I thought it was impossible… (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD))

Member Name: GingerBread

Product:	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD)
Date:	29/09/02 (343 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong cast, Excellent special effects, Beautiful scenery and locations

Disadvantages: No major disadvantages

Obviously I have been proved wrong.

When I first read about the upcoming ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie, I was sceptical to say the least. Could it be done? I was doubtful. We all know what it’s like to love a book, then go and see the movie and come out of the cinema feeling utterly disappointed. Sometimes the casting is hopeless, or the plot is all over the place, or the film simply doesn’t fit in with the way you imagined it. Either way, it leaves you feeling pretty let down.

I certainly didn’t want to see one of my favourite books ruined on the big screen, so I made a solemn vow not to go and see the film when it was released. Nonetheless, my curiosity eventually got the better of me, as it always seems to. A few months before the cinema release, I was tempted into downloading a two-minute trailer for the impending film. I was pleasantly surprised. Everything I saw in the trailer seemed perfect; I recognised familiar characters and scenes from the books, and they looked almost identical to how I had imagined them. From that moment on I was hooked. I read everything and anything I could find to do with the movie, searched for photographs of the cast and sets, and made sure I downloaded any new trailers or sneak previews. I couldn’t wait to buy my cinema ticket.

When December finally came, my family and friends teased that I was more excited about a movie than I was about Christmas, and to be honest they were probably right! But soon the countdown was over, December the 19th dawned, and I found myself queuing up outside my local cinema waiting for the first showing of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ to begin.

Despite all the positive things I had previously seen and read about the film, I was still a little apprehensive, but I had no need to be. Peter Jackson didn’t let me down. At 178 minutes running time, the film is a long one, but I was completely entranced throughout, as was th
e rest of the audience judging by the huge round of applause when the film ended. There were no grumbles of disappointment as we came out of the cinema - everyone was equally as impressed as I was. The film ends on a cliff-hanger (it is a trilogy after all) and, even though I know what happens next because I have read the books, it left me desperately wanting to see the second part!

So what makes this film so amazing? Well, I should probably start by giving a brief summary of the plot for those of you who are unfamiliar with the story. The plot is a long and complicated one, and I don’t want to give too much of the story away, so I will keep this short.

The book/movie is set in a fantasy world called Middle Earth, which is inhabited by all sorts of strange and wonderful creatures. Think Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Wizards etc, and you’ll be on the right track. However, the story is primarily concerned with a group of people called Hobbits - creatures quite similar to us only much shorter and with characteristic hairy feet. The main protagonist is an ordinary Hobbit called Frodo Baggins, who inherits a magical gold ring that has the power to make the wearer invisible. He keeps the ring secret for many years, until one day he discovers that it is actually the property of the Dark Lord Sauron. If the evil Sauron ever reclaimed the ring, it would lead to the downfall of all things good in Middle Earth. Frodo resolves to destroy the ring, but there is only one way to do this, and that is by casting it into the Cracks of Doom, which are rather inconveniently situated in the midst of Sauron’s realm. With this knowledge, Frodo and eight companions depart from the safety of the North and begin to travel south, where they must find the Cracks of Doom and destroy Sauron’s ring before he can claim it back.

Now that I have described the plot to you, albeit in a rather simplistic form, I can talk a bit more about the actual movie.
Unlike previous movie trilogies, all three parts to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ were filmed simultaneously over a period of more than twelve months. All the filming took place in director Peter Jackson’s home country, New Zealand, and I don’t think he could have picked a more suitable location. A year before filming began, Peter Jackson travelled all over New Zealand, picking out locations for different scenes, and planting trees and plants in preparation for filming. As well as being incredibly beautiful, New Zealand is home to many different landscapes; forests, mountains, marshland, hills, and of course the sea, which makes it ideal for the filming of ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

The sets and locations are incredibly stunning, but another striking feature of the film are the costumes. The costumes are what really bring the characters to life, and all of the costumes, particularly those of the Hobbits, look as if they have been worn and lived in for years. Clearly a great deal of attention has been paid to Tolkien’s descriptions of the characters, and many of the people and creatures in the film closely resemble those painted by Tolkien artists John Howe and Alan Lee, who both contributed a great deal towards the design elements of the film.

‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ won an Academy award for ‘Best make-up’, which isn’t surprising considering the time and detail spent on make-up during filming. Thousands of artificial body parts, including over two thousand prosthetic Hobbit feet, had to be made to make the characters look realistic. Many of the make-up sessions started as early as two o’clock in the morning - and some of the characters took as long as ten hours to be made up and covered in prosthetic body parts. The end result is faultless - everything from the length of Gimli the Dwarf’s beard to the size of Gandalf’s nose is just right.

The special e
ffects are incredible, which is probably why the film also won an Oscar for ‘Best visual effects’. Some of the characters and monsters are completely computer generated, and even entire armies have been partially computerised. Another notable feature was the effects of size and scale within the film. ‘Forced perspective’ camera work, which involves the ‘larger’ character being positioned nearer to the camera, achieves the effect of hobbits being smaller than the other characters. In other cases, ‘blue-screen’ techniques are used, where actors are filmed in front of a blue screen and the shots are then combined with filmed backgrounds.

What would a film be without a good soundtrack? This is an unusual type of soundtrack for Howard Shore to do, but he really has done an excellent job composing the music for ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. The score seems to bring the film to life and adds a real atmosphere, particularly in dramatic scenes such as when the fellowship travel through the Mines of Moria. The contribution of Enya’s beautiful voice during the scenes at Rivendell and in the ending song ‘May It Be’ is the icing on the cake. I’ve always enjoyed classical music, and ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ soundtrack is one of my favourite CDs - perfect for listening to when I’m relaxing or doing homework.

Obviously the music, locations and all these things I have mentioned are essential to the success of a movie, but I personally think that all these things are useless if the movie doesn’t have a capable cast, and strong characters. If the viewers don’t care about the people in the film, then they aren’t going to be blown away by the special effects.

Fortunately it is safe to say that ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ has a very strong cast. The four main hobbits, Frodo (Elijah Wood), and his friends Sam (Sean Astin), Pi
ppin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan), are perfect in their roles. Before seeing the film, and being the cynic that I am, I admit that I was a little dubious about the capability of Elijah Wood’s ability to take on the lead role of Frodo Baggins. For starters, Elijah Wood is American, and in my mind, Frodo should definitely be British. Secondly, I wasn’t certain that Elijah Wood looked the way that I imagined Frodo to look. I was proved wrong on both accounts! Elijah Wood pulls off a British accent almost perfectly, and with his costume and make-up on, he makes a very convincing Frodo. Now that I’ve seen the film so many times, I really don’t think anyone could have done a better job.

There are really only two female roles in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, so it’s not surprising that some big Hollywood names were chosen; Cate Blanchett plays Galadriel, and Liv Tyler is Arwen. Also in the cast are two famous British theatrical knights - Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf the wizard and Sir Ian Holm as Frodo’s uncle Bilbo. The remaining main characters are taken on by Viggo Mortenson, who plays Aragorn, Christopher Lee, who plays Saruman, John Rhys-Davies as Gimli and the newly discovered Orlando Bloom who plays Legolas the elf. All the members of the cast are extremely suited to their roles, but for me the person who really stood out was Orlando Bloom. He fits into the character of Legolas with what seems to be exceptional ease, and when I discovered that he was still at Drama school when he auditioned for the part, I was even more impressed.

I’ve raved about this film for quite a bit now, but are there any things that annoyed me about it? Well maybe one or two. Some of the characters I remembered from the books, like Tom Bombadil, seemed to have disappeared from the film, and there have been a few minor changes to the plot, but I think I’ll let Peter Jackson off the hook. I can accept tha
t it’s difficult to stick exactly to the original story when making a film, and the rest of the movie was so amazing that I’ll forgive him for cutting out a few minor characters and scenes. After all, if Jackson hadn’t left a single detail out, the film would probably clock in at about twenty hours!

All in all, it’s definitely a film I would recommend, although I would advise you to read the book first if you haven’t already done so. Now all I can do is sit back and count down the days until part two, ‘The Two Towers’ is released this Christmas. It will be a tough act to follow, but I have every faith in Peter Jackson’s ability now, and I know he won’t let us down!

Summary: