The Lord Of
The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings (2001)
fantasy adventure
directed
by : Peter Jackson
featuring
: Elijah Wood - Ian McKellen - Ian Holm - Viggo Mortensen - Sean Bean
running
time : 2 hours 45 minutes
New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson fulfills
his lifelong dream of transforming author J.R.R.Tolkien's best-selling
fantasy epic into a three-part motion picture that begins with this holiday
2001 release. Elijah Wood stars as Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit resident of
the medieval "Middle-earth" who discovers that a ring bequeathed to him
by beloved relative and benefactor Bilbo (Ian Holm) is in fact the "One
Ring," a device that will allow its master to manipulate dark powers and
enslave the world. Frodo is charged by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen)
to return the ring to Mount Doom, the evil site where it was forged millennia
ago and the only place where it can be destroyed. Accompanying Frodo is
a fellowship of eight others: his Hobbit friends Sam (Sean Astin), Merry
(Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd); plus Gandalf; the human warriors
Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean); Elf archer Legolas (Orlando
Bloom); and Dwarf soldier Gimli (John Rhys Davies). The band's odyssey
to the dreaded land of Mordor, where Mount Doom lies, takes them through
the Elfish domain of Rivendell and the forest of Lothlorien, where they
receive aid and comfort from the Elf princess Arwen (Liv Tyler), her father,
Elrond (Hugo Weaving), and Queen Galadriel (Cate Blanchett). In pursuit
of the travelers and their ring are Saruman (Christopher Lee) a traitorous
wizard and kin, of sorts, to Gandalf and the Dark Riders, under the control
of the evil, mysterious Sauron (Sala Baker). The Fellowship must also do
battle with a troll, flying spies, Orcs, and other deadly obstacles both
natural and otherwise as they draw closer to Mordor. The Fellowship Of
The Ring (2001) was filmed in Jackson's native New Zealand, closely followed
by its pair of sequels, The Two Towers (2002) and The Return Of The King
(2003).
The Fellowship Of The Ring is
certainly the grandest and most skillfully made cinematic spectacle in
recent memory, surpassing even Star Wars perhaps the most venerated science
fiction series in cinematic history in terms of creativity, adventure,
and sheer enjoyment. Swift, economical (in spite of a nearly three-hour
running time), and extremely engrossing, Jackson starts his tale with a
brief and essential history of Middle-earth and its inhabitants to bring
moviegoers unfamiliar with Tolkien's epic novel up to speed, while greatly
impressing Tolkien's longtime fans with great flourish and a bit of inside
humor. And so it goes from the lush and rolling meadows of the Shire to
the bleak and infernal wasteland of Mordor, all vividly realized by Jackson's
team of screenwriters and special-effects technicians who are all well
on their way to receiving a bevy of awards for their amazing work. As for
the cast, one would be hard-pressed to assemble a more perfectly suited
ensemble. The three main characters as portrayed by Wood, McKellan, and
Mortensen are the real life force of the film's narrative, each giving
astonishing performances with characters that could have very easily been
made into caricatures had they been essayed by lesser actors.
The Fellowship
Of The Ring does have some very minor narrative problems, mostly involving
some very brief explanations of certain plot elements, while a handful
of the secondary characters particularly Gimli (Davies) and Legolas (Bloom)
are not quite fully characterized. These issues, however, have more to
do with the audacity of attempting to cover the entirety of a 400-page
novel in three hours than with some deficiency of the script. As it stands,
The
Fellowship Of The Ring is the ultimate fantasy film, thereby making the
next chapter of the saga,
The Two Towers, one of the most anticipated films
of 2002.