Lord of the Rings:
Fellowship of the Ring


Fellowship of the Ring

Pippins gift

Movie Reviewed by Janet Bishop

book by J R R Tolkien

Director: Peter Jackson
Screenplay: Fran Walsh, , Peter Jackson

These are the words with which C. S. Lewis acclaimed the original book when Tolkien first wrote it: “Here are beauties that pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a [work] that will break your heart.”

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings movie directed by Jackson is magnificent.Make sure you go and see this film.

This movie has lavish production values.and the actors do a wonderful job of bringing J.R.R. Tolkiens work to the screen. The director, New Zealander, Peter Jackson,gave equal weight to both production scenes, and the interplay of characters. The script was faithful to the much loved book-'Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings,' penned 50 years ago, by noted Oxford scholar and storyteller, J.R.R. Tolkein.

Peter Jackson, a New Zealander,spent 7 years crafting this movie trilogy. He is the first director ever to simultaniously film three feature length movies at once.The films backers spent over $300,000,000 to bring this work to the screen.This is an investment that may very well eventually look extremely good .

The level of detail here is 'breathtaking.' Tolkien scholar Bill Welden stated that more than 900 pieces of armor, 2000 weapons, 1600 prosthetic ears and feet, and more than $20,000 household items were hand made for the film version from scratch by craftsmen.

"Tolkien makes me feel clean in ways that nothing else does".
-A quote from a student of Tolkien scholar, Dr.Ralph Wood.

One thing I especially liked about Tolkien's work, and which is reflected in the film , is Tolkien did not characterize the human characters in LOTR as 'wizards' or 'superheroes'. For instance, in the Council of Endron the character Bolimer says "The Men of Gondor are valiant, but they may be beaten down." Later on Boromir is seen to covet the one Ring lustily, and he even tries to use force to get it away from our hobbit friend Frodo. As for the Tolkien's 'wizards' such as Gandalf, they are not not really practioners of magic in the conventional sense like J.D. Rowling's "Harry Potter", but are mysterious powerful characters, who eventually are revealed to be essentually angelic beings.

Tolkien was a Roman Catholic and it is not hard to find elements of Christian belief throughout the story. People looking for Christian parallels may, however, find that ultimately they are disappointed since religion in itself is missing. Tolkien's view is that the religious element is absorbed into the story and into the symbolism.

In his article J R R Tolkien: Truth and Myth, Joseph Pearce sums up the genius of The Lord of the Rings: 'The power of Tolkien lies in the way that he succeeds, through myth, in making the unseen hand of providence felt by the reader ... Paradoxically, fiction works with facts, albeit invented facts, whereas myth works with truth, albeit truth dressed in fancy disguises. Furthermore, since facts are physical and truth is metaphysical, myth, being metaphysical, is spiritual'.

The film version is faithful to Tolkien's viewpoint, too.At the end of the day, we know that the work of this gifted author reveals Tolkien's genuine humility,spirituality and decency.

LOTR Fellowship of the Ring's Characters with Comments from
Film Actors who Portrayed Them.

Frodo Baggins (hobbit):
Elijah Wood " I see Frodo as a very curious adventurer."

Gandalf(wizard):
Ian McKellen "I see Gandalf as archetypal wizard."

Bilbo Baggins (hobbit):
Ian Holmes "Bilbo's quite grumpy, but actually has a heart of gold"

Sam
Shawn Astin: "to me, Sam personifies decency, simplicity, honesty, loyalty;
The ulimate hobbit."

Merry (hobbit)
Dominic Monaghan: "Merry looks on the bright side of life, but I don't think
he realizes at first, just how brave he actually is.

Pippin(hobbit)
Billy Boyd:"One thing about Pippin is his whole life revolves around friendship."

Boromir (human) Sean Bean:"A warrior who brings the human element into the fellowship."

Elrond (elf) Hugo Weaving:"has a real sense of how hard it is for people to get out from under evil."

Legolas (dwarf) Orlando Bloom:"Legolas is a sword-fighting son of an Elf king."

Gimli (dwarf): John Rhys-Davies: "Gimli is a stout-hearted axe-man dwarf."

Saruman(wizard) Christofer Lee:" To me he's just not the physical force of evil personified, he's very real."

Aragorn/Strider (human) Viggo Mortensen: "He can survive in nature, live from it, read its signs, and live happily."

Arwen(elf) Liv Tyler:"To me, Arwen brings a real touch of femininity to the tale of middle earth."

Galadriel (elf) Cate Blanchette:" I loved playing Gadadriel because she is so iconic. She is the one chracter who really tests Frodo".

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copyright 2002 by Janet Bishop