Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

12/14/02 - DVD Review

One of the grandest stories of all time by J.R.R. Tolkien has finally been brought to the big screen.  “The Lord of the Rings,” is a huge three-part trilogy of epic proportions.  The first movie, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” was released to theaters in December of 2001.  I did not get to see it in the theater but I bought the DVD when it came out.  However, I did buy the directors cut of the movie, which adds almost thirty extra minutes to this great tale of Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Man, Wizards, and the most importantly, the Ring itself. 

Many years ago, during the age of Middle-Earth, great rings were created to help rule the Earth.  Three were given to the Elves, seven were given to the Dwarves, and nine were given to Men.  Their power gave the people possessing them the strength and will to govern each race.  Little did they know that one extra special ring was created as well that could rule them all.  It was created in the land of Mordor in the fires of Mount Doom.  The Dark Lord, Sauron, poured all of his evil abilities into it, which helped him take over all of the free lands.  It all came to an end with one battle to end all battles.  The King’s son, Isildur defeated Sauron and claimed the Ring for himself.  He could have defeated evil for once and for all, but instead he was pulled into the power of the Ring.  The Ring eventually betrayed him and for a thousand years the Ring fell out of knowledge.  A creature named Gollum came upon it but he ended up losing the Ring to a well known writer in the Misty Mountains.  Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, took the Ring back to the land of the Shire which is where the movie starts.

Bilbo Baggins knows some of the powers of the Ring, but so does his friend Gandalf the Grey, played by Ian McKellan.  Bilbo leaves town and tries to take the ring with him but Gandalf says to leave it to his nephew, Frodo, played by Elijah Wood.  Gandalf tells Frodo that Sauron and his followers know that the ring is out there and that they will come looking for it.  He sends Frodo off to the village of Bree.  He will meet him there and find help.  Frodo’s friend, Sam (Sean Astin), is sent along with him by Gandalf, to help protect him.  On the way they pick up two more Hobbits to help with the Journey.  But, evil is right behind them every step of the way.  They barely make it to the village where they acquire an ally, Aragorn, played by Viggo Mortensen.  Aragorn tells them that they are being tracked by The Nazgul, (AKA the Ringwraiths).  They have the nine rings given by Sauron.  They have become slaves to his will.  Gandalf never shows up though, so the five now press on without him.  Gandalf’s fellow wizard, Saruman, played by Christopher Lee, ends up betraying him and keeps him as a prisoner.  Saruman has joined the evil clan with Sauron.  But Gandalf eventually escapes on a huge bird and meets up with the others in the elfish land of Rivendell.  Frodo barley makes it there as he is stabbed by a poisonous sword by one of the Ringwraiths.  Arwen Evanstar (Liv Tyler) ends up saving his life by rushing him to Elrond, and his clan of elves. 

 Now that everyone is together, they call an emergency council meeting to decide how they are going to destroy the Ring.  They must take the Ring to the fires of Mount Doom to truly destroy it, but no one wants to go.  Frodo volunteers and eight others join him.  Together, they become the Fellowship of the Ring.  They set off on the long Journey to destroy the Ring.  They become followed by Gollum, and Sauron’s army of Orcs.  Gandalf dies protecting the fellowship and eventually the rest of the fellowship starts to break down.  Aragorn sees this happening, as well as the constant threats from the Orcs, so he sends Frodo off on his own because he knows it is his fate.  The movie ends as Frodo and Sam continue the trek to Mordor, and Aragorn and the last two members of the Fellowship track down The Orcs.  It is all to be continued in the next movie, “The Two Towers.”  Whew, how did I do?

I went to the theater to see this movie when it was released, but it was sold out.  I decided to just wait for the DVD to come out so I wouldn’t have to deal with the people at the theater.  New Line Cinema, pulled a quick one, however, because the first DVD that came out was not a special edition directors cut.  So I waited until the directors cut came out to buy it.  It was definitely worth the wait.  I never read the book because I was very lazy at that age and I hated to read.  I did check the book out of the library and walk around with it because I thought it would make me look cool.  I want to say that it is a fairly heavy book.

