The Lord Of The Rings - The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Version) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Outstanding

Advantages:	Great cinematics, special effects, acting, location, extras
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

■The Book■

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the first in the trilogy of films by director Peter Jackson taken from the 1930-40s novels by J.R.R.Tolkien. The books were published between 1937 and 1949. The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 1937. The story loosely follows on from an earlier work by Tolkien, 'The Hobbit'. This is a tale of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, going on an adventure across Middle Earth and finding out there is a lot more to the world than just the Shire. Well now Bilbo has grown old, gracefully it may be said, and due to his adventure is outcasted a little by his fellow Shire-folk. Well 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is the turn of Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's nephew who lives with him in Bag End.

The story of the books is that Bilbo while on his travels around Middle Earth with the wise wizard Gandalf the Grey, he picked up a strange artifact: A ring. A ring he managed to win in a game of riddles with a slimy, sneaky creature named Gollum. This ring has helped bring Bilbo unnatural long life with it's powers and he treasures it beyond anything. Gandalf appears one day at Bag End to give warning to Bilbo. The ring he found is 'The One Ring' which used to be posessed by the Dark Lord Sauron. Sauron has regained some strength and an army and he wants his ring back. Gandalf brings word of this to Bilbo and Frodo and the tale begins.

Frodo's mission: to destroy the ring and put an end to the reign of Lord Sauron. Accompanied by his loyal friend Samwise Gamgee and local mischieves Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin). They set off together on a winding tale that will take them on a much longer journey than expected. 'The Fellowship of the Ring' takes you through only part of the journey with the hobbits. This is the basis for the three books, this sets up friendships and alliances for later in the books.

■The Movie■

The mammoth task of making Middle Earth a reality was taken up by director Peter Jackson, normally a director of bloody horrors, this was a little different for him. He was working with his writing team of Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens who had to turn the epic novel into an epic movie. The Lord of the Rings books have had attempts at being turned into movies before. Disney had the rights to make a film for a staggering ten years without managing to make anything of it.

Original plans were to make one movie, to show the whole of the Lord of the Rings trilogy into one movie. Peter Jackson and team soon realised that this was impossible and understandably so, but their producers weren't having it. Luckily for them and the viewing public, New Line Cinema were willing to let them have three films to fill it all out into. And so the films began.

'The Fellowship of the Ring' as I have said follows Frodo Baggins and his companions through Middle Earth in an attempt to destroy the one ring and by doing so, destroy Sauron and save the free world. Typical underdog hero story... well not quite. Though hobbits seem like pretty normal creatures there are other more peculiar species out there. Later in the story they are joined on their mission by an array of other creatures from Middle Earth.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the group selected at the Elven Council to protect the ring until they can destroy the ring. This can only be done by throwing the ring 'into the fire from whence it came' which is the fire of the volcano in Mount Doom in the middle of Mordor, home of Sauron and his army. Not only this but it is also on the other side of Middle Earth. Sam, Merry and Pippin become part of the fellowship through refusing to leave Frodo's side. He is also joined by his friend Gandalf, a very wise wizard who knows his way around Middle Earth. Aragorn, the scruffy ranger with a mysterious background. Son of an elf and a man so he is blessed with long life. Legolas, the elf. Master of bowmanship and extraordinary abilities of sight and sound. Gimli the dwarf, tough and resilient... but still short! Boromir is the son of Denethor, the caretaker for the King of Gondor. Long lost is the line of the Kings so he is in charge of the Gondorians, who were part of the Last alliance and fought against Sauron many ages ago.

This film is all about setting up friendships and getting around to trusting everyone. They all need to be in the right frame of mind to carry out their task. The ring has a power of it's own. It wants to get back to it's master as much as Sauron wants it back. It can have extraordinary effects on the people around it. Causing greed and frays between the fellowship, it calls for strong trust. The end of this film is taken from the start of the next book which is probably a good thing. The end scene, which I won't go into too much detail about, works much better as an ending for a film than the book's ending. It is more exciting and end's a storyline started in that film. Credit to the writers for making that decision.

The special effects in this film are absolutely outstanding, there are many scenes that need some very well made special effects and they have pulled it off superbly. The timing was absolutely perfect to make this film. They chose not to make it after the technology was available but just as it was about ready to be made and quite often having to create completely new special effects for the purpose of this movie it certainly shows the care and devotion people had for the movie.

■The Cast■

Frodo Baggins
Frodo was probably about the most main part in this film and it was played by young actor Elijah Wood. The young American actor played the part very well, keeping his English accent at all times he suited the role perfectly. And with his shiny blue eyes and baby face, he got himself a few fans too. The role of Frodo especially throughout the whole trilogy has got a very wide range of emotions attached that needed to be mastered. The young hobbit was very troubled by the end and Elijah played the part brilliantly, he has some critics but I say he was good.

