaks off after the fighting at Helm's Deep and the intended second part was never produced, so Gondor's capital lies entirely outside its compass. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 takes up the closing part of the story instead, with John Huston voicing Gandalf and William Conrad voicing Denethor, but its running time of roughly ninety minutes obliges it to compress the siege severely and to summarise events it had not itself dramatised, since it does not continue Bakshi's film. Peter Jackson's trilogy gives the city by far the fullest treatment, making it the principal setting of the third film, with John Noble as Denethor; the earlier two films glimpse it only in passing. As in the older animated films, the city is realised through design and effects work rather than through any single performer associated with it, so the adaptations are compared chiefly by what they keep of the book's material.

Because Ralph Bakshi's animated film breaks off after Helm's Deep, Mordor never becomes a setting in it at all: the realm is present only as the place the Black Riders come from and as the location of the Ring's making in the film's opening sequence, which is handled in traced silhouette rather than as a depicted country. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 takes up the last part of the story and is therefore the earliest screen version to show the crossing of the land, though ninety minutes reduce the passage to a few episodes, and a large part of the interior journey is carried by a marching song given to the orcs — a musical device with no counterpart in the narrative. Neither film has room for the watered south or for the distinction between the ash-plain and the valley behind the inner ridge. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of 1981, in twenty-six half-hour parts, has no pictures to supply and builds the country out of narration and the acoustics of tunnels, stairs and enclosed towers; being the most complete of the older adaptations, it keeps more of the stages of the approach and the crossing than the film versions attempt, with Ian Holm as Frodo and Bill Nighy as Sam.

In the screen and radio versions the Red Ring is almost as reticent as it is in the book, with the difference that most of them never disclose it at all. Peter Jackson's trilogy names the Three collectively in its opening narration but gives none of them a name, and although Nenya is worn visibly by Galadriel and Elrond keeps a ring of his own, the film Gandalf — played by Ian McKellen, who returned to the part in the later Hobbit films — is never identified as a Ring-bearer. The scene at the Havens with which the last film closes is built entirely around the departure of the hobbits, so the disclosure that ends the book has no counterpart on screen; a viewer of the films alone would have no reason to suspect that Gandalf carried one of the Three. Ralph Bakshi's animated version cannot reach the question, since it breaks off after Helm's Deep, and the Rankin/Bass television film that takes up the last part of the story does so without reference to the Elven-rings held by those who sail. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation, the most complete of the older adaptations, follows the narrative to the Grey Havens with Michael Hordern as Gandalf, but the ring's earlier history belongs to the appendices, which none of these versions treat.

Every screen and radio version has had to deal with the Nine early, and the older ones differ chiefly in the means available to them. In Ralph Bakshi's animated film of 1978 the riders were among the figures worked up from live-action footage rather than drawn outright, which gives them a texture distinct from the surrounding animation; because the film breaks off after Helm's Deep, only the pursuit from the Shire to the Ford of Bruinen is covered, and the later history of the Nine is never reached. The BBC Radio dramatisation of 1981, in twenty-six half-hour parts, is the fullest of the older treatments and keeps the shape of the hunt substantially as the book has it, the wraiths being conveyed by voice and sound alone. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 begins after the point at which the other two versions leave off and so encounters the Nine only in the last war; its chief episode involving them is the fall of their leader on the Pelennor, retained within a narrative otherwise heavily compressed.

The earliest screen versions keep the nomenclature of the books they adapt: the Rankin/Bass television Hobbit of 1977 calls the creatures beneath the Misty Mountains goblins throughout, and compresses their role heavily, reducing the battle before the Lonely Mountain to a few largely narrated minutes. Bakshi's film of the following year, whose animation was traced in large part from filmed live-action performers, accordingly gives its Orc-hosts the bulk and gait of human actors rather than of drawn design; because the film breaks off after the battle at Helm's Deep, its Orcs are only ever Saruman's and Sauron's field armies, and the garrison quarrels of Mordor lie outside it entirely. The Rankin/Bass Return of the King of 1980 takes up the later part of the story and gives its Orcs a marching song, a musical number with no counterpart in Tolkien's text. The BBC Radio dramatisation of 1981, the most complete of the older adaptations at twenty-six parts, is correspondingly the one that preserves most of the Orc material the animated films had no room for, including the disputes among the captains of the pass.

The valley reached the screen first in the Rankin/Bass television film of 1977, where the halt at Elrond's house survives the general compression of the novel largely because the moon-letters on the dwarves' map are needed for what follows; Elrond was voiced by Cyril Ritchard. Ralph Bakshi's animated film of the following year, with André Morell as Elrond, keeps the valley as a waypoint but reduces the deliberation held there to a short scene, which has the effect of turning a decision reached by many voices into an announcement. The same studio's Return of the King of 1980 makes a different use of the place: rather than an episode it becomes a frame, the film returning throughout to a celebration of Bilbo's birthday in Elrond's house at which the war is recounted in retrospect by a minstrel of Gondor — a device the book does not employ. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of 1981, in twenty-six half-hour parts, is the version that preserves most of what is spoken in the valley, since its length allows the council to proceed as an argument rather than a summary; Elrond was played there by Hugh Dickson.

The older adaptations treat the country more thinly. Bakshi's animated film reaches the fortress and stops there, so the realm appears only as a hall and a siege, with the riders among the sequences traced from live-action footage; Théoden is voiced by Philip Stone, and the king's niece is cut from the story altogether, which removes the whole strand of service refused and duty disguised. The Rankin/Bass television film takes up the last part of the war without continuing from Bakshi, and compresses the horsemen's part in it to a brief intervention. The BBC radio dramatisation, in twenty-six half-hour parts, has room the others lack and follows the book's order closely through the Rohan chapters; Jack May speaks Théoden, and the court scenes are carried by dialogue and horns rather than by the visual ceremony the films favour.

