The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Short description
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies concludes Peter Jackson's trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novel. After the dragon Smaug is defeated, Thorin Oakenshield takes back the dwarves' kingdom under the Lonely Mountain and its treasure, but the destruction of Laketown leaves its people homeless, and Thorin refuses them a share of the hoard. Bilbo Baggins tries to mediate between dwarves, elves and men as armies gather at the mountain, while orcs advance on the same prize and a darker power stirs behind them.
The film was released in December 2014 and runs 144 minutes. Jackson directed and wrote the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and produced with Walsh and Carolynne Cunningham. It is the fourteenth of the fifteen films he has directed in chronological order, arriving between The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and They Shall Not Grow Old. Martin Freeman returns as Bilbo, with Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Richard Armitage as Thorin, Luke Evans as Bard, and Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly among a credited cast of 64. The production, mounted by Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, New Line Cinema and WingNut Films, cost 250 million dollars and took 956 million dollars worldwide, a commercial result far outstripping its outlay. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from 615,000 votes and on TMDB 7.3/10 from 15,774, both above the critics' rating of 6.3/10 from 265 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Despite appearing in all films of the trilogy, Kate Blanchett spent only eight days on set.
- After filming wrapped, several actors kept some props as souvenirs. Martin Freeman kept Bilbo’s sword and prosthetic ears, Richard Armitage saved the Orcrist sword, and Lee Pace kept the elven sword of his character. Sir Ian McKellen was also able to take the famous pointed hat of Gandalf from the set.
- When it was announced that the film would have its own booth at the Comic-Con festival in San Diego, several fans camped out at the entrance to the festival the day before the event to get the best spots. In the middle of the night, the fans were awakened by actors Lee Pace and Andy Serkis. They signed autographs, chatted with fans, and took pictures with them for several hours. Eventually, Pace fell asleep from exhaustion on a mattress next to the fans.
- In the very first trailer for the film, there was a scene where some dwarves were riding in a chariot pulled by goats towards wolves. But this scene is not in the final version of the film. The scene is present in the director's cut.
- On October 13, 2015, the extended version of the film premiered in US cinemas, receiving an "18+" age rating. Until that moment, new versions of the films from The Hobbit trilogy, like the extended versions of the three The Lord of the Rings films, had never been shown in cinemas.
- Peter Jackson built an exact replica of Bilbo Baggins's hole in the basement of his New Zealand home. The basement of the estate in Masterton, purchased by Jackson in the early 2000s, was converted into Bilbo's dwelling. According to designer Binna Smee, who worked as a set decorator on the film adaptations of Tolkien's books, to get to the hole you need to go down into the wine cellar, pull one of the bottles, cross a tunnel about 30 meters long, and enter a secret door. Directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, as well as actor Danny DeVito, whom Smee called one of Jackson’s closest friends, visited this Bilbo’s home.
- The main battle scene features 5,000 dwarves and elves and 36,000 orcs, as well as flocks of giant bats and several trolls. They were mostly created using computer graphics.
- Azog wounded Thorin in the leg through the ice, but later, when Bilbo is standing over Thorin, his entire soles are visible in the frame.
- In the scene where Thranduil orders the retreat to be sounded, Gandalf turns to him, asking him to send a detachment to help Thorin. After Thranduil’s response, Gandalf calls him by name. At that moment, you can see that Gandalf is holding his old staff, which was destroyed in the 2nd part of the film.
- When Legolas defeats an orc who falls onto the bridge and plunges into the gorge with it, it can be noticed that there are no bodies there, although there should be at least the body of the giant orc and two regular orcs.
- When Thorin Oakenshield falls, he is shown on the edge of an icy cliff, but when Bilbo runs to him, he is lying near the stairs.
- In the moment at the end of the film when Bilbo says goodbye to the dying Thorin, there is an overhead shot of the two characters showing many shadows of battling eagles and bats, but when the characters are shown in close-up, there are no shadows around them.
- The film is based on John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's novella “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” (1937).
- When the Hobbit film series was in its early stages of development, it was planned that there would be only two films, with the second having the subtitle “There and Back Again.” However, in July 2012, a decision was made to split the story into three parts, and this subtitle was given to the last film. In April 2014, Peter Jackson announced that the title of the third film would still be changed to “The Battle of the Five Armies.” The main reason for the title change was that this battle is the focus of the final film. Jackson wrote on his Facebook page that the title “There and Back Again” would have been appropriate for the second part of the film if it had been the last one, but when they decided to make three films, the title became inappropriate, as Bilbo had already arrived “there” in the second part.
- The elk on which Thranduil (Lee Pace) rides was played by a horse named Moose (literally translated as “elk”).
- The song from the first trailer (“Edge of the Night”) was sung by Peregrin Took (Billy Boyd) in the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003). Furthermore, Billy Boyd performed the final song for the film (“The Last Goodbye”).
- All scenes featuring Ian Holm and Christopher Lee were filmed at Pinewood Studios in London because health issues prevented the actors from flying to New Zealand.
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