Samwise Gamgee
Frodo's most loyal friend played by actor Sean Astin. He had to put a little bit of weight on to play this role but he played the part very well. Paying great attention to detail it mentions on the DVD how in parts he made sure he could do things how they were in the book and he made it his responsibility to play the part well.

Merry and Pippin
These two wildcards were played by a couple of playful guys, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) and Billy Boyd (Pippin). They seem to be just as crazy off screen as they were on screen. The DVD is full of their escapades and funny stories to keep you ammused.

Legolas
Orlando Bloom was new on the scene in this film but was straight out of college and into the role of Legolas, the elf. He played the role very well and it looked like he learned a lot while working with some of the other actors and actresses in this film.

Gimli
John Rhys-Davies played this role absolutely magnificently, the six foot John was playing the four foot dwarf and you could never tell. Fighting against his allergic reaction to make up every day of shooting I have to give all the credit in the world to him. Great acting.

Aragorn
He was played by actor Viggo Mortensen who origanally refused the offer when he was asked to play the part but was persuaded to do it by his son who loved the books and would love to see his dad in the film. I don't know what would've happened without him but it wouldn't have been as good that's for sure. Great acting and great swordsmanship.

Castlist:
Frodo - Elijah Wood
Gandalf - Ian McKellen
Arwen - Liv Tyler
Aragorn - Viggo Mortensen
Sam - Sean Astin
Galadriel - Cate Blanchett
Gimli - John Rhys-Davies
Pippin - Billy Boyd
Merry - Dominic Monaghan
Legolas - Orlando Bloom
Saruman - Christopher Lee
Elrond - Hugo Weaving
Boromir - Sean Bean
Bilbo - Ian Holm

As you can see they had an all star cast for everybody in the film, this high calibre of acting talent produced an extremely high quality and enjoyable film for all the family. First in the series is rated at a PG. Both later films are 12a for the violent content in larger battle scenes but the fantasy theme to the films I think softens the blow a bit. Certainly very enjoyable at any age. I thouroughly enjoyed the film and I think that the Lord of the Rings trilogy has to be my favourite set of films ever. This is definitely with some help from the extra DVDs as they let you get some much more involved with actors, writers and the storyline.

■The DVD■
These DVDs in any of the Lord of the Rings extended edition films are all sublime, the detail to which they show you everything is amazing. For anyone wishing to get into the film making or model building or special effects industries then you should give this a chance, even if just for the appendices DVDs. It gets you so deep and takes you on an emotional journey with the cast and crew and you learn a lot about where they filmed it, inspirations for the film and music. You also learn a lot about the author, J.R.R. Tolkien. You get to know about his past and his life and how he eventually came to writing the Lord of the Rings books after 'The Hobbit'.

■Disc One & Two

Owing to the film being so long and then extra scenes being added in, the film is spread across two DVDs so leaving you a break in the middle. This is always handy if you need food or just want a break. Also a handy place to stop if you want to start watching again another day.

The DVD movie is played in Anamorphic Widescreen which is obviously better on a widescreen television but looks just fine on a normal telly too. It is set up for surround sound (Dolby Digital EX 5.1, DTS ES 6.1 and Stereo Surround Sound) so you can have that cinematic quality in the comfort of your own home, obviously if you can afford the surround sound... It also has the option of English subtitles for the hearing impared. The feature leangth commentaries that are available on the discs are also amazingly enjoyable.

▪Cast Commentary
The most entertaining by far is the cast commentary purely due to Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd. Fantastic comedians, they should have got their own commentary but unfortunately it never came. Humourous witty comments from them and informative insight and anecdotes coming from the rest of the cast makes it a great watch.

▪Director & Writers
This is the commentary with all the complaining about how hard it was to get everything together and how everything was written and changed last minute and how everything changed. Very informative if not a little dull at sometimes, this is by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens.

▪Production Team
Again it is very informative but again a little dull. Good to listen to a first time if you want to learn more about the film but not something you can listen to again and again. If you are interested in production methods for epic films like this then you'll learn a bit from this.

▪Design Team
I enjoyed this commentary a lot as I enjoy design so like to hear about how things are made in the film. It is nice to hear which shots are taken from a helicopter flying over New Zealand and which are taken in a small room with a miniature model of the landscape. The design team on this film are outstanding, you learn a lot more about them in the appendices.

■Disc Three - Appendices Part One - From Book To Vision...

This appendices disc contains information about how the writers took their ideas from the books and made it into a vision of how they wanted the books to be. It contains six lengthy documentaries about how the book was transformed into the idea for the movie.

