The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring (movie)



         


The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a film, released in late 2001, directed by Peter Jackson. It retells the adventures of the members of the "Fellowship of the Ring" that is contained in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings. The final scene is actually taken from the first chapter of the second volume, The Two Towers. The screenplay was written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson. It was produced as the first of three films based on the novel, filmed simultaneously on location in New Zealand with a budget of U.S. $180 million. with principal photography taking 14 months and postproduction continuing long after that.

[Top]

The Cast

[Top]

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Sauron has awakened and threatens to conquer Middle-earth. To stop this ancient evil once and for all, Frodo Baggins must destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Men, Hobbits, a Wizard, an Elf and a Dwarf form a fellowship to help him on his quest.

[Top]

Special Effects

The Fellowship of the Ring makes extensive use of digital, practical and makeup special effects throughout. One noticeable effect that appears in almost every scene involves setting a proper scale so that the characters are all the proper height. Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo, is 5' 6" tall in real life; but the character of Frodo Baggins is barely four feet tall. Many simple tricks were used to cast the hobbits (and Gimli the Dwarf) as diminutive. Stunt doubles were used in certain scenes, while entire duplicates of certain sets (especially Bag End in Hobbiton) were built at two different scales, so that the characters would appear to be the appropriate size. At one point in the film Frodo runs along a corridor in Bag End, followed by Gandalf. Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen were filmed in separate versions of the same corridor, built at two different scales, and a fast camera pan conceals the edit between the two. Perspective tricks used by stage magicians were also employed, so that it would look as though the short hobbits were interacting with taller Men and Elves.

For the battle between the Last Alliance and the forces of Sauron that begins the film, an elaborate CGI animation system, called MASSIVE, was developed that would allow thousands of individual animated "characters" in the program to act differently. This helped give the illusion of realism to the battle sequences.

[Top]

Filming Locations

A list of Hobbiton ||width=20%| Matamata ||width=20%| Waikato |- |Gardens of Isengard||Harcourt Park||Upper Hutt |- |The Shire woods||Otaki Gorge Road||  |- |Bucklebury Ferry||Keeling Farm||Manukau |- |Forest near Bree||Takaka Hill||Nelson |- |Trollshaws||Waitarere Forest||  |- |Ford of Bruinen||Arrowtown Recreational Reserve||Queenstown |- |Rivendell||Kaitoke Regional Park||Upper Hutt |- |Eregion||Mount Olympus||Nelson |- |Dimrill Dale||Lake Alta||The Remarkables |- |Dimrill Dale||Mount Owen||Nelson |- |Lothlórien||Lake Wakatipu||Queenstown |- |River Anduin||Rangitikei River||  |- |River Anduin||Poet's Corner||Upper Hutt |- |Parth Galen||Paradise||Glenorchy |- |Amon Hen||Mavora Lakes||Milford Sound |}

[Top]

Deviations From the Source Material

A small but vocal minority of admirers of the original book raised some concerns when the film was released, complaining that the movie's screenplay made a number of changes to Tolkien's story. Many of these protests seemed to be rather minor concerns, and were largely ignored by general movie going audiences. However, more than a few people expressed surprise when the movie's plot diverged from that of the book in what might be considered more fundamental ways.

Some fans also felt that movie producers missed the linguistic basis of the work (as Tolkien invented the world to bring his languages alive and not the other way around):

[Top]

Awards

In 2002 the movie won 4 Academy Awards out of 13 nominations. The winning categories were for Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Visual Effects, Best Makeup and Best Music, Original Score. The nominated categories were Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ian McKellen), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Music, Song (Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan for May It Be), Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

Atfter the close of its theater run, it was listed as the second highest grossing film during its theatrical run, with takings of $1,129,219,252 USA dollars from world-wide theatrical box office receipts (movie ticket sales). (Source: ).

The movie has also been released on videotape and DVD, with some editions having additional footage and commentary not included in the theatrical release edition. Notable among the restored scenes is additional footage of a smiling Galadriel bestowing gifts on the members of the fellowship. In the theatrical version, she appeared dark and brooding.

The extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring and the second movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had limited theatrical runs in selected cities worldwide in late 2003, during the run-up to the release of the final film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Followed by:

Previous version:

See also:


[Top]




  View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License