Round One: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King vs. Dr. Strangelove

In this final installment of round one movie match-ups, we find ourselves in the midst of an epic battle. Lord of the Rings:  Return of the King, one of the top grossing movies of all time and the culmination of Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, versus one of the greatest comedy/satires of all time, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)

• Directed by: Peter Jackson
• Written by: J.R.R. Tolkien (novels “Lord of the Rings” trilogy), Fran Walsh (screenplay), Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
• Starring: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Hugo Weaving
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Critics: 94%
• Audience: 83%

When explaining the storyline of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, you must realize that there exists many differences between the novel, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the movie adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson (director of King Kong, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the upcoming The Hobbit adaptation). All arguments aside, we must accept that this adaptation is proficient at best in summarizing and explaining the events surrounding the culmination of Tolkien's trilogy. Many things were left out (as is the case with most movie adaptations of novels), events were jumbled around to help create plot fluidity, and a few things were added. Nonetheless, Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, as a whole, is a theatrical masterpiece that would have made even Tolkien himself smile in his grave. IMDB sums up the storyline with this post:

While Frodo (Elijah Wood) & Sam (Sean Astin) continue to approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, unaware of the path Gollum (Andy Serkis) is leading them, the former Fellowship (Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies) aid Rohan & Gondor in a great battle in the Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith and the Black Gates as Sauron wages his last war against Middle-Earth

Ian Holm, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, and Hugo Weaving all play major roles in this, the final installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

• Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
• Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George
• Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Critics: 100%
• Audience: 94%

In quite possibly my favorite movie in this entire tournament, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, by Stanley Kubrick (director of Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange), we see the epitome of a true American satire. IMDB writer Huggo posts:

Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) of Burpelson Air Force Base, he believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S. populace, is able to deploy through a back door mechanism a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without the knowledge of his superiors, including the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), and President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers). Only Ripper knows the code to recall the B-52 bombers and he has shut down communication in and out of Burpelson as a measure to protect this attack. Ripper's executive officer, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Sellers), who is being held at Burpelson by Ripper, believes he knows the recall codes if he can only get a message to the outside world. Meanwhile at the Pentagon War Room, key persons including Muffley, Turgidson and nuclear scientist and adviser, a former Nazi named Dr. Strangelove (Sellers), are discussing measures to stop the attack or mitigate its blow-up into an all out nuclear war with the Soviets. Against Turgidson's wishes, Muffley brings Soviet Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (Peter Bull) into the War Room, and get his boss, Soviet Premier Dimitri Kisov, on the hot line to inform him of what's going on. The Americans in the War Room are dismayed to learn that the Soviets have a yet as unannounced Doomsday Device to detonate if any of their key targets are hit. As Ripper, Mandrake and those in the War Room try and work the situation to their end goal, Major T.J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens), one of the B-52 bomber pilots, is working on his own agenda of deploying his bomb where ever he can on enemy soil if he can't make it to his intended target.

Also starring James Earl Jones as Lieutenant Lothar Zogg, Dr. Strangelove is one of the greatest films ever made, highlighted by Seller's ability to play 3 main characters almost simultaneously (in an era where the use of green screens was limited), and his comedic, yet serious, lines strewed throughout the film ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.").

Vote now for your favorite movie: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King or Dr. Strangelove

Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZFYHYS7