Reel Retro: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

In a small village in the Shire a young Hobbit named Frodo has been entrusted with an ancient Ring. Now he must embark on a quest to Mount Doom deep within the lands of Mordor in order to destroy it.

Based on the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ was released in cinemas worldwide late in December 2001. ‘Fellowship’ was the first of three films released adapting the book which were all being filmed as one project in various locations across New Zealand.

Adapting such a beloved, expansive and immersive piece of work in a way that would be considered worthy of the source material was a controversial and complicated task. The production began with the knowledge that they were completing the entire story, this allowed for a seamless approach to all aspects of the production, making for an excellent sense of continuity throughout the entirety of the three films.

‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ had the difficult task of being the first to bring the audience into the story and to establish some context to the events without assuming any pre-existing knowledge from the viewers. It does this through a narrative of the recent history of Middle Earth that is centred on the one ring. As brilliant it would have been to see more events of the first and second age of Middle Earth fleshed out to help fill the back story, this simply isn’t practical given the amount of material so all non-essentially story aspects are stripped away to the bare essentials.

From the opening scene of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, the viewer is immersed in this world, a tangible setting was created for these films, and from a mixture of location shooting, with visual tweaks to colours and visual effects being inserted where necessary the locations where the scenes take place feel real. Whether it is the Shire, Bree, Lothlorien, the techniques used give the impression they simply travelled to these locations in Middle Earth.

The costumes and practical effects used for various creatures including the elves or the uruk-hai were effective at evoking a sense of magical wonder or dread and these still hold up to viewings today. Some of the computer generated effects in ‘Fellowship’ however has definitely aged in the years since the film was released, though that said with such an investment in the characters and the story the shortfalls in the visuals does little to distract the viewer experience.

This is a very nicely paced film, being the beginning of what is essentially about a twelve hour movie counting the extended editions, it begins very slowly taking time to give a sense of depth to the characters, and the Shire itself. The innocence of the key hobbit characters is told through their antics at home, the nature of the village and its people. It emphasises what is at risk from the creatures stirring in Mordor, and the forces that seek to possess the one ring.

Continuing to take its time introducing wider aspects of Middle Earth, ‘Fellowship’ slowly reveals some new locations and introduces the elves of Rivendell as well as fleshing out some back story for Aragorn and Arwen while intermittently exposing more of the evils of the land by involving the Nazgul and Isengard early on.

The quest then begins and the remainder of the film incorporates a balanced mix of action and character driven scenes as the story moves from location to location. With a huge amount of material to cover in the second two films and with the scale of events to grow much larger ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ still delivers an enthralling final act with a climactic battle and concluding scenes which nicely wrap up this part of the story but with the obvious nod towards the many events still to come.

‘Fellowship’ feels like a more intimate part of the trilogy with the scale of things remaining much smaller than the latter two parts, there are fewer characters, and the battle scenes are smaller with more intricate detail and are certainly no less entertaining than the large scale battles within ‘The Two Towers’ and ‘Return of the King’. All of this results in allowing the audience to become emotionally invested in the key characters which pays off as things escalate in the latter two parts.

That cast that was assembled proved to be worthy choices, with the majority of them not in the spotlight as far as A-list celebrity actors went at the time. As explained in the supplementary material on the DVDs Viggo Mortensen was cast quite late as Aragorn after they began filming with another actor in the role. Mortensen portrayed the rugged ranger ‘Strider’ in a convincing manner, withdrawn yet a likeable and reluctant leader. Ian McKellen is pitch perfect as Gandalf the Grey portraying the mysterious and compassionate member of the Itsari. While I felt there are no weaknesses in the cast the performance of Sean Asten deserves a special mention. He captures the dedication and loyalty of Sam, and without being the central character in any of the scenes his supportive role continuously reminds us of why they are on this quest.

A key part in capturing the emotion of this or any film is the score, and Howard Shore delivered something special. By the end of the film the score is a crucial part of the experience, it evokes emotion for the fellowship itself and the near impossible task they face, it captures the innocence of the Shire and the evil of the forces of Sauron.

‘Fellowship’ is my personal favourite part of the trilogy, this largely stems from the questing nature of the film leading to the variety in the settings, the characters we meet, and the intimate nature of the film.

Given the progression of the story and the shift towards the kingdom of men taking over from the departing elves in the final events of the third age, the second two parts of the trilogy are set more firmly around the race of men. While I consider them excellent films for me they lose some of the mysticism and wonder that is present in the first film.

Overall ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ has earned its place in cinematic history and is a classic, the love and care that went into making this film is reflected on screen, I rate it the highest of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy of films and give it four and a half out of five stars.

Coming up next in our look at ‘The Lord of Rings’ films, Tiffany will be reviewing ‘The Two Towers’, so stay tuned.