# LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring- Thumbs up?



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Last night, after a 33 year wait, I saw the first of the Tolkien trilogy movies, Fellowship of the Ring. I'd say it was 95% worth the wait. For us purists, it was a bit perturbing to have some beloved parts missing (Tom Bombadil was absent) and others shuffled around (Arwen instead of Glorfindel helps rescue Frodo a the ford), but hey: it was pretty darn good. 

Only one year to go before The Two Towers is out! :bounce: :bounce:


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

Rats, No Tom Bombadil. It would have been the part of Steve Martin's career. Oh, and Bernadette Peters would have been Fabulous as Goldberry.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

I saw the film also , yesterday afternoon but I didn't want to stop the intersting discussion in another thread that's why I didn't mention anything.

I was in a terribly good mood so it would be very difficult for anyone and anything to change that so maybe I was a bit influenced by my mood and I liked it.

I agree with Mezz. The film was good, very good.

I will not fall in the trap to compare it with the feelings that the book creates but I can assure that it worth to see it.

My thumb ? Certainly up


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## risa (May 11, 2001)

Thumbs up for me also. I did miss the parts they skipped over, but I like some of the added parts. I thought the movie captured the spirit of the book very well although it can certainly stand on its own. The orcs, Gollum and other yucky creatures did scare me. My imagination doesn't extend very far into ugly and scary and I never envisioned these creatures to be so gruesome. On the other hand, Rivendell and Lothlorien(?) were just as if not more beautiful than I imagined. I was sorry to see the movie end even after nearly 3 hours. I went home and started re-reading Volume II of the trilogy to keep the momentum rolling. I haven't had much sleep since Friday because I've been so involved in the book in addition to trying to get all my Christmas cooking and baking done. I went grocery shopping at 4 AM and had pastry and brioche doughs in the fridge by 8 AM!

P.S. I thought Ian McKellen's Gandalf was spot on. I was totally enthralled every time he was on screen. I'm also half in love with Legolas; so pretty (males aren't usually pretty but it applies this time) and can he handle that bow! I felt a bit like I was 13 again.


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

I am a - well - hobbit; short, a little ahem, stocky; love to live in tiny places, enjoy my food, love farming, and would much rather have people over than to go on adventures! First read Tolkein in the 60's and felt like i had found my people!

Saw the movie yesterday; when I saw the Shire, I actually teared up! the same with Gandalf, and Rivendell. Yeah, they left stuff out of the book - the movie would have been six hours instead of three had they put it all in! But the spirit of Tolkein lives in this movie. 

I'd suggest to all who haven't seen it yet, just relax, and go for the ride of your lives! enough with all the analyzing and bellyaching and pulling it apart - the movie critics do enough of that! Just immerse yourself in the wonderful images, and the amazing story of the little hobbit that could!

Merry Christmas to all! Jackie


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

This is a fine attempt to adapt an amazingly detailed novel to a movie screen. When I read what some of the fans were getting upset about I felt their reaction was silly. You can always get caught up in the little details of a movie making epic such as this, but the acting was so amazing along with the sets that you just have to accept the limitations of the big screen.

I hope that when they release the DVD it has about an hour of extra footage. Maybe Jackson will release the Directors cut...


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I finally saw the movie, and I have to say (reluctantly) that I loved it!! They did not butcher the book as much as I thought that they would. The scenery was perfect, they couldn't have picked a better place than NZ to film. I thought that all the actors were perfect matches to their characters. Ian McKellan as Gandalf was great, though maybe just a bit more bumbling than I ever imagined Gandalf to be. Was glad to see that Arwren was not in as much of the movie as the trailers lead me to believe. Most all the changes that were made, I thought were relatively minor, in respects to the story. One thing that did bother me though. The movie seemed to imply that Gollem was always a twisted little creature. He was, in fact, a regular hobbit until he found the ring and it corrupted him. Overall, I thought Jackson did a great job bringing something that complex to life, and he really captured the feeling of the books.


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

I always thought Gollum/Smeagol was from a race that was a lot LIKE hobbits.


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I will have to double check that, but I thought that he was a hobbit.


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

My daughter liked the movie a lot.
Anyhow the Smeagol question. Hobbits, otherwise know in Elvish as Periannath were divided into three "bands". They were Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The first written record of The Periannath in the records of Gondor was Third [email protected], with the migration of the Fallohides into Eriador. Smeagol/Gollum was a Stoor, born @Third Age 2440.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

That is absolutely correct, Gollum was a hobbit. I thought that the movie did an excellent job of portraying him.


