Lord of the Rings Film Exhibition

Currently, the Indiana State Museum is hosting the Lord of the Rings film exhibition until January 3rd. Me and my step-mom finally got to see the exhibition yesterday. If you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings films, it is a must see. They have the costumes warn by Christopher Lee (Saruman), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) on display. There is also have the armor and weapons used by Bernard Hill (Theoden). The character Sauron is represented by his armor and terrible mace. For those who are fans of the dwarves, they have the armor and weapons worn by the double for John Rhys-Davies (Gimli). They also have armor worn by orcs, goblins, and Lurtz the terrible Uruk-kai created by Saruman. A row of different suits of armor is also on display. The row shows the different kinds of armor among the various races. There is a beautiful set of Elven armor, a suit of armor from Numenorean times, two suits of armor someone of the Rohirrim would wear, a suit of armor a Gondorean of the third age would wear as well as others. Videos tell about the actors and actresses involved in the film. A wall shows some of the thousands of prostetics that were created for the films. For special effects nuts, they show how they performed some of the special effects and for $6 you can get your picture taken where a you can be shrunk to hobbit size. The models of Isengard and Barad-dur are on display too. One thing that really impresses is the attention to deal that Peter Jackson and others showed. Many of the items are beautifully made and very intricate. On film, it is extremely unlikely that movie goers would notice these details but that didn't stop the special effects and costumes people. They made some truly breath taking costumes, armor, weapons, and other items (they display the telescope Elrond had at Rivendell).

Another nice aspect of the exhibition is all the artwork that is on display. Drawings by Alan Lee, John Howe, and other artists are on display. Some of them are really beautiful. They had a color painting of Bag End by John Howe I wish I could've purchased. Supposedly, the exhibition is unique in having all the artwork that is on display.

For those who wise to acquire some kind of film souvenir, the museum has a very good gift shop. You can buy maquettes of some of the characters, replicas of the some of the swords, jewelry replicas including a copy of the Evenstar jewel, magnets, book marks, books, and for those who want to look properly elven, a replica of the Fellowship cloak. Two warnings about the cloak. First, it is purely costume. The cloth is very thin and can't be expected to keep the rain and wind out. Second, the cloaks are imported from New Zealand and are expensive. I saw a price tag of $889. Still, I will say the cloaks are pretty. I just don't need to look elven that badly.

Overall, the exhibition is awesome. Me and my step-mom thoroughly enjoyed it. We walked around in delight viewing each of the outstanding exhibits. I left with an even greater appreciation of the films and those who played a part in their making. They truly are benchmarks for any future fantasy films. If you can make it to Indianapolis, I would strongly recommend you catch the exhibition.

One last item of information. Once the exhibition closes on January 3rd, the exhibition will return to New Zealand for 6 months. It hasn't been announced where it will go after New Zealand.