Lord Of The Rings 1, The: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
Action | Adventure | Fantasy

-- Extended Edition -- 4-Disc Set --

Based on J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring is an epic adventure of good against evil, the power of friendship and individual courage.

The saga centers around an unassuming Hobbit named Frodo Baggins who inherits a Ring that would give a dark and powerful lord the power to enslave the world. With a loyal fellowship of elves, dwarves, men and a wizard, Frodo embarks on a heroic quest to destroy The One Ring and pave the way for the emergence of mankind.

User Comment: Alexander Christie-Miller England • 'The Lord of the Rings' is one of my favorite books, I have read it several times, and remember thinking the last time, about 3 years ago that if I made a film I'd want to make it of this, but wouldn't it be almost impossible. You can then imagine how strong my expectations were when I went to see the eagerly awaited first installment.

This film impressed me hugely, more than anything else because of how true it was to my imagination, both in the characters as well as in the effects and setting- a sentiment I have heard consistently from other fans of the books. Elijah Wood brought across the character of Frodo with the kind of haunted, frail courage that Tolkien captures so well in the books. Nor could I find any fault at all with Ian McKellan's Gandalf, Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn, and Sean Bean's Boromir, all of whom I thought were portrayed excellently. I could pick out instances where I did think, 'no, that's not right', however their seldomness in number would only serve to illustrate the excellence of the overall portrayal. One thing that did stand out for me was Cate Blanchett's performance as Galadriel, the part itself became so perfunctory in the film that to me her alternation between benevolent seer, and figure of potential terror seemed little more than a slightly confusing detour with no real connection into the plot other than as a vehicle for a glimpse into the future. But that was it.

I thought that the points where Jackson did deviate from the text were completely the correct ones to do so. Shortening the opening Shire scenes and cutting out the whole Tom Bombadil bit was great since frankly they bored me slightly in the book anyway. Also, expanding the role of Arwen was a sensible decision.

However this film is by no means above criticism. The dialogue was in my opinion terrible and purely there to drive on the plot. Normally this would ruin a film for me (as in "The Matrix"), making it almost intolerable to view, however fortunately here it proves little more than a minor irritation. Also, the film seemed overall to be excessively plot-driven and at times a mad dash from one action scene to another, the characters, for all their truth to the book did seem flat and sometimes little more than stereotypical fantasy characters. This is perhaps my major quarrel with the film- I would have liked these characters to have come alive as people in a way that was made impossible by the sparseness of the script and the rollercoaster nature of the plot. In general the whole film lacked the depth of context that I think distinguishes Tolkien from other fantasy writers. However to have achieved this would have required a very different movie, and you can't fault an action film for being an action film.

This movie is undoubtedly not for everyone. A lot of people just don't get fantasy- other than Lord of the Rings, I don't particularly either. However in my opinion Jackson really has made an incredible achievement- his and Tolkien's vision carried through suberbly by a breathtaking setting and stunning special effects, as well as by a cast clearly as enthralled as he was. He has taken on a huge task, and is dealing with it with breathtaking success.

