How fortunate we are that it all came together!

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2002)

It's impossible to compare this film with the pantheon of great movies after only seeing the first of three chapters of the story. It's like reviewing "The Thornbirds" or "The Jewel in the Crown" after watching only the first Sunday night installment. So I won't cast my vote until at least December 2003.
However the love of film making and appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien's magnum opus already shines through Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". I thank director, producers, cast and crew for elevating the art of motion pictures to new heights in the post-Lucas era.
Howard Shore's astounding score is a case in point. I once thought that the only music that could truly capture the heroic dimension of "The Lord of the Rings" was Richard Wagner's masterwork, "Der Ring des Nibelungen", the opera cycle concerning another great ring of power. Wagner's `musical dramas' combined the most inspired elements of music and poetry into visual spectacle created to deliver an unprecedented emotional impact to the audience. In a real sense Wagner was the minstrel who
"Sang to them...until their hearts, wounded with sweet words overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness." (LOTR, Book VI, Chapter 4)
But would Jackson overlay Wagner's music about German myths and legends onto Tolkien's Anglican-inspired mythology as John Boorman had done for Arthurian legend in "Excalibur"? Jackson eventually trusted LOTR's quality to inspire artists to achieve their greatest potential, and he wisely decided to have Shore compose a unique score for Tolkien's universe. Shore delivered on the promise and captured the essence of Middle-earth. How fortunate we are that the `inspired elements' all came together!
Minor spoilers:
Consider the scene where the fellowship, after departing Rivendell, crosses the mountain pass. The film speed slows down slightly as all nine members advance, one after the next, as Shore's triumphant Fellowship theme blasts forth. (Some audience members take a bathroom break at this point in the film and so miss one of the movie's most sublime scenes.) Here Jackson delights in the *realization* of the Fellowship of the Ring. Look, everyone! he seems to say, after all these years our old friends are up there on the silver screen for all to cheer onward!
Not long afterwards we are swept across the rim of the tower of Orthanc as Shore's music swells to a frenzy. There stands Saruman in a rage, screeching incantations in Black Speech into the sky. I am reminded of one of those old film clips of Hitler babbling and gesticulating his hatred to the crowds. Of Christopher Lee's appearances in more than 200 films I can think of no personification more frightening, more gothic, more magnificent than this.
Later, in the aftermath of Khazad-dûm, the companions spill out of Moria onto a gray and desolate plane that reflects their state of mind. Colors are washed out and time slows to a crawl. Faces are twisted in grief, confusion, shock. Sound is cut off except for a solitary voice singing a plaintive theme.
And for me, this is a point where pain and delight flow together.