2001 / 178 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

I must admit that the Middle Earth of Peter Jackson’s creation is not the one that I envisioned as I read the books. No. It is far better. Peter saw so much more as he read those books, so many more details must have popped off the pages and into his mind and haunted him there for so long. Thank God he purged them in the form of a film. And thank God that film is so damn good. Peter Jackson has seen beyond the edges of the pages. He has read between the lines. He has found the very life force of Middle Earth and put it on film for all the world to see. Even those who don’t want to bother reading the books.

“The Lord of the Rings” is an epic fantasy adventure tale written fifty years ago by a Mister J.R.R. Tolkien. It is the story of our world long, long before we knew it. Long before history bothered to record it, in fact. It is a tale of the days when elves ruled the forest glades, when goblins prowled and unspeakable beings known as orcs and ringwraiths did the bidding of a force of unimaginable evil by the name of Sauron. It is the tale, in fact, of the salvation of the world. The world itself was on the very edge of darkness and it was pulled out again. All because of a ring. A small ring which came to the finger of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (the ever-excellent Ian Holm, so good here and in the unjustly ignored “From Hell”).

As the first part of this epic trilogy opens, we are invited to the birthday party of Bilbo. He is celebrating his eleventy-first birthday (I love that phrase so very much) in the idyllic Shire and he has plans for after the party that no one knows. He passes the ring he found many years ago (with a little prodding from the wizard Gandalf) into the care of his nephew, Frodo (Elijah Wood, and I think he is Bilbo’s nephew, I can’t exactly remember and it isn’t important anyway). Frodo accepts the ring, only to discover later that it is the One Ring forged in the dark fires of Mount Doom which, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, would cast the entire world of Middle Earth into the dark reign of Lord Sauron.

Adventures ensue.

That is all I will tell you of Frodo’s quest, because that is all you need to know. Wanna know more? Read one of the books, maybe even all of them. Tolkien described the whole affair much better than I can. But I must admit to you that I did not entirely get into the books. I liked them, certainly, and admired the craft with which they were written. But there were too many pauses for songs and poems. Which is fine. I couldn’t write a song or poem to save my life (maybe a dirty limerick or two) but Tolkien can. He imagined the atmosphere of this world so well that he knew the songs they would sing, the poetry they would create. Often, a writer is good at one aspect of a story like this, but not at others. For example, he may be excellent at creating oppressive and evil villains, but his heroes are hopelessly bland. Or vice versa. Or the tale itself may be a good one, but the backgrounds just don’t quite convince. Well, Tolkien’s rare gift was that he was a master at all these fields, a wiz at them, if you will. He outshone all who had dabbled in the fantasy genre before him, and that is why his books are probably still read yet today, some fifty years later. He enchanted an entire culture (cult?) with these tales. I may have found the use of similar names and so many locations confusing as I read the books, but I suppose I am in the minority. These books have, after all, inspired folks like George Lucas and Led Zeppelin. Who am I to pick them apart?

But, as you are probably saying, this ain’t a damn book report, Dale. Get on with it. And I shall commence to now, my friend, and with pleasure.

The film of “The Fellowship of the Ring” did not confuse me in the least. It cleared a few things up, in fact. It’s like reading the books with an excellent teacher around to tell you things when they get foggy. Only it’s not like reading a book. It’s like living one. “Lord of the Rings” swept me up from the first frame of the prologue to the very last second which wound its way through the projector. “Lord of the Rings” is a dazzling experience. The world of Middle Earth comes alive with extraordinary flare and craftsmanship. The plot is concise and marvelously fleshed out. The vistas and sheer scope of the film caused my jaw to be on my chest throughout the movie. The characters are inhabited by these actors with immeasurable finesse and effortless ease. Each of these actors, while this is not an actor’s movie, per se, just nail their parts. Elijah Wood was so captivating and so mesmerizing as Frodo that I scarcely noticed his effortless English accent until I stopped and thought about it after my second viewing of the film. Liv Tyler finally delivers on the sweet promise of “That Thing You Do”. She doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but she was perfect. Cate Blanchett was not as good as I expected her to be (I must admit, I expected the most out of her) but she does a good job with what she has and she lends an enigmatic presence to the film as a whole.

And Gandalf! My God! There are no contenders, Ian McKellan is the Best Supporting Actor of the year! He batted this one out of the park. He played the character of this wizard, this wise, all-knowing man, in a way that I have never seen. Even Alec Guinness (who was slumming in the “Star Wars” trilogy, let’s be honest) couldn’t give Obi Wan the layers that Ian brings to Gandalf. There is a scene early on, in Bilbo’s hobbit hole, where the ring has been cast into the fire. The results of this are crucial, for they will determine whether this ring is the Ring of Power or not. But none of this is spoken aloud. It need not be. It all is said in Ian’s eyes and posture. He is a conflicted man. A wise man. A magic man. But he’s also undeniably human and warm and hard. This is stupendous acting and it got to me.

“The Fellowship of the Ring” might have a couple of quibbles in it. The Lothlorien sequence seems a little rushed. And it also contains a very strange sort of transformation which is out of character with the rest of the film (it looks like something that would be at home in an “Evil Dead” film). And the hobbits didn’t look precisely how I had always pictured them. (I pictured them a bit portlier) But, again, those are personal quibbles. And they didn’t detract at all from the magnificence of the film. This is an enchanting, adrenaline rush that is nearly flawless. It did not send shivers up my spine as “Moulin Rouge” did, but it addicted me. It made me want to read the books again. It hooked me so much that I saw it twice within two days. I even smuggled in and ate pudding during it the first time, a cinematic first in my book. And the whole audience had the opportunity to boo the commercials. Oh God, the beautiful fun of “boo”ing that lame Chrysler ad and having a hundred other people join in! It was sensational! OH, and the movie rocked as well.

My main complaint, and the biggest one, is that I have to wait a whole year to see the next installment. It’s like seeing the greatest television miniseries of your life, then having to wait until next season to see its resolution. Only worse. Damn you, Peter Jackson, you have done what Lucas could not! Not only have you trumped him on sets, special effects and sheer wonder, but you have made me anticipate something again!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2001 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.