Posted on 12/14/2001 10:54:33 AM PST by maquiladora
At university I fought with the strength of 10 men. Every day dozens of friends - so called - attempted to scale my battlements and conquer my integrity as a literature student. "You must read Tolkien," they cried as I beat them away. "Be a friend to Frodo!" they shouted as I poured boiling oil over them. "Do not disregard the wisdom of Gandalf," exclaimed others, whom I pushed away with a stick.
I was never vanquished. I refused to read all those tomes about elves, hobbits and creatures that whinged from dawn to dusk saying, "Oh dear, I've lost my ring." We get enough of that from Wagner, whom Tolkien evidently raided shamelessly. Finally though - price of my profession - I must go along to the movie: three hours of elves, hobbits and Sir Ian McKellen saying "Oh dear, we've lost the ring."
After five minutes, however, I was worried that I was enjoying it. After 10, I was worried that I was enjoying it more. After 20 minutes I realised that Peter Jackson's film of the unfilmable is as close to great filmmaking as an epic-sized pop-mythological kiddyflick can get.
Jackson is the New Zealand director whom many critics used to rubbish (but not, check records, the FT) for making haywire horror films like Braindead, before he went quasi-mainstream with the Kate Winslet- introducing tale of murderous schoolfriends Heavenly Creatures. Destiny's choice of Jackson to take on Tolkien is inspired. He answers both of two needs. On the one hand he can tell a convoluted story swiftly, cleanly, accessibly: we get the whole of The Hobbit, Tolkien's novel-length prologue to his trilogy, thrown into a few minutes of voiceover early on. On the other hand - though I suspect he has six other hands - Jackson can storm the Heavens and plumb the deepest, most blazing abysses with a special-effects imagination that it simply stunning.
This film makes Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone seem like Jackanory on a low budget. I gasped first at an early battle landscape so vast, so painterly, so unearthly that it belongs in an art exhibition devoted to "Gothic delirium after Gustave Dore". The source of my next gasp was more kinetic: a flyover view of the black tower on which Frodo's friendly wizard is waking from a swoon, a shot that begins by low-scudding over fiery mineworkings, fantastically populated like a living Hieronymus Bosch, before soaring with digitised seamlessness into a giant close-up of Sir Ian Mc- Gandalf, then plummeting sheer down his night-black pinnacle into the boiling fires of Tolkien's plagiarised Niebelheim.
Add to these spectacles the following: thrilling horse chases, the spiked and clanking horror of the Ringwraiths and Orcs, the sudden avalanche on a snowy pass, the beetling bridges over black voids that promise spinning death, and the attack of the Goblins of Muria, humanoid horrors who scuttle not just across the floor but down columns from the vaulted ceiling where they spiderishly roam.
We even gape joyously at the kitsch pastoralism of the Shire and Rivendell. The first is Hovis country, all green downs and doolally sub-Delius warblings, though sumptuously realised with its round Hobbit doors punched into verdant hillsides. The second is an Italianate Shangri-La of filigree-Venetian villas and cloisters, perched half way up a belief-beggaring gorge.
That Jackson can also direct actors is a virtuosity too far. Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins hasn't been this good for years. He transforms his whole body vocabulary to new-create this anxious, Lilliputian old codger who is half the height and a quarter the composure of the other, wizardly Ian. McKellen singsongs deftly through two feet of beard, giving weight, wit and warmth to the man who Merlin-engines Tolkien's plot. As for Frodo-playing Elijah Wood, he has grown from a child star (North, Avalon) into a youth with the features of a William Blake angel. I kept doing double-takes. This firm-browed, almond-eyed lad with the strong cheekbones and slim, symmetried descent of nose and mouth surely has escaped from a Blake painting?
I barely have a complaint. The women make a weaker impression than the men. Liv Tyler does a Camay advertisement in the woods, all soft focus and dreamy skin glow: "you too can have a complexion like mine", especially if you daub a ton of Vaseline on the lens. I didn't understand what Cate Blanchett was doing in another part of the forest, dressed like the Lady of the Lake. And surely I didn't hear her say "Farewell, Frodo Baggins, I give you the light of Air India." (The sound has always been problematic at the Odeon West End).
Frankly, too, the story seems composed almost exclusively of fights, hairsbreadth scapes, more fights, more scapes. And there will be six more hours of this, in two parts, over coming Christmases. Yet Jackson makes it fly. I was going to devote today's extended column inches to a comparative think-piece about Lord of the Rings versus Harry Potter. But there is no comparison. Potter was made by a committee masquerading as a director. Rings is made by a genius masquerading as a normal human being.
Where can Jackson go from here? If anyone wants Citizen Kane remade, here is the man. But he may and should prefer to do his own thing, as he did when we select and shining few urged him on towards greatness through the inspired insanities of Braindead and Meet the Feebles.
Isn't there a moral here, a moral deeper and more radical than anything in Tolkien (or anything that has been piped through to me by devotees)? That it takes a scapegrace to deliver true grace, as it has always taken artistic outlaws to rewrite the laws of art.
Wow...that is a keeper!
The genius is Tolkien compared to Rowlings! No contest. LOTR Rocks!!! I have tickets to three showings on the 19th and I'm psyched!
I was in a hurry to finish Fellowship, but I'm holding off on reading the ending until I see the movie. I'd rather be surprised. The movie sounds fantastic.
Yes, I know.
Jackson is a movie genius in his own right. I guess he'll get the credit, but what a crew! Alan Lee and John Howe for artistic design! WOW!
That's a pretty glaring mistake. The name of the movie is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone.
Every review I've read is extremely favorable. The whole three hours will have us captivated.
