The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Directed by Peter Jackson
Young hobbit Frodo Baggins, after inheriting a mysterious ring from his uncle Bilbo, must leave his home in order to keep it from falling into the hands of its evil creator. Along the way, a fellowship is formed to protect the ringbearer and make sure that the ring arrives at its final destination: Mt. Doom, the only place where it can be destroyed.
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What critics say influenced The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Fans who remember The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ending with many of its issues unsolved -- and feeling the anguish of having to wait three more years for the sequel -- will know how it feels.
Take the best things about “Conan the Barbarian”, “Braveheart” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, filter them through the manic energy Peter Jackson brought to his “Dead-Alive”, match it with resources usually only accessible to the likes of Lucas and Spielberg, and you’ve got some of the most breath-taking set pieces ever crafted.
A giant spidery-like sea serpent, a monster who looks like a cross between King Kong and Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and sinister horsemen on fiery black steeds are among amazing sights that practically jump off the screen in 3D-like presentation.
Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Fellowship of the Ring is unprecedented in its class; it is the uncontestable Citizen Kane of its genre, and may well be the first of one of the most noteworthy film series of all time.
Still, The Fellowship of the Ring is more than an auspicious start to Jackson's trilogy: it is a cure-all for a year full of dismal mainstream cinema, a reinvigoration of the flagging fantasy genre, and an integrated vision of otherworldliness on the order of The Wizard of Oz, Blade Runner, or 2001: A Space Odyssey .
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A chaotic run-in with a cave troll, for instance, leads instantly into the approach of a phalanx of Orcs, who retreat to make way for an enormous, horrifying Balrog (a distant but discernible progeny of the Id Monster in 1956's Forbidden Planet).
You could even throw in more weighty epics like Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" or David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia."
If "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was the "Citizen Kane" of martial arts films, "The Lord of the Rings" does the same thing for the fantasy quest genre.
Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Fellowship of the Ring is unprecedented in its class; it is the uncontestable Citizen Kane of its genre, and may well be the first of one of the most noteworthy film series of all time.
Director
Peter Jackson
Critics compare The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to 4 of Jackson’s own films.
Peter Jackson, the man who helmed all three LOTR films, was a master director with his earlier work, including the bloody spectacular, Heavenly Creatures, and the just plain bloody, Dead Alive.
But in the Tolkien spirit, New Line has wisely entrusted the Rings to a hobbit, choosing an unlikely leader in director Peter Jackson, whose previous credits include the micro-budget slapstick horror films Bad Taste and Dead Alive, and the masterful art film Heavenly Creatures.
And as gory as it is, it's still nothing compared to Jackson's Dead Alive.
Mr. Jackson gets more feeling into "Fellowship" than he did with his previous films, like "Heavenly Creatures" and the bracing shock comedy "Dead Alive" and "The Frighteners" (which contained milder elements from "Dead Alive").
Jackson's approach, honed by all those Harryhausen tributes in Dead Alive and Claymation revelries in Heavenly Creatures, couldn't be more different.
From his hypnotic true-crime account "Heavenly Creatures" to his hyper-horror flick "Dead Alive" (arguably the goriest ever made), the New Zealand-born filmmaker has a way of taking fantasy-heavy source material and granting it art-house validity.
It is particularly notable in the non-humans--compare the elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, and trolls to Jackson's fantasy sequences in Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners.
He was handed the reins to the colossal production with only a handful of modest-scale films to his credit, including the middling horror tale "The Frighteners" and the mesmerizing "Heavenly Creatures."
Mr. Jackson gets more feeling into "Fellowship" than he did with his previous films, like "Heavenly Creatures" and the bracing shock comedy "Dead Alive" and "The Frighteners" (which contained milder elements from "Dead Alive").
The problem is, the story - penned by writer/director Peter Jackson, long-time collaborator Fran Walsh ("The Frighteners," "Heavenly Creatures") and first-time screenwriter Phillipa Boyens - doesn't have a resolution, thus resulting in the three-hour teaser analogy.
Previously known first for his comedy horror movies (Bad Taste, Braindead), then later as The Director Responsible For Kate Winslet (Heavenly Creatures), he achieved a reputation for impressive effects-work and fluid, exciting direction in his under-rated The Frighteners.
The production design by Grant Major ("The Frighteners") is otherworldly, and the cinematography by Andrew Lesnie (the "Babe" movies) is impressive.
Cineast Factor: From Peter Jackson, director of the nearly pornographic puppet movie Meet the Feebles.
He has made most of his quirky little films (the deranged puppet farce Meet the Feebles, the zombie classic Braindead, the rapturous murder story Heavenly Creatures) in his native New Zealand.
He has always been a visual spellbinder, in cheapo horror gems like "Dead Alive" and smutty puppet movies like "Meet the Feebles" as much as his more respectable 1994 true-life noir "Heavenly Creatures."
The proceedings are a bit more solemn than usual from the previously prankish Jackson, though he still manages to sneak in some humor: the bumbling hobbits Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan); the very tall Gandalf's trouble adjusting to the very small Bilbo's hobbit-hole; the perpetually snoopy Samwise (Sean Astin); a dwarf one-liner that, I'm certain, did not come from the books; the burping, blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from the director himself, who, Hitchcock-like, has found his way into all his films except his puppet satire Meet the Feebles.
But in the Tolkien spirit, New Line has wisely entrusted the Rings to a hobbit, choosing an unlikely leader in director Peter Jackson, whose previous credits include the micro-budget slapstick horror films Bad Taste and Dead Alive, and the masterful art film Heavenly Creatures.
Whereas Chris Columbus made Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone with no directorial personality whatsoever, the new The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was helmed by the far more interesting Peter Jackson, who made the 1994 masterpiece Heavenly Creatures and the raunchy B-movies Bad Taste and Dead-Alive.
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Unlike the painstakingly re-created carpets and china patterns of James Cameron’s “Titanic,” obsessive details that just get swallowed up in the blur of the movie’s hubris anyway, these cloak pins are a bit of visual music to go along with the story.
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the Fellowship that eventually forms around Frodo's personal quest emanates a tougher, more nuanced example of tense coalition than did Spielberg's all-male cadre in Saving Private Ryan , Ridley Scott's in Black Hawk Down , or even Martin Scorsese's in The Last Temptation of Christ.