A film that can stand up with Apocalypse Now, or Brazil, or Citizen Kane, or Ran as a classic

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

So that's why I go to the cinema. I have not felt as much anticipation and fulfilment when going to the cinema since I was a child. This film gave me the feeling I get when I see a good play at the theatre, but rarely get from a film. It made me realise how average films like Gladiator, Phantom Menace and the Matrix are. We've been conned all these years into accepting less than we deserve because these insignificant words have been shouted at us. This film is a classic in the way that Apocalypse Now, or Brazil, or Citizen Kane, or Ran are classics. It did not merely entertain me, or make me go 'Wow', I was INVOLVED in the film. I really did care what happened to the characters. Hell, I was even worried for people that I knew made it to the end of the story.
The fight scenes were some of the best I have seen (especially on Amon Hen), they were dirty, nasty and scary, like fight scenes could be. The heroism was in the self-sacrifice in the face of danger, not in meat-headed Conan twirlings.
The interpersonal relationships were wonderful. Especially, Gandalf with Bilbo, Gandalf with Frodo, Frodo with Bilbo, Gandalf with Saruman, Aragorn with Boromir, Aragorn with Arwen, Elrond with Gandalf, are we seeing a pattern here? Yes this is not a film about EVENTS - some of the events were missed out of the film and some were changed but the film was none the worse for it - this was a film about PEOPLE. The glory of the story is that all people (I use the term loosely, including Hobbits, Dwarves etc) have the potential for real heroism; the tragedy of the story is that all have the capacity for evil, to be tempted or corrupted. The film highlights this point so poignantly that I was in tears a number of times. We all know that even the smallest person can be heroic when the time comes, but it is interesting to see how even someone as powerful has to face their own fears.
Weaknesses? Well it was too short. Yes too short. I remember getting to the part when the fellowship left Lothlorien and thinking `Oh we must be near the end'. It really did fly by and sometimes a little too fast. One minute they say `we can't go through the Gap of Rohan' in sunshine, the next there in thick snow on Caradhras. A minor gripe, and one which may be corrected on the DVD.
Celeborn's acting was terrible and it stuck out like a sore thumb. It's one thing being self-centred' and other worldly' its another being cardboard.
The voice effect on Galadriel when she was tempted was just plain naff. It was like something from an old Doctor Who episode. In fact the whole Lothlorien section suffered from the time constraint. Time does not seem to exist here.' Too right, you were only there five minutes and then you left!
But these gripes are so minor as to be trivial. Its like saying Ferraris are not very fuel efficient or the perspective isn't perfect on the Last Supper.
Taken as a fantasy action film, this is something that is equal to Star Wars. But it is so much more. The fantastic effects - I was so worried about Isenguard, but it is simple magnificent  merely compliment the story, they are merely (merely!) creating an alternative reality, that is they create a reality not an alternative to reality. George Lucas could learn a thing or two from Peter Jackson, the so-CGI CGI in the Phantom Menace and the re-edits of the earlier Star Wars films look positively amateur in comparison. Unlike Star Wars (even the first two) there are real characters here, people that one could believe existed and one cares about. In this respect it is more like a classic historical drama.
This is truly one of the greatest films ever made. Like a great piece of literature, one must return to it again and again to get the most out of it. This is partly because with each revisit we cast off more of our preconceptions or because we change in our self and thus what we bring to it or how we perceive it changes, but mostly because there are so many layers to it that one cannot appreciate them all at once.
Thank you Peter Jackson, for reminding us that film can be art as well as being entertaining.