The first time I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring I was only 9 years old so even though I really liked the movie I could not fully appreciate it mostly due to that fact that the wraiths really creeped me out. I have watched all of them many times sense then and I think they are three of the best movies I have ever seen. I think they were successful for many reasons the most of which is how I was dragged into the story and how they used so many elements to portray what was happening. The first thing that pops to mind when I think of this is the music choices for lord of the rings. Below I have an example of how they used slow sad music to portray the death of Haldir. The music selection in this movie was excellent and I believe that was key in its success the producers did an excellent job of using music that properly portrays the emotions they are try to portray to the viewers.

The other element I wanted to talk about was the coloring or lighting used in the Lord of the Rings. Below I have a clip of Gandolfs charge at Helms deep, the whole sequence of scenes before this were of the intense battle to hold the fortress and the whole time it was night and dark which portrayed an dark feeling of lack of hope, it leads you to thinking that there is no hope. Then finally in this seen it is dawn and just when it seems they are riding out to die on the hill there is Gandolf in all white with the light of the rising sun behind him. That picture just changes your perspective immediately, you all of a sudden believe that there is hope and they will win. All of those emotions are enhanced by the great use of color and lighting in the movie if you take away that contrast and make everything bright and sunny there would the movies would not have been as intense or entertaining. I chose these to topics because they were the easiest to show with videos but there were many other factors that are the reasons why this movie was so compelling that it made it to the top 100 such as the acting, special effects, and plot/story but I just chose two so maybe another time on the other ones.