Posted: 12/20/2001

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

(2001)

by Hank Yuloff

An excellent adaptation. And a great adventure film.

Anticipation. Since the age of 12 when I first traveled to Middle Earth and again in the last few weeks, when I reread The Hobbit and the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I have wondered how my vision of those lands would translate itself into celluloid (or digital). What would the little Hobbits, magical Elves, stout Dwarves (nothing like those lawn ornaments), and the evil orcs all look like? I even had arguments on how to pronounce Gandalf. It’s Gan’ daf with a silent L. Could it all live up to what I had conjured? Could it be as grand? And most importantly, could the movie version of Lord of the Rings be as fun as carrying the book around and transporting myself to Middle Earth 20 minutes or an hour at a time to follow the travels and travails of the forces of Good and Evil while escaping from my own little world for a bit.

It did. And more.

I had been struggling with how to do this review. Millions of words have already been written about the trilogy and there are 300,000 web sites dedicated to the study of Middle Earth and J.R.R. Tolkein lore. During the first few minutes of the movie I decided that I would write for those who had read the book and those had not.

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS.
For those of you who are Lord Of The Rings challenged, here is the basic story you are about to spend 9 hours over three holiday seasons enjoying. The story centers around a powerful magic ring that was forged by the dark lord, Sauron, to enslave all of Middle Earth. Lost for centuries, the ring wound up in the small hands of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), who returned with it to his home in the Shire. That story is told in The Hobbit. At the beginning of Lord Of The Rings we see Bilbo’s 111th birthday party after which he is grudgingly convinced by the wizard Gandalf (excellently played by Ian McKellan) to leave the ring to his cousin/heir Frodo (Elijah Wood - The Faculty) when he goes off into retirement in Rivendell. Sauron (Sala Baker) is seeking out the One Ring (there are 19 lesser rings) so he can cover the lands in darkness once more. He has sent out 9 black-cloaked riders called Ring wraiths to find and kill whoever has the ring. Frodo and his friend Samwise (Sean Astin - RUDY!!!) are instructed by Gandalf (Ian KcKellen - Apt Pupil, X-Men) to travel to Rivendell and seek council with the elves. It is in the elfin city that the titular fellowship of nine is formed to take the ring to Mordor, Sauron’s realm, and cast it into the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged, the only place its evil can be destroyed.

The first 10 minutes of the movie will give you all the basics in what is an amazing montage of battle and visions of wizardry designed to get you caught up to the story line. It covers history from a time before the time of the prequel book (The Hobbit) to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and picks out only the story points from that prequel which are directly relevant to this story line. There is a lot to catch up on, but you do not have to keep it all perfectly straight. It is the Forces of Good Vs. the Forces of Evil. The germination of this story came during World War 1 in which Tolkein lost almost all of his army company in France so if you follow the theme of “things are most desperate before the dawn,” it will suffice.

You are going to be introduced to the wondrous realm of Middle Earth and all its inhabitants. You will not get all of the detail of the book. In fact, you should go back and read the book after to see what you missed. There are entire story lines missing. But taken as a stand alone movie, Lord of the Rings will be on your top list of the year. The actors are very true to their book characters and will give you a wondrous journey.

IF YOU HAVE READ THE BOOKS.
It had been close to 30 years since I had ventured to Middle Earth. When the trailers began to run, I pulled out the books which had been languishing on the shelf and reread the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring. It is amazing what can be forgotten in all that time. Having just had my mind refreshed, I was looking with great anticipation to see several things:

1. How close to the book they stayed. Pretty close. Everything seems to be pretty much in the same order of the book. There are some added events and emphases not pictured in the books. For example, the buildup of the army of Sauron is given a lot of screen time when in the book it is only referenced.

2. Would director Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth be similar to mine? Amazing. I pictured the hobbit hills a little taller, but inside is perfect. Bree and Rivendell and Moria: dead on. I had always pictured Lorien to be brighter - more yellow, whereas in the movie it is quite blue. I had never put together a picture of an Orc so I was quite willing to go along here with the wicked and evil creatures appearance. I thought Elrond (Hugo Weaving - the evil Agent Smith in The Matrix) was a little more harsh than I pictured. And Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen - 28 Days) is a little younger than I pictured but everyone isn’t going to be pleased all the time.

3. What did they take out?
Tom Bombadil is gone and so are the Barrows. It takes half the book to get to the Council of Elrond whereas in the book it took a bit more than an hour including the 10 minute introduction so most of the detail of how the hobbits came to Rivendell is shortened. Much of the time they spend in Lorien and Rivendell is gone. In the book, it they seem to be in the Elf habitats for weeks… In the movie they seem to be overnight stays. They also took out all of the poetry and singing. No problem here, I usually skipped over those pages anyway.

4. What did they change?
Probably the most important question for the die-hard Tolkein fanatics. I pity those folk because they will have lots to discuss and bemoan in their chat rooms. For me there are only a couple of things which really stand out. Arwen’s (Liv Tyler - Armageddon, One Night at McCool’s) part has been much expanded. She carries Frodo over the river and into Rivendell when in the book it is her brother. I guess it was felt there needed to be SOME female appearance in the movie because let’s face it, in the books, it is a very, very male dominated world. Not that Cate Blanchett (Bandits) wasn’t great as the elf queen Galadriel, but she really is the only female character of note in the first book.

I also didn’t like the change of their stay in Bree. Pretty minor, but it is early in the film and I was probably looking for something to notice. To all those fanatics: Yea, you can quibble, but jeez, if they did everything in every detail, you’re looking at a 6-hour movie.

5. How would they deal with the ending?
It actually works. I don’t feel the movie could stand alone as a complete story like Star Wars did, but this has started out from the beginning to be a 3-part story. If Star Wars had tanked, we never would have seen Obiewan again. With Lord of the Rings, all three books are in various stages of post-production so we will see them (and all their marketing tools) for the next two holiday seasons.

TO ALL:
One of my top movies of the year. I can’t wait to get on with the next two. This was an amazing tale. If you haven’t read the books, you probably should take the next 12 months to catch up on your reading!

Hank Yuloff is an advertising kind of guy in Los Angeles who has always had a thing for chicks with pointy elf ears.

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