The Greatest Film of the last 20 years

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2002)

Truly, Peter Jackson and crew have created in my opinion (and many others) the greatest film of the last 20 years. I believe that this film should win best picture and best director, best actor (Ian McKellan), and a sleuth of others for screenplay, score, etc. I've become somewhat of a Tolkien buff ever since I saw the trailer for the film almost 7 months ago, and when I saw the film it completely blew my mind. I was holding onto the seat the whole three hours, and the actors simply became the characters that I know and love.
The casting of Elijah Wood as Frodo was shear brilliance, even more so for Ian McKellan as Gandalf. As I said, McKellan deserves the oscar. Ian Holm was perfect as Bilbo, and Hugo Weaving was entirely believeable as Agent Smith, errr.. I mean Elrond. Cate Blanchett was foreboding as Lady Galadriel, as was Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom. Overall the casting was excellent, and I'm glad that they did't cast and superstars like Haley Joel Osment or Brad Pitt. Imagine if George Lucas or Steven Spielberg got their over-zealous hands on this one? We would probably have gotten garbage. I'm glad that a true Tolkien fan was chosen to direct, and I must say his performance was awe-inspiring.
The scenery was magnificent, and now I've set New Zealand as my next vacation destination. Just imagine hiking through the closest thing to Middle-Earth in the world! The thought alone leaves me flabbergasted. The mines of Moria added an adreneline rush to the film, kudos to the CGI men who made it come alive. The scene where the Fellowship hears the drums and sees the fire of the Balrog almost made me die from anticipation! The Shire and it's details were also well done. An aspect of the film that many people forget (the length) is Isengard and Saruman. Christopher Lee is the most evil actor of all-time! Isengard was brilliantly done and I can't wait for the Two Towers, when the Ents smash it to kingdom come.
Although the story was slightly altered to remain politically correct and more widely appealing, it is still enjoyable to an immeasurable level. The characters of Glorfindel, Tom Bombadil, and Goldberry were left out for various reasons, but I'm hoping that they make an appearance on the DVD. The attack of the Wargs outside of Moria is also left out, as is various things from Lothlorien. Nevertheless the film remained extremely entertaining and at the same time having an air of greatness to it.
The real shame though is that the Academy probably won't give this film much regard, because of it's genre and for the most part unknown actors. Every year usually and overlong and boring film wins best picture (ie. The English Patient, Titanic, Dances With Wolves, Shakespeare in Love, etc...). I'm not saying that these films aren't good, they're just unnecessarily long or for the majority of the film quite boring. Granted FoTR is 3 hours long, but it keeps the viewer enthralled and entertained, interested and spooked, fascinated and terrified, for every minute of it. I will be extremely disappointed if this film doesn't win a substantial amount of oscars. I'll restrain from death threats if it doesn't win Best Picture (which it should), but I will be utterly enraged if it doesn't take home all of the technical categories, score, and adapted screenplay. I will punch a hole through my Sony Trinitron if I see Harry Potter or Shrek or some other stupid children's film win anything that FoTR deserved for any reason whatsoever. Thank-you for listening to my ramble, and if I may say so I will be positively beaming if in a few years I see one of those Oscar Statuates on the bottom left-hand corner of the DVD saying: "Best Picture 2001".