#john bach

Close to Home  -  Television One  -  May 12, 1975  -  August 30, 1983

Melodrama (818 episodes)

Running Time:  30 minutes

Stars:

Ilona Rodgers as Vivian

John Bach as Tom

Ian Gilmour as Alan Hearte

Tony Currie as Don Hearte

Bill Stalker as Alan

Dorothy Smith as Madeline Hearte

Des Swain as James Abernethy

Joanne Mildenhall as Justine Terry

Jamie Higgins as Matthew Lorvatz

Jennifer Ward-Lealand as Jan

Gallipoli (dir. Glendyn Ivin)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Obligatory Depressing and Cliff Hanging Part Two of Three, but tops both of the others

My favorite of the three Peter Jackson 'Lord of the Rings' films. Mostly because of Andy Serkis's wonderful achievement (along with no doubt an army of special effects technicians) as the character Gollum, which should have won a best actor nomination (at least), had the academy been a bit more open minded. While much of the character was computer generated, the part was actually motion captured and acted by a real actor, every move, every facial expression was duplicated by a human being, which accounts for the uncanny realism of the effect (while the computer generated characters in other films seem to be missing that certain 'spark of life').

The film picks up where the last left off, with the fellowship split up into three groups. The captured hobbits Merry and Pippin and their adventures among the Orcs and the Ents. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas running across the Rohan riders and getting involved in their stuggles (while searching for the two hobbits). Finally, Sam and Frodo, and their new companion Gollum as they make their way toward the dark tower. Meanwhile, the wizard has come back from his fiery death as 'Gandalf the White' and has much to do with two of the storylines, and we have an epic battle for Helm's Deep (a mere teaser for the giant battle to come in the third film).

A problematic 'middle film', with no clear climax and with a dangling ending, it nevertheless proves to be a complex, multilayered enjoyable film from beginning to end. Quite the achievement when you take into consideration the sheer volume of new characters and situations the audience has to digest, the overlapping storylines and character motivations, not to mention the technical problems involved in showing all this eye popping detail to an audience and not having them claw their own eyes out from sheer mental overload.

Had this to say on Netflix at the time:

Believe me, you don't have to be a 'D&D' geekazoid to enjoy these films. I didn't read the books first, was, in fact, bored with the rings on my first attempt to read the 'fellowship' book years ago. But curiosity got the better of me after the first movie, and I worked my way through all three of the books this summer. This is now my third viewing of this 'Two Towers' movie. It just gets better each time, and I can't wait for the third one (which you get a tantalizing peek at in the bonus disc). I was really worried that Golum would end up being some sort of 'yoda'-ish computer generated embarrassment, but I was simply blown away by the expressiveness of the character's eyes and found him even more believable than some of the 'real' actors (Liv Tyler for instance). Also noticed on the third viewing, more than a few references and lines that got me thinking, re: 9-11 and another 'two towers'.

5 stars out of 5

Farscape Deck

In Reunion a pregnant woman returns to her recently-deceased grandparents’ old family home to spend time with her estranged mother. What begins as a tenuous reunion slowly turns terrifying. It stars Julia Ormond, Emma Draper, and John Bach. It is directed by Jake Mahaffy.