The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

"One does not simply walk into Mordor."

Includes Spoilers!

Some plot stuff first of all.

Thousands of years ago, Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor and Middle Earth’s premier jeweller, forged the One Ring. Using this Ring he waged war against the people of Middle Earth until a Last Alliance of Men and Elves came together to stop him. During the battle, Sauron was destroyed when the Ring was cut from his finger by Isildur, son of King Elendil. Refusing to destroy the Ring, Isildur claimed it as his own, but it was lost when he was attacked by Orcs on his march home. Skip ahead a few thousand years and the Ring has found its way into the hands of hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who leaves it to his nephew Frodo. But Sauron's power is rising again and he dispatches his most loyal servants to regain the Ring.

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings had a long and bumpy road to the big screen. He first sold the film rights in 1969 and no doubt regretted it instantly. At one point The Beatles (Yes, the bleedin' Beatles) had planned to do a live-action version starring themselves with Paul as Frodo, Ringo as Sam, George as Gandalf, and John Lennon as Gollum. They even approached Stanley Kubrick (Yes, Stanley bleedin' Kubrick) to direct the film, but he eventually turned them down believing the book’s size and scale made it unfilmable. The entire project was eventually scrapped because Tolkien really didn't want the Beatles in the film.

In the 1970s, John Boorman struggled to get his version off the ground, eventually deciding to do the far cheaper Excalibur instead. Ralph Bakshi did manage to get an animated adaption (which covered the events of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers) out in 1978, but he fell out with the producers and was unable to make a sequel to complete the story. However, in 1980 the Rankin-Bass studio produced an animated TV film of The Return of the King, which was a follow up to their 1977 adaptation of The Hobbit, that was marketed as an unofficial conclusion to Bakshi's film.

Nowt much happened until the 1990s when Peter Jackson, then best known for making low budget horror shockers, set his sights on adapting one of his favourite books. The original plan was to do a single film adaptation of The Hobbit followed by a two-part adaptation of LOTR. Those plans were scrapped when it was discovered that Saul Zaentz, who owned the film rights to LOTR, didn’t have the film rights to The Hobbit. While the rights issues were being sorted out, Jackson decided to take up Universal’s offer to remake King Kong. When that project was scrapped, Jackson went back to work on LOTR, but by this point Miramax (who was financing the project) believed two films was too costly and wanted the whole thing done in a one. Jackson and co were unwilling to do that and went elsewhere. The project was shopped around Hollywood before eventually landing at New Line Cinema, who were not only willing to make two films, but encouraged Jackson to make it a whole trilogy.

Think about that. Hollywood studios are known for being extremely cautious. They rarely invest heavily in a project unless there is some guaranteed certainty of success. And yet here we had a studio willing to entrust a shitload of cash to a director with no blockbuster experience, whose last film was a flop, to make an entire trilogy, all filmed back to back, based on a book from a genre that had never been big business before. And miraculously, the gamble actually paid off, delivering a trio of films that were not only major box office hits, but a critical ones as well, able to smash through deep rooted industry bias against genre films.

This trilogy was a monumental achievement as well as a mammoth production that consumed the entire New Zealand filmmaking industry for several years. From the off it was knocking our socks off as Jackson plunged us head first into the Battle of Mount Doom, sending the camera sweeping across the immense battlefield as hundreds of thousands of humans, Elves and Orcs crash into each other. I remember watching this whole sequence in 2001 with my jaw on the floor. I'd never seen anything like this before, not on this scale and certainly not of this quality. No one had done fantasy on this kind of scale before. At almost every level, from Howard Shore's music to Andrew Lesnie's cinematography, a lot of love and care went into the making of this trilogy. Special mention must go to the hard working souls at Weta Workshop, who put in a lot of effort to ensure these films didn't go the way of The Mummy Returns, and to all those helicopter pilots who helped capture all that lovely New Zealand scenery.

Most fantasy betrays its own artificiality either because the filmmakers didn't have the resources to make their fictional world believable or they simply didn't make the effort. The Middle-Earth that Jackson and his team created felt real. It found just that right balance between being fantastical and grounded. This is a world where people work and live or, if you are a hobbit, live and occasionally work between meals. It's a world with deep history. The countryside our heroes are constantly passing through is littered with ruins and fallen statues, relics of kingdoms long lost. When Aragorn looks upon Weathertop with sadness in his eyes, we don't need to be told the whole history of the fall of Arnor. We feel it.

