Pluses and minuses, but the best film in history

[bropous]

The film is the best film I have seen in my life. Yes, Bombadil and Old Man Willow, the Barrow Downs and the house at Crickhollow and the seventeen-year stretch between Bilbo's departure and Frodo's departure from the Shire are gone, but I can bloody well forgive Peter Jackson. This IS Tolkien's world, NOT some creation loosely based on the incredible works of the Master.

I was going to be one of the hardest-to-please fans in the audience. I was really turned off when I learned that Liv Tyler had been cast as Arwen, and that Arwen would play a larger part in the story than in the books. However, I have to understand the strictures placed on Mr Jackson in trying to win audiences not familiar with the books, and that the studio probably pressed him to add more "eye candy" to keep the uninitiated interested.

I was pleasantly surprised. Ms. Tyler did sterling work as Arwen, and the use of Arwen in the place of the Elf Lord Glorfindel was forgiveable.

Any disappointments I had with the liberties taken with the Master's works were swept away as the film unfolded. The depth of imagination, the full texture of Middle Earth and the true feel of the story did come across, and strongly. Never before have I been so completely enchanted by a film, so completely absorbed for three hours. Mr Jackson outdid any director in film history in making this film, and his treatment of my favorite books, although not 100% accurate, is as close to the original as I could have hoped.

The only let-down was that there were no previews of The Two Towers at the end of the film. I think uninitiated viewers may come away feeling unfulfilled, especially if they had no idea this is the first of three films.

Christmas 2002 and 2003 cannot come fast enough. I quit waiting for Santa a long time ago; now I have reason for my heart to race at the thought of Yuletide, at least for the next two years. Bravo, Mr. Jackson, and may The Fellowship of the Ring sweep the Oscars!

[Darth Tater]

Amen on everything but two small points:

1. I think it's too early to find a place for this in our personal top ten's. Let's wait till we can sit down with our DVD players and watch all three back-to-back-to-back.

2. I love the wait! It's one of the most exciting parts! I'm really glad the time between the films is stretched out, that way I have two more years of wonder ahead!

[HOBBIT]

Tater, on both points, are you nuts?!??!!?

[Darth Tater]

Answer: yes of course

[Treebeard's apprentice]

If we are talking about great movies, I agree that it is too early to judge.

BTW, if anyone cares, my favorite movie (this month) is Fight Club.

[ringbearer]

"The best film in history"? Hardly. A "good " movie, yes, very well done, yes.

[bropous]

Well, we'll just call it a friendly disagreement. I have to admit I am a tad biased, since this is the movie I've waited for longer than any, and maybe my enthusiasm colors my memory.

However, I cannot recall another film with the depth of imagination and care and toil which has produced this film. The level of detail, the dedication of all involved in it, and the fact it brought me to tears thrice in three hours makes this, in my humble and egocentric opinion, the best movie I have ever seen.

Maybe it's just justifiable relief that this was not just another "Bakshi-ized" treatment of the greatest work of literature of the twentieth century.

Thanks for the reply!

[Reverie]

I must agree w/ Darth Tater about the wait between films!
I devour books. I can't stop reading or force myself to go slower, so I fly through book after book and I'm constantly looking for something to read. Therefore to have to wait 3 years 'till the 'end' - wow...chills...I'm savoring the anticipation...it's intoxicating!

[bropous]

I was looking at The Two Towers today, the version with stills from the film, and saw, with great delight, whom I took to be Theoden and Arwen. I've also seen a few shots of the Rohirrim, and some daylight shots of orcs not in FotR.

It's like giving a hungry man a crumb of Lembas. He will march on, but not for long before the hunger gnaws at him. And the hunger for The Two Towers and The Return of the King gnaws at me deeply!

Holy Hannh, I sure hope this year passes quickly.....this brings to me once more the poignancy of the phrase, "As slow as Christmas!"

[bropous]

Whoops....meant to say, "Theoden and Eowyn". that will teach me to "Review Post" a tad more carefully!

[onering]

Well Time-Warner certainly spent enough money to get people to think this was "The grandest adventure in cinema history". A movie with so much hype and marketing precedeing its release really cant help but be placed in "Greatest" catagory's.

Personaly I would even place TFOTR in my top 30. But hey, for the 20yo and under club, that was so critical for the movie to make money, its no doubt sure to wow. YaKnow it seemed that in the first few day's after its release people seemed afraid to say anything critical about it. Thats how powerful the media, and marketing, is in our lives. And Time-Warner is betting on it!

But "The greatest movie ever"? Oh-boy thats a stretch. Can that distinction really be "BOUGHT" by a Corporate-media-marketing mega-monster ?

