In December 2001 the film world was enthralled by the first
part of New Zealand Director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not since Cecil B. DeMille’s Biblical
epics of the 1950s had filmmaking been seen on such a scale as Jackson’s Fantasy adaptation. Going on to
make close to $900 million worldwide and the recipient of four Oscars and five
BAFTAS including Best Film, The
Fellowship of the Ring helped to shape the way films began to be produced
in the early part of cinema’s second century. Shot entirely in the Director’s
home nation over several years the Lord
of the Rings trilogy soon became one of the most successful and critically
acclaimed film trilogies of all time and eleven years ago I thought it was one
of the best things I’d ever seen.
Featuring a large ensemble cast the plot of the first film
focuses on the grouping of nine individuals who team up to destroy a powerful
ring that threatens to destroy peace in Middle Earth. Hobbits Frodo, Samwise,
Merry and Pippen join Wizard Gandalf, Dwarf Gimli, Elf Legolas and men Aragorn
and Boromir as they set out from the Elven city of Rivendell on a quest to
Mordor to ‘cast the ring into the fiery chasm from whence it came.’ Along the
way their progress is halted by suspicion, in fighting, and Orcs, a vicious Elf
like creature, bred for war.
I’ve probably seen the film around five or six times now,
once every couple of years or so and although I still enjoy the story, action
and effects, my overall enjoyment diminishes each time. I also find I laugh a
lot more with each viewing too. Back in 2001 I think the film was probably most
noted for its special effects and overall look. A decade on most of the effects
still look brilliant but occasionally the computer generated imagery shows its
age. There is a slight shine to some of the CGI and sometimes it is really
obvious which shots feature the actors and which are computer generated. Even
so the CGI on the whole has withstood its first decade very well and the rate
at which special effects are moving, you can’t expect things to look realistic
forever. The physical effects have held up even better than the CGI. The
make-up on the huge cast still looks incredible and the amount of preparation
and organisation that must have gone into pre-production and shooting still
boggles the mind. The vast majority of actors require some sort of prosthetics
work and all look authentically realistic. The difference in height between
characters is also well dealt with. Stand-ins, forced perspective, CGI and even
different sized sets were used to give the impression of differing height and
it usually looks great. There are a few too many shots of characters facing one
another with obvious stand-ins but with a budget already at close to $100 million,
I think Jackson
judged the height issue well.
Another thing that the film is famed for is its location
shooting. The film helped to put New Zealand’s natural beauty on the
map and its varied locations are all stunning without exception. This film
features some of the more scenic landscapes as the latter films went a little
darker and the heli-cam shots are always stunning. Hobbiton looks like a cross
between Telly Tubby Land
and an Eighteenth Century English village but looks inviting and warm. The
Hobbiton sets are also amongst my favourite, being exactly what I imagined from
reading The Hobbit. (I never read
LOTR). Rivendell is another sumptuous location but is also one of the locations
in which the CGI has aged the worst.
The plot of the film has a good mix of quest like discussion
and action although it is the least action like of the three films. I still
really enjoy a lot of the dialogue between the likes of Frodo and Gandalf and
Frodo and Aragorn but it isn’t overly heavy. Also, despite featuring words,
names and places which are totally alien to anyone without prior knowledge of
Middle Earth, I don’t ever remember getting confused between the likes of
Isildur and Isengard, or Moria and Morgul. I’m always completely confused by Game of Thrones which I also really like
so I was surprised that I picked up the lingo of Middle Earth quite so easily.
My only problem with the plot is that it feels a bit like a story without an
ending. Even though it is the first in a trilogy it should be able to stand up
on its own. While I think overall the film can be watched on its own, the
ending sort of peters out. In other successful trilogies such as Star Wars or Indiana Jones, each film has a definite end whereas here it sort of
feels like there should be an intermission, rather than a year long gap. The
impact of The Ring is extremely well handled though. The way that characters
covert it and the way it seems to have its own drive and even personality leave
the viewer in no doubt as to its power.
On the acting front the film is a real mixed bag. Some
actors give terrific performances. Ian McKellen is wonderful as the wise Wizard
Gandalf and Christopher Lee is one of the standout performers as Saruman. Ian
Holm also gives a good performance. Of the more central actors, Viggo Mortensen
is impressive and has gone on to impress in several films post LOTR. I also
thought that John Rhys-Davis puts on a good show as the slightly comedic Dwarf
Gimli. Other performances made me laugh due to a mixture of dialogue and
acting. Each time I watch Orlando Bloom I laugh. His mannerisms and speech are
so; well my girlfriend put it best when she said “he’s sooo gay...” There is
also a homoerotic tension between Elijah Wood and Sean Austin which continues
right the way through the series. Sean Bean manages to sit somewhere between the two camps, straddling the line between serious and tongue in cheek. What the more camp performances do do though
is to take the edge of the quest like nature of the story and insert some
humour into what may otherwise be a little dry or depressing.
As I’ve now spent about fifteen hours watching this film
there are new things that I notice on each viewing. On about my third viewing I
noticed that Legolas doesn’t sink into the snow like the others and on this
viewing I spotted that when Arwen (Liv Tyler) first makes an appearance, the
setting is between several trolls turned to stone, possibly a reference to The Hobbit. It’s things like that and
the vast enjoyment I get from each viewing which brings me back to the film and
the series every couple of years.
8/10
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