One Film to Impress Them All

Movie Review:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

PG-13 / 2 hrs., 58 min. / 2001

I read J.R.R. Tolkein’s massive fantasy adventure The Lord of the Rings about twenty years ago, and I decided at that time that it definitely needed to be remade as a live-action series of films instead of the Ralph Bakshi animated versions. It is with mixed emotions, then, that I must admit defeat to Peter Jackson – defeat because not only did he beat me to it, but because his films are so superb there will be no call for a remake during my lifetime. So I don’t know whether to be excited or sad.

I am writing this review after all three movies have come out, so by now a plot synopsis is probably pointless, but it’s my duty. The four books of the trilogy (the story proper and a prelude) take place in a mythical land called Middle-Earth – perhaps some rabid fans can clue me in here, but I’ve never been able to discern if Middle-Earth is supposedly an era in Earth’s history, or an entirely other fictional world. It is a moot point, as Tolkein provided so much detail in his books that he created a whole new world either way.

This fictional world is populated by all manner of traditional fictional creatures (trolls and elves) as well as a few new inventions (hobbits and ents). The epic revolves around two hobbits (creatures that are human in basic form though significantly shorter), Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) and his nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood), and their adventures in connection with a mysterious and powerful magic ring. Bilbo found the ring in what reads almost as a tangent in The Hobbit; and in The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo passes it on to Frodo.

The ring, we learn, was forged by the evil Sauron, a being we never really see either in the book or the film, but his watchful eye can be felt from great distances. With the help of Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), a powerful wizard, Frodo learns that the ring is Sauron’s evil in material form, basically, and must be destroyed by throwing it into the volcano it was forged out of.

To document Frodo’s adventures would be quite long, but in short: At Gandalf’s instruction, Frodo and his fellow hobbits Samwise (Sean Astin), Meriadoc (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd) set off with the ring. Before long, they are running for their lives from black-cloaked horsemen; following the lead of a mysterious ranger named Strider (Viggo Mortensen); and arriving in the nick of time at Rivendell, an elven city and sanctuary.

At Rivendell, Frodo & Company expands to incorporate Boromir (Sean Bean), a Man who distrusts just about everyone and everything; Legolas (Orlando Bloom), an elf; and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), a dwarf. This counsel determines that the ring must be destroyed before Sauron’s minions find it, and that because of the frailties of the race of Men, only Frodo stands any hope of completing the quest before the lure of the ring consumes him. Thus the titular fellowship of the ring sets off toward Mordor, Sauron’s territory, where the volcano of Mount Doom resides.

At this point the drooling, maniacal devotees of the Tolkein cult (you can recognize them because they are dressed as dwarves and elves at the premieres) are complaining that I have not really and truly delved into the mythos underlying the epic struggle taking place in Middle-Earth, to which I reply: I am on your side, believe me; but I have a limited amount of words in these reviews. Yes, there is much more to the nearly three hours of film than the bland plot summary I have included, and those who wish to know more can either pick up one of the growing plethora of Middle-Earth pseudo-biographical studies appearing on bookshelves, or (here’s a thought) actually watch the movie – which is something I recommend.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have done a wonderful job of taking a highly detailed book and boiling it down into, well, a highly detailed movie. Although I was one of the voices decrying the absence of Tom Bombadil, I will concede that a literal translation from book to film makes for a stilted movie (cough, cough, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone), and that most of the alterations in the film are acceptable if not always explicable.

Elijah Wood (Deep Impact) has the lengthy task of playing Frodo. Critics have made much of the fact that Frodo does little more than twist his face up into painful contortions over the fact that he must carry the world’s greatest evil across much of the known world, but that’s what Frodo gets to do, and Wood does it well. He has a wonderful face for this role, complete with dazzling blue eyes that add to his persona as a fantasy creature.

The other actors range from satisfactory to excellent, including Ian McKellen’s (X-Men, The Shadow) Oscar-nominated turn as Gandalf, Sean Astin’s (Rudy, Memphis Belle) portrayal of Frodo’s closest friend, and Orlando Bloom’s (Wilde) graceful but deadly elf. The women don’t have a lot to do except stand around and look lovely while speaking at a tempo that would put Modern-Earth to sleep at parties. But they do it well, so props to Cate Blanchett (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Elizabeth) and Liv Tyler (That Thing You Do).

Now, how do I discuss the production values of this film in the space I have left? In sweeping superlatives, I suppose: The Film Looks Wonderful! This is a fantasy film that creates an entirely new world on a grand scale. With the help of computer animation and digital backgrounds, we are taken out of tight studio spaces (Labyrinth) or sets where the back wall is invisible but palpable (Hook) and launched into a full-scale epic covering hundreds of miles of territory and thousands upon thousands of warriors, elven armies, orcs, trolls, goblins, demons, wizards, and other nameless beasts.

The production designer, Grant Major, clearly had his hands full, but obviously loved it because he and his crew of art directors deliver the goods in every set, every costume, every prop. Indeed, every facet of this film could provide an essay on film production by itself, but I will throw out just a couple of quick notes.

The sets, even those portions unaided by computer additions, are wonderful to look at. Hobbiton is perfectly adorable, as it should be for creatures of that disposition. Saruman’s tower is menacing, while Sauron’s fortress is downright terrifying. If you are watching on home video, pause it several times during the Rivendell scenes, look past the actors, and examine the structures they are standing within.

Howard Shore’s musical score is grand and sweeping in its scope. A delicately transparent violin solo presents the countryside of Hobbiton, contrasted with the thick orchestral layers that follow the fellowship across the bridge of Khazad-Dum. A full choir joins the orchestra to enhance the fantastical themes of Middle-Earth.

My word processor is crying out for a lengthy description of the special effects, but I must let it suffice to say that Peter Jackson and his crew have mastered the difficulties of size rations on their very first try. Using a stacked deck of effects tricks, they have maintained the illusion that Elijah Wood as a hobbit is significantly shorter than Viggo Mortensen (Crimson Tide) as a towering Man. To do this has required, at any given moment in the film, creating duplicate scaled versions of many of the sets, forcing the visual perspective, and having human dwarves stand in for the hobbit actors. I imagine the crew’s need to keep track of all the details single-handedly kept the yellow legal-pad companies in business during production.

Despite the hubbub over the fact that this film was the inspiration for an entire new computer animation program, I have my usual complaint regarding computer-generated crowds: When one looks closely, some characters, especially distant ones, look more like high-end computer games than real figures. And one particular close-up shot of Legolas vaulting from the head of a cave troll is especially bad. We have come a long way from the very mechanical CG passengers on board James Cameron’s Titanic, to be sure, but we also still have a long way to go.

As a fantasy-adventure enthusiast, I don’t so much watch a film like this as dive in and let it soak all through me. Mr. Jackson has accomplished something here that will long be remembered, and is perhaps a turning point toward new standards in fantasy-adventure production. So I guess I’ll forgive him that he got to the idea before I did.

My Score: 9