I guess time will tell..................One

[CardenIAntauraNauco]

I think that its true that people were afraid to say anything critical partially because of the hype but mostly I would say its because we all love the book. We all wanted it to be as good as the book.

I would certainly classify it as the best movie I've ever seen...
but I guess I am biased from reading the books...oh well..in any case it was certainly good.

[bropous]

I stand by my assertion, my fellow hobbit. To me, this IS the greatest film in history. And hype had absolutely nohing to do with it.

The only factors influencing me on this assertion was its effect on me. Not because the special effects were the greatest ever created [they weren't, admittedly], not because the screenplay was the best adaptation of the book [it had its faults], nor because it faithfully regurgitated verbatim the books on the screen [it certainly did not].

It is the TOTAL package which I feel deserves such exemplary compliments. The balance between the story and the audience, the dance between the purist and the studio head, the intricate ballet of set design, costuming and acting are the telling factors here for me.

I admit: I went into this film with an open mind. This may separate me from some of my fellow Tolkien lovers. I did not go into the movie with the intention of finding every possible fault I could identify. I went in to see how Mr. Peter Jackson told the story in his own way. And I was pleasantly surprised.

No, it is not the Fellowship of the Ring word for word. It is an opening of a door into what some of us feel is OUR world. It is an invitation to those out there to join us, to take up the quest of the ringbearer and journey to the cracks of Orodruin as we all have. It does not describe the entire house, outlet by outlet, crown moulding by crown moulding; it paints the doorway in beautiful colors, in captivating beauty and depth, and points the way to the open threshhold to those who knew nothing of the rooms and passages beyond.

I DO stand by my assertion. This is the greatest film in history. And no studio is paying me to say that. Nor is a Burger King cup or action figure. I make the assertion out of sincere assessment of a work of great cunning, skillful mastery and deep subtlety.

In my humble, hobbitlike opinion.

[galadriel1]

Bropous: You must not see many movies. Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but I have to agree wtth Ringbearer - hardly the Best movie in history. And certainly not the best film I`ve ever seen! There are many others that would beat this out. There just wasn`t enough substance between scenes / places to tie the story together. Yes, the action sequences were great and the scenery and visuals were stunning, but there wasn`t a lot of substance in between scenes. The transitions from place to place were very choppy. First you`re here, then there, then to another scene very quickly. A lot of jumping about. TOO much at times. It needed more dialog and interaction of characters to better tie the scenes together. I sorely missed the developing friendship between Legolas and Gimli - and between the other characters as well. I hope they pick up more on that in the other films. I wished they had included the blindfold scene and gifts scene of the Lothorien segment. They would have added much to the Lothlorien part. There wasn`t enough of the Lothlorien segment shown IMO. I would gladly have given up a few minutes of action and some shots of the orcs for more dialog and character material throughout the film.


Yes, it was a good movie, but IMO certainly not the best film ever. It would not make my top 10 best list. But that`s just one Elf`s opinion.

[bropous]

Well, galadriel, I imagine one gets into trouble whenever asserting that any one thing is the "best" of its variety.

Quite contrary to your initial assertion, I have seen rather a few movies in my time. I'm not the type who really cares all that much for the mass-market film, and am pretty darned selective in my movie viewing. I guess my placement of this as the greatest film in history reflects more than just the three hours on screen, it also takes into account the massive effort taken to bring this masterwork to the screen, from the glassblowers' art to the armourer's, from the 48,000 pieces of swords and armor to the incredibly complex and detailed set design and attention to detail involved. Not just the "shadows on the screen", as Ian McKellam might phrase it, but the "ghosts behind the screen" who made it all possible.

In listening to the interviews of all involved in the imagining, creation and performing of Mr. Jackson's vision, I come away with the feeling that all involved felt that this was truly a singular experience in filmmaking. I am unable to think of any film I know of which has had such love and heart poured into it, such attention to detail and dedication to the project as this one.

We can respectfully disagree as to whether this is the best film in history, and I guess I had hoped most would understand the subtext of "for me" in my statement. Rating film is absolutely subjective, as I am sure you would agree, and though you may have seen far more films than I, we can still rate different films as the greatest movie of all time, and BOTH of us can be correct. In this category, I am sure we are.

Again, in this humble hobbit's opinion.

[Wayfarer]

Regardless, I think we'll all agree that this is the best live action adaption of the lord of hte rings books to date.

Right?

[bropous]

(smile) I would certainly second your assertion, Wayfarer!

[ringbearer]

Ditto! hey Wayfarer...how did you get the title, "Inside Joker"?

[IronParrot]

I might as well copy and paste my general review onto this thread...

SUMMARY

The first of three instalments in a film of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I won't even try to summarize it - look elsewhere for attempts to do so.

