What an incredible achievement

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 2003)

The Lord Of The Rings has been considered unfilmable for many years,mainly because of the sheer scope and the quantity and quality of the effects needed. Not any more. Peter Jackson {and who would have thought it from the man responsible from Meet The Feebles?}has done something which thwarted even the likes of John Boorman and Stanley Kubrick. Partially this is because everyone else wanted to do it all as one film. Not here. New Line,in a risky move that has now paid off,let Jackson do three films. One for each book. And the first is just superb,a superb fantasy film which has a true epic feel beyond the reach of most films today.
For the most part,Jackson has followed the book,and harnessed it to what is just simply film-making brilliance. Most of the potential problems have been overcome. To name two examples,the enormous amount of backstory and exposition,and the lengthy amount of dialogue bits when characters explain what is going on. Here,the opening concisely explains where we are and brlliantly sets up everything,while we are constantly SHOWN what is happening rather than hearing people talk of it. This expands the scope of the first third of the story and makes it easier to follow for non-Tolkienites. Of course,some stuff has been cut,with some fans bemoaning the lack of Tom Bombadil,and the loss of other events of the first half of the book,but none of these losses hamper the actual film and speed the pace up. Most of the {really rather unimportant}changes result in an even better film,such as the added action at the end,giving it a climax the book lacked. Another example is the elf kingdom of Lothlorien. In the book it is a beautiful paradise. Here,it is a more sinister,eerie land,which adds some tension to a potential slow part of the film. The only addition which is not too successful is the Aragorn/Arwen love story,which has been pulled out of Tolkien's appendixes and given a bigger role in the story than it probably warrants.
However,The Fellowship Of The Ring is not just a fine adaptation of a classic book,it's a stunning film in it's own right. It immerses us completely it's imaginary world. None of the sterile Star Wars or Matrix computer game-type visuallisations here,here everything has an organic look,Middle Earth genuinely looks like a world that has a history and ,for the duration of the film,convinces us. Yes,much of it is done with CGI,but it works because not only it is generally so seamless but because it is at the service of the film's plot and world. The film actually creates several different worlds convincingly and with terrific variety,from the 'Olde English Paradise'of Hobbiton to the bleak,dark kingdom of Mordor,to the beautiful,dreamlike vistas of Rivendell. Of course the action scenes,some of which have been beefed up a little from the book,are fantastic. The opening battle is just incredible,a real "Wow"moment,the encounters with the Ringwraiths are real edge-of -seat stuff,and the lengthy Moria sequence,which moves from a battle to a crumbling bridge to the encounter with the deadly Balrog,is just action film-making at it's finest,effects,stuntwork,editing,music,every thing at a filmmakers disposal is combined to create one of the best bits of sustained action ever done on film. And rarely have darkness and light both been visuallised so well in a single film. The evil Ringwraiths are particularly well depicted,genuinely frightening. No toning down for a PG here,it's just lucky the film got one.
Yet all this would not work so well if Tolkien and Jackson did not give us characters we care about. All the film's main characters are given full,rounded personalities and their own internal or not so internal conflicts,and little scenes which show these. All the cast is perfect,but particular kudos to Elijah Wood's wide-eyed,almost innocent but deep down very tough Frodo-there could not have been a better choice-,Viggo Mortensen's brooding Aragorn and Ian McKellen's warm Gandalf,while no one can portray evil like Christopher Lee. Howard Shore's score plays another essential part in the film,musically underlying everything shown on screen,adept at describing both darkness and light with equal skill and more inventive and appropriate than anything John Williams might have written.
The Fellowship Of The Ring is a tremendous achievement,both a great film of a great book and a great film on it's own. The best fantasy film ever made? It's certainly a contender.
A note about the Extended Version which was released on DVD. This longer version,which adds around 40 mins to the 3 hours running time of the theatrical version,is even better. The pace is slightly slower but the extra and extended scenes add to a much more satisfying experience. A few missing things from the boo {such as the famous gift-giving scene}are most notable by their addition,but characterisations are deepened,detail is added is every major part of the film,even some of the action scenes contain more. Some subplots,such as one about the elves gradually leaving Middle Earth,{which is almost invisable in the shorter cut},are clearer. This version really makes a great film even better.