LOTR: The Fellowshio of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring sets us down in a quiet countryside Shire of Bag End as Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), a hobbit, is celebrating his 111th birthday. The wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) is his sage and his young heir Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) sees Bilbo as his idol. It is time for Bilbo to transition, leave town and move on. When he does, he gives his magical gold ring to Frodo. Throughout its history the ring has brought out the evil in its possessor, with the exception of Bilbo, who is starting to have a hard time resisting its temptations. Bilbo and Frodo use the ring's power primarily to become invisible from time to time in a playful sort of way.

Centuries ago this ring was forged in the mountains of Mordor by the Dark Lord Sauron. The ring has changed hands many times and a gang called the Ring Wraiths, under Sauron's orders, continues to search Middle Earth for it. When found, they will return the ring to their master and the world will be taken over by people who are truly evil. Frodo's task is to destroy the ring or keep it in safe hands. As the ring can only be destroyed by casting it into the fire where it was forged, at Mordor, Frodo begins the dangerous journey to Middle Earth. This becomes the ultimate road picture and requires traversing every obstacle you can think of and many you can not, leaving you impressed by the imagination of the journey.

Accompanied by his servant Sam (Sean Astin) and his cousins, Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), all hobbits, and not used to warfare, Frodo comes into contact with humans Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean), who are well acquainted with war games. Later their paths cross with Arwen (Liv Tyler), an elf, and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), the Elf Queen. In this quest the band helps overcome a person who was once considered a friend to Gandalf, the wizard Sauruman (Christopher Lee). Take every scene you can remember in films depicting crossing mountains, rivers with flash floods, crumbling bridges, quick moving monsters, undersea creatures and much, much more. Now think exponentially and you begin to imagine the excitement that The Fellowship of the Ring brings in between the quiet dialogue and story line.

Frodo and his friends' journey to Middle Earth transport us from the real world into one in which our imagination is more real than reality. Unlike most action pictures where the special effects and stunts are surrounded by a plot so thin that it makes no sense, The Fellowship of the Ring has a story that makes you wonder where the true source of evil is in this world.

The prequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is The Hobbit, first published in 1937. In 1954, the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were released. The final book, The Return of the King was published in Britain in 1955. Including publicity and marketing, the overall price tag to produce all three movies at the same time approaches 1.5 billion dollars. This is indeed a big bet that The Fellowship of the Ring will be a huge hit as that is what is required for people to return in droves to see the sequels which will be released in December of 2003 and 2004.

I've not read the books as many people over 40 years of age have, but that did not stop me from enjoying the film or understanding the story line with all the talk about hobbits, wizards, middle earth and the journey to save the world by destroying the ring in the place where it was made thousands of years ago. My 13-year-old grandson has seen the film twice and I am convinced that before long, he will see it again.  

The acting in the film is excellent and the extensive use of CGI is the correct use of the technology to tell a story based upon mythology, fairy tales, and the supernatural. The events in Fellowship make Tomb Raider look like a warm up for an action movie.

Most of the action scenes that result in our heroes surviving ferocious battles would be hard to accept if you did not check thoughts of realism at the door. The idea is not realism but fun with loads of narrow escapes. Even when a good guy dies, it's usually with considerable fanfare.  It reminds one of the days of movies with miraculous escapes and literal cliffhangers that ended with you waiting for the sequel. Usually it would be out in a few weeks at most. Here, we're asked to wait a year and I must admit I'll be one of the first ones in line to see what happens next. In the meantime, I'll have to see The Fellowship of the Ring again so that I'll be ready for what appears to be a masterpiece series in the making that might surpass Star Wars. This is one of those movies worth standing in line to see at 1 minute after midnight.