An arresting masterpiece (some spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2001)

SPOILERS, though only a few.
I'm partly getting frustrated, having seen the film, about not being able to tell anyone else about it! After all, most people don't want the surprise spoiled.
But in answer to that - what surprise? Nearly everyone I know has read all the books, some of them many times. All I need say is that the film is very faithful to the first book of the series and they should rejoice in the film itself. The film must be, as it was for me, not a revelation of the story, but a revisiting of the story. You know the plot in advance. Not that you must. I have tried to think about it from the point of view of one who has not read the books, nor spoken to someone who has; my wife and I discussed the efficient way the story's background is built into the film. There's a kind of historical prologue at the start which, to the credit of the film's makers, serves not only the purpose of describing the world of Middle Earth, but also projects the audience into the story and is monumentally cinematic in its own right. So even if the background is familiar, you lose nothing by watching the prologue.
Some of the images are ... astonishing. The Fellowship flees Saruman through mines of Moria. The crazy, Escher architecture created by Dwarves and the film's designers who, in turn, created the Dwarves would have been rich enough supposing the mines were occupied by Gimli's 'ale-swilling' relatives. But the film shows Moria in ruins and the audience learns about the fragility of all civilisations, however great their art. I have never been so totally arrested by an image in a film as I was by cathedral-like Moria - save by another one a little later in the same film. The Fellowship canoes down the river Anduin near the end of the film, and they pass through a gorge guarded by two huge and enigmatic statues of ancient kings. Ozymandias by another name.
This is one animus of the film which makes it great. The film makes every effort to pile up the signs of civilisation and sophistication, but in ruins. In the film, where people live happiest their society is small and parochial; just as Tolkien wanted. (I believe the film is ironic about Tolkien's parochial attitudes - the splendour of the fallen ancient civilisations suggest the film-makers have quite a different attitude.) The film isn't content to show you a fantastic and alien world; it shows you a fantastic and alien history.
It would be quite possible for the characters to be lost in the hugeness of everything. But they are rescued, not so much by their own acting skills which, though good, are imposed on quite archetypical characters, but by the strong and dynamic contrasts between them as a group. Each character is like a representative of an attitude, which completely fits the epic mould of the story. It would be senseless to show the romance between Aragorn and Arwen as some complicated dating ritual; it has to be a Millais depiction of chaste kisses between a knight and his lady. The characters are wholly driven by the kinds of heroes they represent.
On the subject of artistic sources, the film's makers definitely used Academic ideas; but went much, much further than that. They decided to combine a range of artistic influences that matched or preceded Tolkien's age closely - Celtic revival, Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts and so on. Also quite a strong pre-Raphaelite influence in the Elvish scenes, particularly in Lothlorien. But I don't believe they took a slavish imitative approach. They made interesting hybrids in Rivendell; and Hobbiton at the start of the film is sufficiently bizarre with its Hobbit-holes that it could lay claim to genuine invention.
I don't know. Perhaps I'm going to embarrass myself when you head off to watch the film and decide it's flawed in some way that I don't see now. Maybe I'll agree with you. I am worried that someone will burst my balloon; the film had an affect on me I don't want discredited. I really hope that it is recognised as a masterpiece. That is what I think it is.