While the next two films are more focused on the wider war against Sauron, Fellowship is very much a pure adventure film and benefits immensely from being the easiest of the books to adapt. It is the most focused of the trilogy, following Frodo's journey with the Ring from the Shire all the way to the breaking of the Fellowship at Parth Galen. It is faithful to Tolkien in spirit and intent, if not in specifics. Jackson along with writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (as well as Stephen Sinclair for The Two Towers) made many changes, most of them necessary to make the story work in a completely different medium. The timeline is greatly condensed to give everything a faster pace and greater sense of urgency. Much of what was talked about second hand, such as Gandalf’s imprisonment and escape from Isengard, is instead shown in full.

Other changes were made to make the story feel more modern (Arwen is given a substantially larger role so it doesn't feel like a boy's only club), but also to create more conflict between the characters so there's more drama. This is one of the changes I mostly support because without it many of the characters would just have nowhere to go. One of the best examples of this is Aragorn. Film Aragorn is a figure full of doubt, afraid he shares the same weakness as his ancestor, and very reluctant to take the throne of Gondor. This is in sharp contrast to Book Aragorn, who make it clear right away that he intends to become king when this is all over. Boromir's temptation by the Ring is also moved forward and given greater focus otherwise this would've been a waste of Sean Bean. I'm not so keen on how many of the other Fellowship have been adapted. Legolas is just there for the fight scenes and to make obvious statements ("Orcs!” “Goblins!” “The Horn of Gondor!") while Gimli is there for the comedy bits in the fight scenes, and Merry and Pippin and just there for the comedy bits not in the fight scenes.

Those issues aside, I really can't fault any of the cast. Okay, maybe Orlando Bloom. Every time he speaks it sounds like a kid in the school play trying too hard to impress mum and dad. In fact, a lot of the actors playing elves seem so focused on being serene and ethereal that they come across as a bit wooden (yes, that sadly includes Cate Blanchett). Hugo Weaving is the only one who really nails being able to seem ageless without losing any personality. The rest of the cast, though, are all fantastic with Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn and Ian McKellen's pitch perfect Gandalf being the obvious standouts.

Myths and Legends

--In the opening battle, you can briefly see Mark Ferguson as Ereinion Gil-galad, the High King Elves of Noldor. He led the Elven forces during the Last Alliance and was slain by Sauron. He had more scenes, but they got cut out and his role as leader of the Elves was shifted to Elrond.

--In the book, there is a great need to get things done, but no great hurry. Seventeen years pass between Bilbo's party and Gandalf returning to tell Frodo about the Ring. Frodo (who is now in his 50s) then spends months getting his affairs in order before he leaves the Shire.

--Jackson brought on noted fantasy illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe as concept artists.

--Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn, but after filming started it was decided he was too young and he was replaced with Viggo Mortensen, who took the role because his son loved the book.

--Many well known actors were considered or even offered roles including Sean Connery, Patrick Stewart, Nicholas Cage, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Russell Crowe. David Bowie was also interested in playing Elrond, but Jackson thought having such a famous and iconic star in the role would be a little weird.

--As with the animated film, the hobbits' encounter with Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-wights has been removed completely.

--Saruman’s role is greatly increased so he serves as the main villain for the first two movies since Sauron himself is not the most hands on of antagonists (mainly because he hasn't got any).

--The extended editions are my preferred versions, but there is one added scene, just before the Fellowship enters Lothlórien, that feels out of place as it was obviously shot early and uses costumes and make up that were abandoned for the rest of the production. Gimli actually looks like a completely different character. I imagine it got put back in despite these issues because the part of Boromir comforting Frodo after Gandalf's “death” is quite nice.

Gandalf: “Fool of a Took!”

Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”
Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Bilbo: “I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

Aragorn: “Are you frightened?”
Frodo: “Yes.”
Aragorn: “Not nearly frightened enough. I know what hunts you.”

Frodo: “Go back, Sam. I'm going to Mordor alone.”
Sam: “Of course you are. And I'm coming with you.”

Boromir: “It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing.”

Gandalf: “You cannot pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow. You shall not pass!”

Aragorn: “I do not know what strength is in my blood, but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail.”
Boromir: “Our people, our people. I would have followed you, my brother... my captain... my king.”
Aragorn: “Be at peace, Son of Gondor.”

Four out of four bleedin' Beatles.

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Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig

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