Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring" - Ben's Thoughts

I can still remember the feeling I experienced when I saw a trailer for Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy in theaters. I have no idea what movie I was in the theater to see, but I sure remember this teaser trailer. I was probably a freshman in high school; I hadn't watched the Bakshi film in years; and here all of a sudden was a live-action movie showing some of my favorite characters from literature in the flesh.

"Fellowship," Jackson's first foray into Middle-earth, met my expectations. There is some camp -- Eric rightly notes Galadriel's much-maligned transformation into some kind of deep-voiced banshee, which just does not work the way it should, with her wiggling arms and silly voice (Christian Bale's equally ridiculous "I'm Batman" voice sprang to mind as I watched that scene this time around) and the bombastic music playing in the background -- but most of this movie is adapted perfectly from the book with visuals equal to any a Tolkienite could have conjured from their imaginations.

I won't give a blow-by-blow comparison of movie to book, because it's been done before and at length. However, I do want to make a few observations about character. Jackson, in my opinion, takes what Tolkien provided in terms of character and, for the most part, fleshes it out into fully realized movie-long and trilogy-spanning arcs. In "Fellowship," Aragorn, Boromir, and Frodo each have notable arcs that, I believe, work very well. I'll touch on each of those in a minute. 

The one other crucial element that Jackson manages seamlessly is the introduction of characters. When each character is introduced, it is with a character beat that is just long enough to give a sense of who these individuals are and what they represent within the framework of the film. For example, Merry and Pippin's characters are introduced with the clever scene of the duo stealing and igniting the dragon firework -- it preserves a nice moment from the book and puts the personalities of the two youngest hobbits front and center. While Pippin comes across as an utter moron in this film, at least he is distinguishable from Merry, which is something Bakshi utterly failed at and Tolkien himself had trouble with in "Fellowship." Similarly, Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli have short monologues within the "Council of Elrond" scene that marvelously introduce their characters and signal to the audience the roles they will be playing throughout the rest of the film. Interestingly enough, the only character whose introduction does not really work well is Sam's -- having him hung up on Rosie Cotton and then getting shoved into her face by a giggling Frodo doesn't really encapsulate his character very well; he really doesn't get to show his true colors until maybe the scene where he takes one step further "than he's ever been" (in his ridiculous faux-English accent) or the scene in Bree where he calls Strider "Longshanks." Sean Astin, as goofy as he seems sometimes, really makes lemonade out of some treacly dialogue in this film. Slow clap for Rudy, guys.

Before I talk about character arcs, I just want to mention scenes that are visually marvelous. The Balrog scene, of course, with the red fire, smoke, and shadow -- I can't think of a better translation of Tolkien's vague descriptions (although I did note this time around that movie Balrog clearly has wings… something I won't get into right now). The final chase of the Black Riders to the Ford, Liv Tyler's defiance (I really can't think of her as "Arwen," since she's so different from book-Arwen), and the rising of the river to destroy the Riders -- whoever choreographed the movement of the horses and whoever rigged the cameras to pan and track and move the way they did to capture this chase scene did a marvelous job. The introduction of the Shire, with Howard Shore's marvelous "Shire theme" song playing in the background -- what a way to explain to the viewer what this is all about, what the hobbits are trying to protect; it makes the vision in Galadriel's Mirror of the Shire's destruction all the more poignant. The orcs pouring over the hillsides in the closing scenes of the film. The Argonath; the Fellowship going by the giant feet in their tiny boats; the slow pan back from the statutes' faces to reveal the great lake and the waterfall. I could probably go on.

Character arcs -- Boromir. A solid if fairly predictable arc. His arc is mostly intertwined with Aragorn's, and Jackson made the absolute right call in finishing off Boromir in this movie. I know Tolkien thought of LOTR as one big book rather than three, but he puts Boromir's death in Book 3 -- completely out of place. Jackson brings the Fellowship to a close with the close of the movie, and gives Boromir a proper send-off along the way.

Aragorn -- I know some complain about how Jackson changed Aragorn from the stoic hero returning to his kingdom to a reluctant hero who has to be slowly convinced to assume the throne of Gondor. I'm ok with it, as I think it makes Aragorn more dynamic and relatable. In this film, he struggles with his belief that he is too "weak" to resist the lure of power, and by the end of the film makes the conscious choice to let Frodo and the Ring go -- far better than the passive, acted-upon Aragorn of the book. Interestingly, I did note this time around that Jackson's Aragorn never has any question or doubt about going to Minas Tirith rather than going with Frodo to Mordor; at the camp on the banks of Nen Hithoel, he tells the Fellowship that they will cross the lake to the Mordor side at first light. Jackson is also careful to not totally resolve Aragorn's arc in this film -- he promises Boromir that he will not let Gondor fail, but that is not the same thing as reclaiming the throne.

Frodo -- the "choice" scene on the banks of the lake at the end of the film is beautifully shot, orchestrated, and acted by Elijah Wood. It brings Frodo's arc in Fellowship, where he is frustrated and reluctant to be the Ring-bearer, to a satisfying close with his final acceptance of his role. Throughout the film, he tries to pawn the Ring off on others, from Gandalf to Galadriel, and here he finally realizes that he is the only person that can take the Ring to Mordor. 

I really enjoyed watching "Fellowship" this time around; it's been long enough since I watched it last that many of the scenes were more of a delightful re-discovery than previous re-watches. I really think these films stand up well; there's less CGI here than Eric thinks, as Jackson's "LOTR" and his extensive use of Weta Workshop was in stark contrast to George Lucas' prequel trilogy that was airing at the same time. Jackson pulled it off in this film. I don't think he succeeds half as well in the other two films, but here he really does do it and do it well.