True to Tolkien's Vision

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2002)

This movie for me is a representation of unconditional love. Not the kind that goes along with loving something so much you love every thing related i.e. Star Wars 1, or the mediocre intelligence of the statement 'I loved the book so I must love the movie'. The film version of Tolkien's mind shattering and earth changing novel is not to be loved for what it is in book form, but for what it accomplishes as a movie. All book related comments aside, this movie is tremendous. Rising action, blindingly powerful scenery and cinematography, lovable and somehow real characters. Wonderfully rendered and detailed cinema. Now back to the book. If you, personally, had the oppurtunity to make a Lord of the Rings movie, you would probably say no. No way. Well, Jackson had the courage to attempt it, and using his knowledge of the books and a keen mission statement 'I will stay true to Tolkien's vision' he accomplished the unthinkable. He made a great movie out of a great book, without sacrificing the beauty and majesty of either. Argue all you want about the subtle changes, but the film industry is so very different then the ever fading species of the book worm that it would have been impossible to translated the book exactly, and still hold the wide spread audience. And in this case, the audience was as wide spread as I've ever seen. This movies proves that there are still people out there who simply know 'what's up' in terms of artistic integrity and respect. Bless them.