The Fellowship of the Ring

This review will be focused on Peter Jackson’s first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. The film was released in 2001 and is based off the first book by Tolkien of the same name. Most of the landscape in the film was from Peter Jackson’s homeland of New Zealand. The plot of the film is the main character Frodo Baggins (played by Elijah Wood) inheriting a ring from this uncle. It is later revealed to be the One Ring and is tied to the fate of the world and he must travel to Mordor where the ring was forged and cast it into Mount Doom because it cannot be destroyed any other way.

The film starts off strong with an epic battle 3,000 years before the start of the film where the forces of good comprised of Men and Elves against the forces of evil made up of monstrous orcs. The scene has excellent camera work with wide shots of the forces and great use of color. The film has very nice set pieces. The scene when the group enter Moria the scene is a long shot of the city it is beautiful with an excellent music in the background that helps to immerse to viewer.

The acting was top notch as well. Sean Astin’s portrayal of Samwise Gamgee is the best in the film. His loyalty to Frodo in the film was admirable, considering how Frodo was going to leave everyone behind so the ring will not corrupt anyone else. The film has many close up shots of the ring when the characters are looking at it to signify the temptation and allure of the ring and occasionally the ring “speaks” to the characters an example of this is when it tries to tempt Aragorn into taking the ring.  

The most memorable moment in the film is towards the end of the film when the Fellowship are attacked by the Uruks. It is here where Boromir proves himself, he sacrifices his life for the hobbits. In the scene he is hit by multiple arrows each time he gets hit he takes down two or three enemies, proving his valor. He does this as penance for trying to take the ring for himself. Sean Bean’s portrayal of Boromir was excellent, it’s a shame that he dies in nearly every one of his movies though.

The film is not without its faults. The first fault is the glaring plot error. Instead of walking all the way to Mordor from the other side of Middle Earth they could have flown to Mordor on the Giant Eagles. This becomes apparent even before the journey starts, when Gandalf is being held captive in Isengard on the top of the Orthanc, a Giant Eagle swoops down and rescues him. In the film it is not even discussed. Another fault like the rest of the trilogy is the length of the film, an average movie would probably lose interest since it is just painfully lengthy. Other than that the film is one of the best films of all time and helped to encourage more fantasy films to hit the big screen. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring earns a 9/10

O.S