A New Kind of Filmmaking: Blockbuster with Brains

Anticipating the release of Return of the King, NYT film critic Elvis Mitchell singles out the breezy braininess of Peter Jackson’s craft for exemplary praise: “Mr. Jackson has been carefully applying layers of emotional density, perpetually adding new characters and surprising narrative twists and turns. He’s been so intelligent about these shifts that he’s bound to find a way to resolve them all in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. With his embrace of classical storytelling, and the driving impatience that compels audiences to keep up with him, Mr. Jackson has created a new kind of big-budget filmmaking. Let’s hope others follow in his footsteps. […] It’s a nonsentimental education that studios, and George Lucas, would do well to absorb.”