Sam has been a substantial part in every full dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings. In Ralph Bakshi's animated film of 1978 he was voiced by Michael Scholes; since that version breaks off after the battle at Helm's Deep, his story ends on the road east under Gollum's guidance, with the pass of Cirith Ungol never reached. The Rankin/Bass animated television film of the following year, which adapts only the closing volume and frames it as a minstrel's song at Bilbo's birthday feast in Rivendell, gives the part to Roddy McDowall and reduces the rescue at the tower to a brief episode. The BBC radio serial of 1981, the longest and closest of the dramatisations, cast Bill Nighy as Sam and retained material the film versions omit, including the return to an occupied Shire.

Because the Ring is an object and not a person, adaptations differ chiefly in how much presence they are willing to give it. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of 1981, in twenty-six half-hour parts, is the most complete of the older versions and generally the most faithful, and it necessarily conveys the Ring's working through narration and through what the bearers say of it; its one substantial loss to this entity is the excision of the Old Forest, which removes the single episode in which the Ring visibly fails to take hold of anyone. Ralph Bakshi's animated film of 1978 sets out the making and the loss of the Ring in an opening sequence, moving that history in front of the story instead of leaving it to the wizard's explanation partway through; since the film breaks off after Helm's Deep and the intended second part was never made, its Ring is never carried to Mordor at all. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 takes up the closing part of the story but was made by another studio and does not continue Bakshi's, so between the two the middle of the Ring's journey is simply absent. In the same studio's Hobbit of 1977 the ring is only the vanishing-device of the earlier novel, with nothing of its later significance attached.

Every adaptation has to decide how much of the rings' history to state before the story can move, and the older ones answer differently. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1977 does not answer at all: adapting the earlier novel, it keeps the ring Bilbo finds as a simple means of going unseen, with no maker behind it and no other rings beside it. Ralph Bakshi's animated film of the following year opens instead with a prologue that lays out the forging, the division among Elves, Dwarves and Men, and the loss of the One before the hobbits are introduced — material the book withholds until the Council. The Rankin/Bass Return of the King of 1980, beginning near the end, reaches the unmaking of the ruling ring without ever having shown its making, and bridges the gap by narration. The BBC Radio dramatisation of 1981 has the room the films lack: across twenty-six half-hour parts it keeps the Council of Elrond as a long scene of testimony, and that is where most of what a listener learns about the rings is placed, much as the book arranges it.

The older adaptations treat the land more briefly. The Rankin/Bass television Hobbit opens at Bag End with Orson Bean voicing Bilbo, but its running time leaves little room for the country beyond the hole itself; the same studio's Return of the King frames its story as a birthday feast at Rivendell rather than in the Shire and passes over the homecoming entirely. Bakshi's film moves through Hobbiton quickly in its opening and, breaking off after Helm's Deep, never reaches the end of the journey at all. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation, running to twenty-six parts, is alone among these in giving the occupation of the country and its undoing their full weight, and it is generally the version cited as closest to the book; Ian Holm played Frodo in it, two decades before taking the older part on screen.

The role has been recorded twice in the older adaptations. In Ralph Bakshi's animated film Théoden is voiced by Philip Stone, in a much-shortened treatment of the Edoras material: the counsellor's hold is broken and the king rides west, but because the film halts after the battle at the Hornburg his part ends there, with no parley at Isengard, no muster at Dunharrow and no ride to Gondor. Since neither the companion television film of 1980 nor any later production continued Bakshi's, that half-told version was never completed. The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation, in which Jack May takes the part, is by contrast the fullest older rendering of the role, following the king from the arrival of the travellers at the hall through the recovery of his will, the dealings with Saruman after Isengard's fall, and the ride to the Pelennor and his death there; the twenty-six-part length allows the sequence to run in something close to the book's order.

In Peter Jackson's trilogy Thorin was played by Richard Armitage and became one of the largest roles in the three films, portrayed as considerably younger and less grotesque in bearing than the dwarves around him. The most consequential departure is the survival of Azog, who in the book was killed before the gates of Moria a century and a half earlier: here he lives on as a personal pursuer, driving much of the invented action across the first two films. In consequence Thorin's death is transferred from the confusion of the battle, where he was overwhelmed near the bodyguard of Bolg, to a single combat with Azog fought apart from the main engagement, and Fíli and Kíli are killed separately rather than falling over their uncle's body. His growing obsession with the hoard, treated in the novel as a change of temper, is expanded into an extended affliction with a name; and material from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, including the affairs of Dol Guldur, is woven around him.

The older adaptations treat him more sparingly. Ralph Bakshi's animated film includes the attack in the dell beneath Weathertop, but since it breaks off after Helm's Deep it never reaches Minas Morgul or the Pelennor, and the wraiths' captain remains an unexplained pursuer throughout. The Rankin/Bass television film of 1980 takes up the closing part of the story in about ninety minutes and compresses the siege of Gondor heavily, so that the figure who commands it is given little beyond his appearance at the City. The BBC Radio dramatisation of 1981, running to twenty-six half-hour parts, has room for more of the chronicle and is generally reckoned the closest of the older versions to the text; having no images to work with, it conveys him wholly through voice and through the reactions of those near him.