Outdoes the Lucas STAR WARS Episode IV

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2002)

This picture may not stand alone without the other installments of the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy but it is a refreshing take on a literary treasure and a 10 * highlighting of its strengths. The film is a bit long for American audiences but for those of us who've read THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING it was only abridged slightly. I'm no purist who would begrudge the director Peter Jackson's choice to delete Tom Bombadil; if he was going to be a Jar-Jar Binks digitized oddity, no regrets from this fan of Tolkien. George Lucas was obviously "force-obsessed" when his STAR WARS: Episode IV (A new hope) transformed the American popular culture of the 1970's; this peer contemporary to the American has executed a beautiful film version that deserves an Oscar nomination and possibly the Oscar, depending what are the competitive films it is up against this March. See it in a theatre where sound is not going to bleed over from other loud features also playing. It's great ensemble work and story strengths hold out over technical gadgetry.