The Fellowship: The Rediscovery Of Movie Art

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2001)

I was one of the "Pre-read" arriving with a racing pulse(4000 rpm), dark (to middling gray) anticipation, and a smattering of dread. I had initially read that the intro was turgid and would be dropped, and that the music was occasionally "wishy washy" and "out of place".
Ah.
Ahem.
Please excuse me as I clear my very vocal pipes.
I was instantly engulfed in a Smorgasbord of Pre-History, clearing things up for those new to the Middle-Earth scene (Once you know who the bad guys are, you know when to throw popcorn AND eat Scandinavian food?)
Lesson One: Tame, this film is not. Agreeably, it has a minor rating, but when did this discount those of us who need no imagination to understand the bloodiness of war? From battlefields teeming with the dead and dying we fly to the innocent and innocuous farmstead, from sky piercing, avalanche laden mountain, to the ethereal, tranquil yet foreboding abode of the elves. From delightful heart-warming scenes of friendship, to sometimes shocking, always stunning images of the workings of Sauron's evil, you are presented with the best of both classical dialogue, original sets and values, while simultaneously being bombarded with what feels like set piece after set piece of sheer cinematic excellence. And yet in no way does it become negligent to our interest in the people we observe.
Lesson Two: The books' characters become flesh: The dichotomy of Boromir, and indeed Strider, coupled with the warm friendship between the Hobbits, is portrayed with the care and attention it deserves, and you can't help but feel the on-screen emotions reciprocated within yourself.
Pardon?
A fast action movie where you genuinely care?
Care you do, and fast it is. From enthralling camera pans over sprawling, warring hordes, from lofty tower to mining pit (thus the minor rating) in seconds, and sumptuous glides over steep river valley, lush forest and cool blue glacier, the viewer feasts upon the natural beauty of New Zealand (Last Minute Middle Earth Stand-in), and the digital glory of the finest computer-rendered graphics to grace the screen. Subtle, human-to-hobbit-sized shrinking effects (with other great camera tricks for the same big-small illusion), to the jaw-dropping sight of thousands of individually rendered creatures navigating, in discrete, personally flavoured fashion, across a huge virtual canvas, seamlessly (really) blended with the "Actual World Footage".
Again, really.
It's that good.
What I cannot convey is the way 3 hours slip away from you; how deeply you feel for the characters, understand their fears and their desire to hide, to return to their former, safer, lives; why you want to charge in and take control, oust the evil for yourself; and why, overall, you leave the cinema filled with excitement, hope, and perhaps, as I did, that feeling that something profoundly important and magical just happened.
Thank you to all those talented people for bringing us something special to the screen, where pervading, enduring human values meet contemporary technique in harmony. An outstanding cast, never underplayed, nor heavy-handed, slowly unfold their inner conflicts, strengths, and wants, and you realise that, for those who will survive, you will discover much more. It could have been so easy to ruin this for all. I believe that Mr Jackson and the vast crew of imagineers have created something beautiful.
Something poetic and something enduring.
And the Balrog kicks ass.