I'm not a Harry Potter authority or fan--I leave that to others in my family-- but I seem to recall that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the title in Great Britain and HP a/t Sorcerer's Stone is the US title
Not to mention The Frighteners, another awful film. Still, I can be persuaded to forgive all, of LOTR lives up to the hype....
The bad
"It was three hours - the first two bored me rigid. It got going in hour three. Full marks to the scenery and to the way that they've created this imaginary world. But it's for people who had imaginary friends when they were 13." - Phil Williams, BBC Five Live (sports-oriented radio station).
"There's a lot for the unbelievers to titter about. Christopher Lee, as the evil wizard Saruman, appears to patronise the same hair salon as Cher." - Mark Jagasia, Daily Express.
"Fantasy fans will enjoy The Fellowship of the Ring ... but most moviegoers will find it overly long and just too exhausting." - Christopher Null, filmcritic.com.
"The narrative becomes ... a bit wearisome at times, and ultimately arbitrary in the sense that one battle more or less with the Orcs, Ringwraiths or Uruk-Hai wouldn't have made much difference." - Todd McCarthy, Variety.
"Utterly, utterly uninvolving ... technically wonderful yes, but oh so monotonous." - Alexander Walker, Evening Standard.
"A landmark in cinema...an awesome feat of imagination and daring...Peter Jackson's adaptation of JRR Tolkien's fantasy classic is as near to perfection as makes no difference...grandeur and emotional resonance that we haven't witnessed in the cinema since John Ford revolutionised the western or David Lean took to the desert in Lawrence of Arabia...The performances are flawless...it is sure to sweep the board at the Oscars, where it will be a late but strong contender for best picture, director and all of the technical awards"
-Christopher Tookey, London Daily Mail
"A truly magnificent achievement...It seems likely that the complete trilogy will make movie history... spectacular...astonishing...epic...nothing short of brilliant, outshining anything to be seen on screen during the past year, and should easily carry home an Academy Award..."
-Lawrence French, Cinefantastique Magazine
"This is one of the finest, if not the finest, fantasy films ever made...incredible cinematography...everything is portrayed so magnificently that it will take scores of viewings to fully appreciate the film's visual scope...I actually felt tears pressing on the back of my eyes simply out of sheer admiration...tremendously better than I expected...So just sit down, and let yourself be swept away"
-Gauti Fridriksson, Movie Emporium
"Filled with moments of great emotion, gorgeously photographed, and absolutely and wholly fulfilling... exceptional...extraordinary...gorgeous and sometimes jaw dropping...This really is an epic, one that combines all the ingredients to create something rich and memorable that'll endure for generations... Peter Jackson has created a masterpiece of art and entertainment and exceeded nearly any expectations... The Fellowship of the Ring is a classic... It's easily the best film in two years" -Chud Movies ( 9.6 out of 10)
"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring richly deserves the anticipation that has been building for so long with its fan base. My only complaint about installment number one of the trilogy is that I have to wait for so long for the rest...I give it an A. -Robin Clifford
"The acting is above top-notch...The film has some of the most amazing cinematography that I’ve ever seen... It boasts some of the most lavish sets ever constructed...Fellowship of the Ring in my opinion is one of the best films to be released in the past ten years"
-Jarrette Moats, MovieHeadlines.net (10 out of 10 )
"Epic...the film is a triumph" -Xan Brooks, The Guardian
"A powerful, intense and beautifully realised movie... a tour de force...Jackson manages to balance the emotional themes of the novel - friendship, loyalty, temptation - with superb adrenaline-pumping battles"
-Jackie Finlay, BBC
"A feast for the eyes and mind...every frame is visually overwhelming...truly terrifying...The movie touches its audience with real emotion and fear, setting it apart from any other of its kind that I have seen... masterful...go to see this film"
-The Scottish Mirror
"Jaw-dropping... beautifully cast...The Academy should take note....the film excels in every department... This is spectacle...Peter Jackson's achievement in bringing all the pieces together is astounding." -Laura Cliffors, ReelRatings (A-)
"Astonishing"
-Christopher Howse, The Daily Telegraph
"A wonderful, enthralling adventure...incredible... It restores my faith in the epic...it moved me to tears"
-Susan Wloszczyna, USAToday
"Oscar nominations for best picture and best supporting actor for Ian McKellen, seem very real indeed.... ...pure dynamite...Epic."
-The Calgary Sun
"A visionary cinematic experience...an epic... ...a work of art"
-Salon
"The Lord of the Rings resonates with a palpable emotional power previously unseen in the realm of fantasy films...I was actually brought to tears at one point of the film and left the theater quite moved... the character development is exceptional... Jackson, his cast and crew, and the film studio have not only managed to skillfully bring Middle Earth to the big screen, they've created perhaps the best movie of the year"
-Mark Watt, Hear/Say Reviews
"Spectacular"
-Sydney Morning Herald
"Monumental...spectacular...one of those rewarding movies that seems to get better and better as it progresses...top-notch"
-Hollywood Reporter
"It has real passion, real emotion, real terror... breathtaking...stunning...passionate performances... a depth of feeling that may come as a surprise"
-David Ansen, Newsweek
"Lord Of The Rings will make its mark in film history... one of the most visually entertaining films ever made... the film is stunningly beautiful...jaw-droppingly impressive...Never before have movie audiences witnessed such creatures and worlds that challenge the creativity of our own imagination... This film is a visual milestone... remarkable"
-Ronald Epstein(*****)
"Entertains from beginning to end...Epic... Go see this movie!"
-Popcultureshock(*****)
"Intimate, yet epic"
-Peter Travers (Movie of the Year:2001)
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