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

by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)
February 7th, 2002

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/

"One ring to rule them all
One ring to find them
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them."

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving. Directed by Peter Jackson. Rated PG-13.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in the trilogy entrusted to New Zealander Peter Jackson, is exactly the movie that Tolkien's wondrous fantasy work deserves; an enchanting, elaborate adventure movie that runs for 180 minutes and feels like it's about half that. You can almost hear a maniacal, frizzy-haired Peter Jackson screaming "Behold!" from behind the screen, and the air of almost arrogant grandeur that fills this production is justified by its faithfulness to the endearingly pompous source material. Middle-Earth has never looked so enticing, frightening, wonderful and terrible.

The film opens with haunting -- and helpful -- exposition, in which the voice of Liv Tyler tells of the forging of the Great Ring of Power by the Dark Lord Sauron, and of how it would eventually fall into the unassuming hands of an innocent hobbit from a quiet part of Middle-Earth called the Shire. That hobbit -- Bilbo Baggins, played by Ian Holm -- would leave it in the care of another hobbit, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), the hero of our trilogy. He is to be burdened with the task of destroying the ring to prevent Middle-Earth from falling under the shadow. The only way the ring can be destroyed is by being cast back into the fires that made it, the fires of Mount Doom in the heart of Sauron's kingdom.
He joins a fellowship of nine for the journey into Mordor. His companions -- the great warrior Boromir (Sean Bean), the mysterious Strider (Viggo Mortensen), the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), hobbits Peregrin Took, Merry Brandibuck and Samwise Gamgee (Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd and Sean Astin), and, leading them, the wise wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) -- are all charged with protecting Frodo at all costs, but if push comes to shove, it is Frodo and Frodo alone who must complete the quest.

And that's what makes The Lord of the Rings such a classic: the archetypical story of the little guy forced into a hero's quest, the underdog who beats the odds and does great things. In Tolkien's hands, the tale became a grandly eloquent magnum opus, surrounding Frodo with all sorts of things scary and fantastic. Frodo and his hobbit pals are constantly in over their heads, little dots in the shadow of creatures and forces beyond their control, yet they emerge as the steadfast, unassumingly chivalrous heroes that legends are made of.

Jackson turns the book into an incredible visual experience. This is impressive because Tolkien's prose is such that the events that would lend themselves to looking impressive on screen fit neatly into a paragraph, or a sentence or two. The film's biggest achievement is retaining the tone of the writing while being an enchanting, entertaining blockbuster; it should please Tolkien devotees as well as Rings virgins. Many have griped that certain parts are excised -- Tom Bombadil, for example, is nowhere to be found -- but these are the gripings of obsessed fanboys; smart viewers will understand the dilemma Jackson was faced with and acknowledge the 1st law of adaptations: books are not movies.

By the film's climax, the extended sequence by the river that concludes in the breaking of the fellowship, I felt like Jackson was channeling the power and grandeur that has enthralled millions of readers. The death of Boromir, in particular, packs an unexpected wallop; an apocalyptic event made all the more affecting by the Sean Bean's quietly inspired performance. Sir Ian McKellan is perfect as Gandalf the Gray, and little-known veteran Christopher Lee provides a nice foil for him as the evil Saruman the White. As for Elijah Wood, well... he looks the part, but I think I'll have to wait until at least part two to actually judge his performance.

The Fellowship of the Rings is a long movie, but as with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I felt like I could have sat for three times as long had the next two installments followed immediately. Peter Jackson has crafted pure magic, an epic that will not be forgotten. *Insert Elvish phrase here*

Grade: A

Up Next: A Beautiful Mind

©2001 Eugene Novikov

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