That is how you make a movie

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2002)

There are certain moments in life that lets you know why it is you do certain things. The first time you meet and fall in love with a girl lets you know why you brave the bars or clubs every week, piling on rejection after rejection. The first time you get that big raise and huge promotion lets you know why you go to that run down, neon lighted hell called work everday, and the first time you hear a song like "Stairway to Heaven" lets you know why you turn on your radio every morning, surfing through such ear bleeders as Britney Spears or N'Sync. Well, for me, watching Fellowship for the first AND second time has let me know why, after a year filled with monkeys and morons driving cars, I still go to the movies. Because something extraordinary can happen.
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings follows Frodo Baggins, and his other 8 counterparts, on a quest to destroy the one ring, a magical and evil ring, that could bring darkness to Middle Earth. Leading this quest, with his wit and wisdom, is Gandalf the Wizard, played by Ian McKellan, who leads this band of hobbits and elves and dwarves and men to the Mountain of Doom, to destroy the ring once and for all in the fires from whence it came. Of course the path to this mountain, and the evil which is bent on returning the ring to the Dark Lord who created it, make it a perilous trip in which death is a distinct possibility.
If I were paid, as I am not yet, to share with you this movie and my opinion of it, then I would tell you how much I enjoyed all of the performances of the film. Elijah Wood is fantastic and, for anyone who loved the books, fits the picture of Frodo perfectly. Sir Ian is amazing in bringing all of the aspects of Gandalf, argueably the most famous character of the books, to life, and the rest do equally wonderful jobs. But the magic of this movie, in my mind, is in the effect it has had on myself and many who have seen it.
It is a transportation, and escape of epic proportions. You believe from the moment the movie starts that you are indeed peering in on Middle Earth. That hobbits do in fact exist and are as cheerful and robust as the books say they are. You believe that evil can and does exist in pure form and that your heroes are being hunted by that evil. You believe everything you see and you lovce the fact that you are there. After 3 hours and 15 minutes you are ready for more, ready to watch your heroes finish their mission, ready to see good triumph over evil one more time, and you are ready to live in Middle Earth again, if only for another few hours.
I have seen movies more then once at a theatre. I have loved movies, cried at movies, laughed at movies, and seen certain movies to the point of memorization that both astounds and annoys friends when watching the feature with me. I do not know where this movie rates on my all time list, since the experience of it is far too new, but I can say this. I have already seen this movie twice and I would venture a guess that 2 will not be the final answer to my viewing equation. I am in love with Middle Earth all over again, having been so from the moment I first put down The Hobbit, Tolkiens first novel of the like, to the time I began reading the trilogy. It brings many of us who loved the books back to that place that, before now, I was convinced only books could bring us to. It brings us to a place we do not want to leave, a place so different then the one we all woke up in today, but still so similar as to not be completely foreign to us. It is magical.
I do not know if those of you who did not read the books will have as magical an experience watching this film but having been there with people who have not read the books I can say that enjoying it does not hinge on that fact. Some have made a point of being upset by the voting on this site but it is a simple reflection of the love most of us have for this story, for these characters, and for the world that Tolkien and now Peter Jackson have created. It is why we buy DVD's, it is why we still go to the movies, and it is why many who grow up watching films like this decide they, in fact, want to make them. It is why movies are made, and if it is not recognized by the Academy then, well, the Academy is lost for good.