A film never to forget

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2001)

Remember that day?...a handful of years ago...walking out of the theater around 2am...looking into the eyes of all those who couldn't get tickets to the midnight show waiting to be seated...remember the feelings you had...emotionally exhausted...smiling when you made eye contact with one of your friends, nobody wanting to ask the question prematurely..."what did you think?"...everyone wondering if their opinions were the same...remember that day...laying in bed later that night not able to get to sleep before the sun slips into your bedroom window because you were too busy trying to convince yourself that the movie was better than it was...because you so desperately wanted it to be as good as the originals...it couldn't have been that bad, right?...this was your childhood we're messing with...it had to be a good movie, right?...and maybe, like me, you even kept trying to convince yourself in the days that followed...and maybe, like me, you're still trying to convince yourself to this day. The failure of The Phantom Menace to be what it needed to be was like an iron-shod boot stepping on the neck of our childhoods...after seeing the Fellowship of the Ring...I can say that the Lord of the Rings trilogy will be the gleaming axe that lops that boot-clad leg off at the knee and lets we lovers of film and fantasy breath deeply in the air of our childhood...again...and at last!
The setting was appropriately grand...The Historic State Theater...downtown Minneapolis...one of the great playhouses in this town...complete with baroque gold trim in every direction, a vast operatic auditorium, and a gigantic stage converted to a movie screen in front. I don't remember when...or if...I stopped trembling in excitement as the lights dimmed, the curtains parted, and the film started running through the projector. It was such a long wait since the news of Peter Jackson doing Lord of the Rings first came out...and now it's here...like Gandalf in white.
I've read all the reviews so far and I've read the books within the last several years...needless to say, I had many preconceptions. I've read about the effects that put ILM to shame...I've read about the furious battle scenes...I've read about the authentic-quality of the sets and the world of Middle Earth...but the thing I've read that holds the most truth...that stands out as the greatest achievement of the film...is the depiction of characters that you relate to and feel strong emotions toward even amidst the grand and epic scale of the story. It was so wonderful in taking its time and having great character moments all throughout the film...and that's important...they're not just used to establish characters at the beginning...they are used to show the emotional journey as the film progresses...and not just Frodo, the main character, but all the characters are developed...each is on his own emotional journey...you care about them all, you have hopes and fears as to where their paths will lead them, and you can't wait to continue on. For me, that's an amazing achievement in a film as large-scale as this. For me, that's the most important criticism of the film. Yeah, orcs and wizards rule, we all know that, and we could all watch a badass elven archer sniping trick shots into things' eyes all day, but how engaging a story is boils down to whether or not you care about the characters and what happens to them...and in this film...you do...and these genuine emotional connections combined with the fantasy world of Middle Earth...it brings you back to the magic of childhood...the sense of wonder and fasciantion...the raw emotion...it gives you back your innocence and takes it away again...it is moving and it is brilliant.
These wonderful characters need a world to exist in and a lot has been written about how detailed and "realistic" the world of Middle Earth has been depicted in the film. While, yes, it does have that quality of "history"...like all this did physically exist...but the aspect of the "world" that stands out as another incredible achievement is a conveyed sense of "wholeness" and what I mean by that is a sense that these are characters in a world...sounds simple, like, every character is "a character in a world" right? But no, that's not true. So many movies present stories that have the sense that they're being played out in a vacuum...that all that exists in the world is wherever the characters go. In Fellowship of the Ring, you get the sense that there is a complete world going on apart from the main characters and that these particular characters are just tiny individuals in that world. The creation of this "wholeness" on the part of the filmmakers serves two purposes...first, it is essential in creating the sense of danger, the idea that the world is creeping in on these characters' lives and we watch and see how they deal with it...and second, it evokes a spirit of exploration in you as a viewer, like, you want to go out and discover the wonders of Middle Earth for yourself and so you can't wait to see where the characters will go to next...and you especially can't wait to see where they will go to in The Two Towers as Fellowship of the Ring ends...you know it's made and you can't wait a year to see it...it's a blissful madness to be sure.
There is really too much to praise about this film to put in a brief review but what I've written about above...the sincere connection to the emotional journeys of the characters and the sense of "wholeness" that the world of Middle Earth is given...these are, for me, what make this film, and consequently the entire trilogy, something very special. These things, among many others, are why it succeeds and why The Phantom Menace fails. As I write this, two hours have passed since the screening ended...and I can already tell...and god am I lovin' it...that it's one of those movies that keeps growing on you and you like it more and more as time passes and you keep thinking about it...and this is coming from someone who danced into his house singing Howard Shore's heartfelt Hobbiton theme at the top of his lungs just fifteen minutes after the screening ended.
The destruction and rebirth of our childhoods that is played out in the experiences of seeing The Phantom Menace and Fellowship of the Ring is itself an epic story...heaven and hell...love and heartbreak...the rises and the falls...and like an epic story...there's nothing more glorious than a moment of victory...it's a moment to cherish...to never forget...and that's what the Lord of the Rings trilogy will be...a victory on the field of battle that is our sense of childhood. We need to savor this time because we know we are safe for a while...this victory will last for the next two years as The Two Towers and The Return of the King come out...and so right now...at this moment...it is a great time to be alive and a lover of film and fantasy. Although I will always remember the day I saw The Phantom Menace...I will never forget the day I saw Fellowship of the Ring.