Summary: An amazing achievement

Trivia:
• The Fellowship of the Ring is the first episode in the film trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The three episodes were shot simultaneously and are scheduled to be released in consecutive Decembers, from 2001 through 2003.
• The world of Middle-Earth, which is central to the film, was created by philologist and World War I veteran John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892--1973). It first appeared in his 1937 book, The Hobbit or, There and Back Again. In the film, the book written by the character "Bilbo Baggins," titled There and Back Again , is a reference to that book, which, according to a Dec 2001 Entertainment Weekly article and other sources, was started while Tolkien, who eventually became an Oxford University Professor of Anglo-Saxon, was grading examination papers and impulsively wrote on one, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." The book received both critical praise and large sales, and Tolkien's publishers, Allen & Unwin, asked him for a sequel, which the author took seventeen years to produce. In the meantime, while World War II was fought, Tolkien's vision of Middle-Earth and its inhabitants grew. His intent, according to various sources, was to write a fictional ancient history, rather than a fantasy, and in a Jan 1967 NYT interview, claimed that he "detested" the popular style of tiny mythical creatures, pointing out that, "Hobbits are three to four feet in height. You can see people walking around like that." According to the Entertainment Weekly article, Tolkien, who also worked on the Oxford English Dictionary , claimed that, even as a child, he made up imaginary languages. After making up a language, he would create a history of the language and its imaginary speakers, then create alphabets, maps, calendars, genealogies, and stories for his imaginary world.
• Tolkien continued working on the sequel, noting in an appendix all the details of his mythical world. In 1950, Tolkien wrote to Allen & Unwin that he had "produced a monster," and described it as "immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and rather terrifying." His lengthy saga, which contained detailed maps and a 104-page appendix, was published during the mid-1950s in three parts, titled respectively, The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King . Although critics and the general public were divided in their opinion of the complex trilogy, offering both admiration and disdain, later, when the books were published in paperback in the mid-1960s, its popularity grew as a modern classic and a counter-culture phenomenon, especially in the United States. By the 1970s, some Tolkien scholars and followers were studying and conversing in his made-up Elven language.
• The production notes stated that cast members underwent intensive physical training in swordfighting and horsemanship to prepare for their roles and for the arduous shooting schedule and challenging conditions they would be experiencing. Language coaches trained the cast in Tolkien's Elvish language and the various dialects created for the film. According to an Apr 2000 Observer (London) article, an Irish-like accent was assigned to the Elves, a West Country burr to the Hobbits, and the Dwarves were given a Cockney accent. In addition, according to a Nov 2001 Script article, Tolkien's pronunciation guides were followed and monitored by three academic advisors, as well as the two on-set dialect coaches.
• Besides a distinctive language, each of the various races in Middle-Earth was given an artistic style that was expressed through the architecture, clothing and physical features of the characters; Tolkien artists assisted production designer Grant Major in conceptualizing the look of the film, so that it would remain true to the author's original vision. According to the studio's production notes, an average of 150 costumes for each of the different cultures were made, including the smaller or larger versions of each costume for the character's "scale double." Prosthetic artists created facial and other physical features of the various races, and a special foam latexing oven was in constant use to make ears, Hobbit feet and Uruk-Hai arms and legs, along with props. To create the disparity between the three-and-a-half-foot Hobbits and seven-foot Wizards, "scale" doubles and forced perspective filming were used. In the scene at Bilbo's home in Hobbiton at the beginning of the film, actors McKellen and Holm were shot separately, on two different-sized sets.
• The production notes reported that artisans of earlier technologies were employed, among them glassblowers, blacksmiths, leather-workers, thatched-roofers, seamstresses and experts in medieval armor. The New Zealand army dug earthworks and built an access road for the production, according to the Cinefantastique article, and local citizens provided most of the 2,400 crewmen and 26,000 extras. Meanwhile, according to the Nov 2001 Entertainment Weekly article, the country's government created a cabinet-level position, which was dubbed "Minister of the Lord of the Rings" by the press, to expand the tourist and film industries in the country. According to a Dec 2001 NYT article, Jackson had hoped to set up a permanent Tolkien museum to display items from the three films, but permission from the Tolkien Estate had not yet been obtained.
• The total cost of the three-film project has been reported in several sources to be $270 million. New Line negotiated that foreign distributors pay up front for all three films of the series, and according to a May 2001 LAT article, German and New Zealand tax funds, along with the foreign distributors, paid for 65% of the cost. According to a Feb 2001 Screen International article, an official website for the film was first launched in May 1999. A Nov 2001 DV article reported that the film has marketing partnerships with Burger King, JVC, Barnes & Noble and General Mills. In addition, over forty licensed products are being marketed in conjunction with the film, including collectibles, swords, action figures, toys and video games. According to Exhibitor's Relations, as of 1 Jan 2002, the film had taken in over $174,000,000 in the domestic box office.
• The Fellowship of the Ring received Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Score and Best Original Song ("May It Be"). It was the first recipient of AFI's Movie of the Year award, with additional AFI awards given to Production designer Grant Major and Visual Effects Artist Jim Rygiel. Howard Shore was also nominated as AFI Composer of the Year.

--- JOYA ---

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