RECOMMENDED FOR:

Anyone who loves adventure, fantasy, New Zealand scenery, film in general, or The Lord of the Rings (save for the most hardline and unforgiving of purists).

REVIEW

Do not take Peter Jackson for a conjurer of simple tricks: The Fellowship of the Ring is stocked full of breathtaking environments, spectacular visuals and enthralling action sequences, but the film as the sum of its parts extends itself past merely technical boundaries and establishes itself as, simply put, great cinema.

As a Tolkien adaptation, The Fellowship of the Ring breathes life into the largely expository and descriptive prose of the celebrated author, thereby applying a defined visual style that is consistent with the tone of the source material, much like how David Fincher's "cool film" techniques matched Chuck Palanhiuk's terse prose in Fight Club. The Lord of the Rings is very scenic in nature, and Peter Jackson has made an appropriately scenic film. Here, the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is proven to the fullest.

And my, what scenery. My, what proof. The visual design of The Fellowship of the Ring is all but unparalleled in the history of epic filmmaking. Not unlike Lawrence of Arabia, these exotic environments are meant to be absorbed and experienced, not just seen. Furthermore, these environments do not rely solely on visuals to immerse the audience; every locale has its own distinct musical and photographic schemes, making every step of the journey a revelation.

The film is also surprisingly well-written, as is immediately evident by the poetic narration that accompanies the opening Casablanca-esque prologue. The screenplay captures almost all of the most memorable lines of dialogue in Tolkien's work, in effect amplifying them by having actors actually speak them; yet an alienatingly direct word-for-word text-to-screen translation is wisely avoided with a necessary balance of colloquialism that, thankfully, never seems too modern. The use of languages other than English, Tolkien's languages that are of undeniable cultural importance in the story, is executed with flawless consistency.

The performances do the double duty of matching Tolkien's characterizations and allowing the characters to exist in the film independent of the novel. Not unlike the Star Wars films, throughout the film, one almost never sees actors, but iconic characters instead. Most notable are Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Sean Bean as Boromir, both powerful presences from entry to exit. Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn is believable as both a loner and a leader. Also, the various character dynamics in the work that are not yet fully developed in Fellowship - Sam and Frodo, Merry and Pippin, Legolas and Gimli - have a lot of potential, as is already established by how well the actors play off each other in each of these pairs.

The pacing of the film makes short work of the fact that this instalment adapts the most serial, linear and relaxed part of the novel. Instead of resorting to cheap techniques in directly adapting the initially erratic transitions in time in the novel by overusing "X years later" subtitles, as lesser directors may be tempted, all of these features of the novel which would seem awkward and perhaps downright boring on film are taken care of by a compression in time. There is now a sense of urgency and immediate danger that serves to drive the story forward. By omitting peripheral scenes, the film largely avoids telling too much too quickly and spreading itself too thin, which was exactly what snagged Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It still lays down the foundations of several critical subplots and story arcs that will doubtlessly be developed in the upcoming second and third acts of the story. There are only two spots that seem distractingly glossed over, as if they were cut down solely to make the three-hour running time, being the exits from the two settlements of Bree and Lothlorien. However, this does not detract from the final product when the film is regarded alone, though as previously warned, the most unforgiving purists will of course be offended.

Without spoiling anything for the uninitiated, I should note that the film wisely ends on the first chapter of The Two Towers in the novel. This is a more conclusive endpoint from the perspective of linear cinematic storytelling. At this point in time, this endpoint may seem an arbitrary and questionable choice, but will certainly be better understood when the entire film of The Lord of the Rings is taken into perspective.

When all of this is put together, the result is Act One of a serial adventure in the tradition of Spielberg, an epic in the tradition of David Lean, and an adaptation in the tradition of the likes of Gone With The Wind, glossed with the very best of present-day production values and perfectly suited for a modern audience raised on the likes of Braveheart and Gladiator. Is Fellowship one of the greatest films of all time? By itself, no; at no point does it even pretend to stand alone. But the way things are going so far, the complete film of The Lord of the Rings has the potential to be the movie that defines cinematic fantasy for the twenty-first century, just as Tolkien's novel defined the genre for the twentieth.

[andustar]

not "best film ever" but stiill amazing. Still really, really, amazing. I loved it.

(and, er, Darth? Three three hour films back to back? you are insane. But don't worry, you're in good company. I think I will join you when you do that! )

Ok, yes this is me. I think I'll put this at the end of all my posts today. I always seem to do this. I enthusiastically post loads every day for a while and then suddenly, I'm gone. I don't know why, it just happens. This time I had tried to stay away from the net altogether as I have important exams coming up in, er, two weeks... I even tried to not read (that lasted exactly six days before I gave up) but it doesn't work. So this is how it works with me. Sorry people. I won't be here for a while, if I can just manage to stay away