Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Fantasy has always been an iffy genre in the cinema realm, with it being something that’s not quite sci fi and not quite action, but is rather the idea of an entirely imaginary world being created where anything is possible in the context of the story and where whole mythologies can be conceived by only the most creative of writers, in story types up to and including fairy tales. The biggest problem is to find a way to incorporate the themes of these stories in such a way that it relates to our own real world, or at least is entertaining enough without getting bogged down in endless exposition. One such example is something like Princess Bride, which used fairy tale clichés combined with a modern, ironic sensibility to bring a heavy dose of charm into the hearts of everyone who watched it. Then when we come to the concept of truly EPIC fantasy stories, there were few in the literary world who could match the vision of one J.R.R. Tolkien, who managed to create his own entire private universe with The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, a massively layered text that seemed to build its own unique world from the ground up, incorporating so much development and drama that many thought that they would be nearly impossible to film right. And for a long time (save for an animated version in the 70s) they were absolutely right, as most considered the true scope of Tolkien’s vision to be just too cost prohibitive to do as real films with a live action cast. That is until Peter Jackson took on the reigns in 2001, directing three separate (and very long) movies all back to back, all at once on location in New Zealand, and for the most part amazed audiences and critics alike, making a ton of money worldwide and winning scores of Oscars (although only the last one, Return Of The King, managed to actually win Best Picture), and more importantly, driving home the concept that popcorn movies are not necessarily simplistic anymore, helping to bring about more densely written, multi layered, complicated storyline driven pieces with scores of important characters whom all play a role in the story, from Pirates Of The Caribbean to The Hunger Games. Some might complain that it all amounts to overkill, and they might be right to a certain extent, but this first chapter of Jackson’s trilogy released in 2001 certainly laid the foundation with a near 4 hour running time along with beautiful camerawork and set design that allows the world of Middle Earth to truly breathe. Likewise, the actors themselves almost come to feel “lived” in their roles, as if they had been in character for literally weeks before they started filming, and thus all of their performances seem realistic and natural which is no small feat considering what type of individuals that some of them are playing here. The film begins with a 7 minute prologue detailing what happened BEFORE this epic story begins, with obviously what we see looking exciting and interesting enough to be its own movie in and of itself. The idea is that after a war that had amounted to being an actual apocalypse in this world, the side of good had prevailed and in order to ensure the peace, a series of mystical rings had been created and handed out to each of the most powerful individuals still left standing, but that also the powerful and evil enemy Sauron (a character whose most notable trait seems to be his mask) had outsmarted them and created his own ring which was more powerful than any of theirs and loaded with pure evil. The ring changes hands over time until it winds up with Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), a so called “Hobbit” (basically happy go lucky midgets without a care in the world who love to eat and are the simplest and happiest of the various intelligent species) who quietly carries it on him for decades until its presence is discovered by a friend of his who is a Wizard (amongst the most powerful beings obviously) named Gandalf The Grey (Ian McKellan, often miscast in many films but perfect enough here that he became the sole acting Oscar Nominee for Best Supporting Actor), who persuades him to remove it and knowing that evil forces are drawing near, entrusts it to his nephew Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood, essentially the odd looking lead actor here who kind of takes on the naïve Luke Skywalker role) before leading him and some friends to the stomping grounds of the immortal Elves (some of whom had fought in the original battle thousands of years before), where it is decided that Frodo must carry the ring to the fiery cauldron where it was created and toss it in to destroy it and save the day (in a nutshell), accompanied by The Fellowship, a small throng of friends and warriors who will act as his bodyguards of sorts and watch his back on the perilous journey to the volcanic destination. The interesting thing is that the first half of the film that sets all this up is a bit slow and dreary (at least all the characters are introduced), but the second half is actually fast paced, action packed, and filled with intrigue as it turns out that the ring’s evil is so pervasive that just the thought of maybe possessing it can drive a man mad. Along with Frodo and Gandalf, the procession consists of fellow Hobbits Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin finally shooting straight to the A List with an immensely popular performance as a steadfastly loyal friend to Frodo), Pippin (Billy Boyd, trying and failing to do some kind of comic relief schtick but just coming across as being completely annoying), Merry (Dominic Monaghan, likewise), a warrior Elf who’s handy with a bow and arrow named Legolas (Orlando Bloom, making a strong impression with almost solely looks and charisma), a so called Dwarf fighter named Gimli (John Rhys-Davies, a good actor stuck with a ridiculous getup and annoying character whose blunt natured and dumb routine grate on the nerves so much that he nearly becomes the Jar Jar Binks of the whole enterprise), and the two most interesting, a renowned badass “Ranger” known either as Strider or as Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen, also rocketing to the A list with some intense charisma), whom is someone we are told is something of a king in exile, and then there’s Sean Bean as Boromir, a guardian of his own kingdom who plays the best type of flawed hero, one who doubts the veracity of the very mission itself and becomes tormented by the idea of possessing the ring himself in order to “protect his people” but nonetheless fights bravely throughout and whose last stand is the highlight of the movie for which the emotional payoff was in watching Bean flawlessly playing a noble man who becomes tempted by the allure of ultimate power for what he feels are all the right reasons in a tragic display of denial, giving Bean the acting honors at least for this outing in the franchise. However, with these nine major characters consisting of the main group (all with their own given flaws and traits) we also are piled on with several assorted side characters, including Cate Blanchett as a stunningly beautiful Elfen woman who seems to possess psychic powers, Christopher Lee as the evil turncoat Wizard Saruman, dredging up an army of evil beings called the Orcs (kind of a beast like yet bland species) to send after our heroes (with Lee being the only cast member to have ever met Tolkien in person and is a major fan of the books), Andy Serkis as the misshapen creature Gollum, not given much to do here but whose importance to the story would be HUGE in the sequels along with carrying his own fanbase, Liv Tyler as the Elfen Princess who is majorly in love with Aragorn, and Hugo Weaving (a guy who has NEVER given a bad performance regardless of the material) as Elrond, the Elf leader who is thousands of years old and thus knows from experience that mankind is weak and not to be entrusted with any sort of power to be wielded. Certainly a solid lineup by any means, and it’s interesting how many have compared these films to the old Star Wars trilogy, but it’s not really a fair one, as George Lucas saw to it that his works were massively entertaining without a huge amount of exposition or complex human interactions, whereas Tolkien (who was said to incorporate Christian themes into his stories without any overt Biblical references) would choose to have many different points and morals to his stories through an almost neverending haze of myth building, but ultimately was successful at endorsing ideas like integrity, loyalty, courage, and spiritual strength that fans of the books saw through on and for which the movie portrays as well. And even if the running time comes off as unseemly, whenever one temporarily loses interest in the characters there is always the incredible scenery and atmosphere of the piece as we realize that Peter Jackson has gone ahead and not only made a faithful adaptation, he’s managed to spread it out and allow Tolkien’s original vision to come to life while not getting carried away with filtering through his own perception in order to dilute it, and finally we get our modern day fantasy epic that we’ve long been waiting for…
9/10