“The Fellowship of the Ring” is great epic journey of the Middle-Earth times.  I was a little skeptic about this movie but I can put that to rest as I truly enjoyed this movie.  The directors cut is a whopping three and a half hours long, but I lost track of time as the three-plus hours flew by.  This movie was put together with great attention to detail.  Everything about this movie was fantastic, including the directing.  There is so much work involved in created a movie of this grandeur that it would be very easy to just throw a bunch of scenes together hastily.  Peter Jackson took the time to create a timeless movie with very little, if any flaws.  The actors that he signed did a superb job with their lines and other acting abilities.  Every member of the cast fit the role perfectly just like if they were that character for real.  The special effects for creating this world were amazing.  Hobbits are small people and Peter Jackson has an ingenious filming style where he makes them actually look their size compared with everyone and everything else.  I hope they explain how they did this on the extra DVD discs.  To adapt the book into a movie itself is a feat which few people would attempt.  They did though and everything flows nicely.  At no point in the movie did it slow down or become boring.  There is so much going on that I will have to watch it again to get everything out of every scene. 

Only the best movies ever made contain an excellent musical score.  Howard Shore creates a musical soundscape that rivals John Williams from “Star Wars” at some levels.  “Star Wars” still has the best score ever created for a film though.  The sound is rich and crisp as it fits perfectly with each scene in the movie.  A good film is made even better with a great score. 

As you know with most adventure stories, there are battle scenes.  This movie has battle scenes of plenty as the fellowship destroy anything in there paths.  The sword fighting was choreographed nicely as the fights on screen are as good as the best ever done on film.  Viggo Mortensen’s character is one bad ass swordsman.  He takes on even the most difficult enemies with little regard for the outcome.  I know it must be hard to fight an invisible opponent, because of the special effects, but the fighting looks real as can be.  It is good that I bought the director’s cut, because they add extra fighting scenes back into the movie.

After seeing this movie, I surely want to watch it again, and I am very disappointed with myself for having to wait this long to watch it in the first place.  With the next movie coming out in a couple of days, this great adventure story will continue as we follow the quest of the Hobbits to destroy this powerful Ring.  I only hope that “The Two Towers” can match up with the “Fellowship of the “Ring.”  You never know though, it could totally blow this one away.  We will have to wait and see. 

Peter Jackson’s vision of Tolkien can now be seen in its entirety as a 208 minute special extended version DVD.  Carrying no less than four DVD’s with it, Jackson creates a true treasure that would make any director proud.  Disc 1 and Disc 2 contain the feature itself with the disc change taking place right after the meeting of the council in Rivendell.  The transfer of the video and the sound were terrific, though the video I thought has been better in some more recent films.  The sound rings bright on my home stereo pulling me into the movie itself.  The colors that they chose for the movie translate to a flawless picture for the day scenes.  Brilliant blue skies and lush green grass fill the screen.  The scenes at night were good, especially for those types of shots, but I felt that they could have been touched up a little better, but hey, that is just me.  Also included on the discs are four separate commentary tracks which should give out any information that a viewer could ever wish for. 

Disc 3 and 4 contain the appendices, much like the appendices of Tolkien’s books.  On disc 3, entitled “From Book to Vision,” there are over two and a half hours of documentaries, interactive maps of Middle-Earth, galleries, and storyboards.  The documentaries were a real treat to watch.  You learn a lot about Tolkien’s life and how he spent much of it creating this legendary world of Middle-Earth.  Other documentaries include the costumes that were created, as well as the millions of swords, rubber feat, ears, and other special props.  There is an interesting side note that is learned after watching these documentaries.  Peter Jackson and his crew visited George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch to discuss the concept of Pre-Visualization, which is the process of creating scenes with a computer to see what it will look like before it is filmed.  The galleries and storyboards contain over 2000 images, but I chose not to watch that part.

Disc 4, entitled “From Vision to Reality,” contains over three and half hours of documentaries and galleries.  Some of the more fascinating documentaries are the ones about the cast and crew.  The cast of the movie share many funny stories of their 15 month co-existence together in New Zealand.  Others include the special effects, editing of the film, a day in the life of a hobbit, and others.  I was so happy to see that they told us how they filmed the hobbits so damn small.  They used either smaller doubles for the wide shots, large props such as tables and chairs, foreground and background filming, and even putting the actors on their knees.  We also learn that Peter Jackson had three separate units consisting of two film crews each filming the entire trilogy.  It was just so much to do that one crew could not get it done in time.  What a great wealth of information.

I have concluded my “Lord of the Rings” weekend, as I took in about eight to nine hours of documentaries and the film itself.  This is a great collection for everybody in the World.  I do not care who you are, you should buy this special extended version as soon as possible.  When the first DVD was released, I knew that this one would totally blow it away and I was right.  Twenty-seven bucks for this collection is a bargain.  This four disc set is on the greatest special editions to have ever hit the market.  It joins the rank of “Star Wars”, “T2: The Ultimate Edition,” and the “Alien Legacy” as some of the best.  Oh, and the movie is not to shabby itself. 

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