Cast:-
- Elijah Wood
.... Frodo Baggins
Ian McKellen .... Gandalf the Grey/Gandalf the
White
Liv Tyler .... Arwen
Viggo Mortensen .... Aragorn
Sean Astin .... Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee
Cate Blanchett .... Galadriel
John Rhys-Davies .... Gimli/Voice of Treebeard
Bernard Hill .... Theoden
Christopher Lee .... Saruman the White
Billy Boyd .... Peregrin 'Pippin' Took
Dominic Monaghan .... Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck
Orlando Bloom .... Legolas Greenleaf
Hugo Weaving .... Elrond
Miranda Otto .... Eowyn
David Wenham .... Faramir
Brad Dourif .... Grima Wormtongue
Andy Serkis .... Gollum/Sméagol
Karl Urban .... Eomer
Craig Parker .... Haldir
Bruce Allpress .... Aldor
Sean Bean .... Boromir
- John
Noble .... Denethor
Plot:-
The future of
civilization rests in the fate of the One Ring,
which has been lost for centuries. Powerful forces
are unrelenting in their search for it. But fate
has placed it in the hands of a young Hobbit named
Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), who inherits the Ring
and steps into legend.
Synopsis:-
The Lord
of the Rings collectively tells the story of Frodo
Baggins, a Hobbit who battles against the Dark Lord
Sauron to save his world, Middle-earth, from the
grip of evil. In the trilogy of films, The Fellowship
of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the
King, Frodo and his Fellowship of friends and allies
embark on a desperate journey to rid the earth of
the source of Sauron's greatest strength, the One
Ring -- a ring that has the power to enslave the
inhabitants of Middle-earth. The trilogy chronicles
extraordinary adventures across the treacherous
landscape of Middle-earth and reveals how the power
of friendship, love and courage can hold the forces
of darkness at bay.
Director Peter Jackson, whose visionary style of
filmmaking and emotional acuity won accolades for
his Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners, brings
his deep love for the source material to the project.
Produced by Barrie M. Osborne, the films feature
a strong international cast that includes (in alphabetical
order) Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Orlando
Bloom, Billy Boyd, Brad Dourif, Ian Holm, Christopher
Lee, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen,
John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, and Elijah
Wood.
What the critics
say:-
By BBC News Online's
Jackie Finlay
It must be at least 20 years since I last read The
Lord of the Rings.
I can hardly
compete with those die-hard Tolkien fans who could
(probably) recite, say, the Silmarillion from start
to finish, or who meet monthly to play orc vs hobbit
games.
But I was worried,
as "fans of the book" have always been
from Shakespeare to Harry Potter, that the movie
would be a dreadful disappointment - a poorly-imagined
Willow, a feature-length rendition of Xena: Warrior
Princess.
And if I was
worried - well, The Lord of the Rings fans are not
known to be a tolerant bunch.
Hobbit-tastic:
Many rubber feet and ears were made
Ralph Bakshi's animated and unfinished version,
released some 20 years ago, was watchable precisely
because it was animated, still leaving plenty to
the imagination.
Would it be tacky
if "made flesh", brought into the realms
of the every day - or worse, of Hollywood?
Impressive
But director
Peter Jackson avoids almost all of the traps to
deliver a powerful, intense and beautifully realised
movie that interprets the novel - well, almost to
perfection.
The Fellowship
of the Ring covers the first book of the novel,
with two more "parts" to come in 2002
and 2003.
It spans a fictional
world that includes the Middle Earth lands of the
hobbits, the elves and the evil Mordor.
The ensemble
acting is all good, setting the movie apart from
lesser fantasy films.
But the acting
still plays second fiddle to the grand New Zealand
panoramas and impressive digital effects.
Visually, each
major character looks just like they should - Sir
Ian McKellen a craggy and fierce Gandalf, Orlando
Bloom a lightfooted and blond-haired elf.
Perhaps only
the chiselled Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn could be
darker and more brooding - Sean Bean, now the warrior
Boromir, is said to have wanted the part.
The make-up is
a tour de force. The ears are great, the hairy feet
as natural as hairy feet can be, while the orcs
are truly disgusting.
Cate Blanchett
as elf queen Galadriel: Luminous
Elijah Wood is well-cast as the hero Frodo. And
the close friendship between him and fellow hobbit
Samwise Gamgee, something that could have got lost
amid the sheer scale of the project, is given due
prominence.
The opening of
the three-hour movie is unfortunately its weakest
point.
Our 15-minute
"scene-setting" sojourn in Hobbiton feels
more like a Sunday teatime BBC children's serial,
with sentimentally cheery music and surprisingly
bad acting from the principals.
Balance
Jackson clearly
could not wait to move on to the darker period of
the film - and once this literally raises its ugly
head, his creativity bounds into play and the film
streaks to a higher plane.
The most powerful
moments come when Frodo puts on the ring around
which the action revolves, to be transported to
a shadowy world of pure evil - and when other characters
are tempted by the ring.
Jackson manages
to balance the emotional themes of the novel - friendship,
loyalty, temptation - with superb adrenaline-pumping
battles (and this is a woman talking).
A couple of tiny
flaws: scenes of high drama and emotion are accompanied
by haunting pipe music similar to that which must
have given the strictly average Titanic its mass
appeal.
And the mass
orc armies do sometimes look as if they have just
invaded from the set of The Mummy Returns.
But these are
the only nods to the Blockbuster Director's Manual
2001 in an otherwise exciting and original three
hours.