▪ J.R.R Tolkien - Creator of Middle Earth
This is the tale of J.R.R. Tolkien's life and how he came to write such a magical novel. Learn how his love of languages helped him create all the elven and runic languages mentioned in Lord of the Rings. Learn of his friendships with other great writers like Lewis Carroll and how he fought in the First World War and how this affected him. This is a really interesting documentary that is well worth a watch.

▪ From Book to Script
This is a documentary with the writing team and telling you how they did everything. They had to cut down the enormous books into one film each and they had to make sure the book's old style of speech was kept in tact while still making it understandable to the younger generation of movie goers. Again very interesting.

▪ Visualizing the Story
This is one of the larger sections on the appendices with many sub-menus taking you down to specific parts of the film. It shows you early storyboards the writers used to try to visualize Middle Earth before it was created. It follows through different stages of visualisation from storyboards to pre-viz animatics to comparing animatics to filming and then finally a set test on the set for Bag End. Really useful in finding out more about the very early stages of film production.

▪ Designing and Building Middle Earth
The other very large section on this appendices disc, containing loads of information and galleries which show the early drawings of how sets were going to look and how characters were going to look. This section goes into outstanding detail as to how each character and setting was created. Here you learn about Weta Workshop, the design team behind the costumes, the sets and everything you see on the Lord of the Rings films. Really great insight to the film makers world.

▪ Middle Earth Atlas - Tracing the Journey of the Fellowship
This is a little interactive map that traces the fellowship's journey across a map of Middle Earth, interesting to know place names if you didn't catch them in the film and puts into perspective how big Middle Earth really is.

▪ New Zealand as Middle Earth
This is simply about how they managed to turn the New Zealand countryside into the outstanding scenery for Middle Earth. With the great scenery in New Zealand this shouldn't have been a problem but they wanted what they wanted...

■Disc 4 - Appendices Part Two - From Vision To Reality

This disc is more about the filming on set as the films were being made as opposed to the previous disc which was more of the theory behind making the film and planning it. This is showing how the plan turned into action with the first film in the trilogy. This gets you more involved with the cast of the film and you keep learning more and more about Lord of the Rings...

▪ Filming
The documentary shows you around what happens on set with all the characters and how things are done. They had to work with a lot of perspective issues with the hobbits and Gimli needing to be much shorter than they actually were. They all had stunt doubles who were the right size for the job who were needed in long shots. Also there is a 'Day in the Life of a Hobbit' which shows you how the hobbits handle having all the make up and having to be small. There are also photos available from the menu.

▪ Visual Effects
This deals more with the effects you see on screen such as scale issues with the hobbits. Also how they made 'big-atures' minitaure models of sets and creatures that turned out to be gigantic. Also a further insight into the work of Weta, this is now showing about Weta Digital who were responsible for all fancy visual effects on screen. Very interesting showing their development of technology and showing you how it all works.

▪ Post Production
This is a shorter section about how the writers and director had to edit the lengthy pieces of film into a movie that kept the audience awake through four hours of the film. There is an in depth look at how they created the Elven Council scene which is only available from the menu.

▪ Digital Grading
This again takes you into the more technical side of the production process. A useful and interesting documentary which will help you learn a lot if you want to learn about the digital side to film making.

▪ Sound and Music
A few minutes of documentary showing first the musical genius behind the Lord of the Rings and how each piece had to be written specifically for each scene until the writers were happy. After that a nice section with the sound effects team who had to make the sound effects for the scenes which had to be dubbed over. I like this bit because the SFX crew were secluded from everyone else out in the countryside and it was different to the hustle and bustle of the rest of the DVD.

▪ The Road Goes Ever On...
A short ending explaining how they are going to have to work even harder to complete the next two films and it will take them further than anyone has gone before in the epic film making genre.

■Conclusion■

As I am sure you can tell this is very highly thought of by me. I love the film and I love the DVD, that coming from someone who hated the idea of Lord of the Rings and vowed never to watch it. But you know, things change!

The film itself is an absolute masterpiece, great beginning to the trilogy and a great film in itself. The effects are great and the acting talent is wonderful, the nest two films carry on this amazing quality to make them some of the best films ever.

The DVD is what does it for me though. It makes you appreciate all the hard work put into it all and how attached you can get to making a film. The appendices take you so far in you just don't want to come out. I was left feeling sad when I watched the ending of the final appendices disc for Return of the King and I just wish there could be more. These films definitely deserved al lthe awards they won at the release of the film and will always be remembered by me and I'm sure many others. The DVD is well worth a buy and I highly recommend it to anyone reading.

■DVD Information■

Director: Peter Jackson
Release: 2001
Feature Running Time: 200 minutes approx.
Rating: PG
Languages: English
Subtitles: English

■Price■

I bought this when it was released at a whopping £29.99 but it is now available from Amazon at £6.98.