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## april02 (Nov 25, 2001)

---wow--- I had know Idea there was such a following for the lord of the rings. I just saw the movie last night with my boyfriend and I too was sad to see it end... having only read the hobbit in fifth grade on my own I really have no idea what is still to come... never fear though I decided to go out and buy the books so I don't have to wait for the next movie. Over all I loved it and can't wait to see/read what comes next... ---love--- april:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Ok This is a bit hysterical I know but just for the records!!

Movie-mistakes.com


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## risa (May 11, 2001)

Athenaeus,

Those are funny. I always wondered how many times people have to watch the movie to catch all those mistakes. I certainly will be watching the movie differently when I go to see it again. My younger brother has already seen the movie 3 times!


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Athenaeus, 

There were too many, I got tire of reading them, but thanks. I will certainly try to look for some of those when I go to see it again. I would never want the task of making this movie. The Tolkien fanatics must be having a hay day.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Risa and Nicko
So you will actually go to see it again??

I posted this for fun. I was listening to the radio and someone mentioned it and I checked. The speaker reffered to the person who wrote a comment about the sticker on the apple...

Don't you find that it's a bit unfair for a movie of this kind to stick on those details?

When you see it again tell us please, how was the second impression.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Athenaeus,

Is it always that people rember more what was wrong rather than focusing on what was right. I will be the first to say that this movie is not the book (few movies are). But this is such a great story a good triumphing over evil that it was a long time before anyone had the guts to try and make it into a movie. It is a great attempt and it really helps to bring more people into the story of the LOTR who have never read the book. Mainly because they are wondering why all of us who have read the book are so excited. I look forward to see it again and can't wait to purchase it on DVD.

Incidentally the sticker on the apple doesn't bother me as much as the car in the background.


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

It was a good movie, as movies go. Would I see it again? Yes, when it comes out on DVD.
To me the deal is that Hollywood wants to produce an "epic", when all Tolkien was doing writing his stories and inadvertantly created an epic...
Just like Ozymandias, we still can't buy greatness.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Nicko someone told me that there is a whole serial of games for pc that they were based on LOTR. They have told me about the games but I don't remember the name. 
Have you heard about that?

But yeah I get your point, I guess you are right. 

Of course I have some unknown words for the post that lays above mine but I am afraid to ask, I wouldn't want to change the subject


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## risa (May 11, 2001)

Definitely going to see it again in the theatre which is very unusual for me. I rarely see any movie in the theatre, let alone at full price. I usually just wait for video. I'll probably go next week sometime. I still have to go to Harry Potter.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Athenaeus, I'd wager that all of the swords and sorcerers games (including Dungeons and Dragons, a Wisconsin product), stem from LOTR. A good many computer role-playing games use names of people and places taken directly from the books. Everquest comes to mind; a former student of mine was really into that game, and until I read portions of LOTR to him, he wouldn't believe that the game was entirely original.

I'll gladly take any excuse to see the movie again! I'll take a copy of the mistakes, Athenaeus, and see how many of them I can find.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

I rarely go to the movies because I consider cinema an inferior Art.

I mean they repeat shooting the same scene until the have it perfect and they dare forget the stickers on the apples...

That's why I found amusing the site with the mistakes and hysterical.

You persuaded me.
I will see the movie again but in a theater because films are designed to be seen in the dark on a huge screen and not on the sofa.
I think I have realized why I enjoyed the film. It gave me the same impression with the book. 
That the story was unfolding in the dark.

Thanks for the discussion and imagine! Tolkien was JUST writing his stories ( as Peechcreek said)


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

Heard a nasty rumor that the video/DVD won't be out til next year, right before the second episode hits the screen. Sigh.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Cinema an inferior art??? You can not be serious Athenaeus?? 


You think they shoot a scene until it's perfect therefore it can not be an art form?? What aboput the writer or the poet who plays with word until it is just perfect or the composer who does the same thing?? Or the painter for that matter? Please reconsider.


Then what do you make of actors? Are they artist or not? Or are only actors who work in theater that are considered artisit?


Please don't tell me Renoir's movie are not a work of art? What about Truffault's films or Kurosawa's film? 


Ok I'll stop here.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

No don't take litteraly everything I say, I am trained to question things you know, searching for the truth or something close to it,but it's not that serious!! 

Cinema is a different kind of art but definetely is Art.
I am the theater type, that's all.
I would add Kristoff Kislwofski to your list.

Marmalady, I heard the same . Lucky those that have friends who master Internet and have very special Internet connections...


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

Speaking of those mistakes, we didn't have pause buttons at the theater I just got out of. I saw something in the Weathertop scene, but the guy reels out of the scene very fast. I did notice the switched hands on the giant statues. All in all I liked the movie.
One of the best things I like about the book is imagining the landscape, and the movie really did a good job there. I could quibble about what's on the other side of Moria, the Dimrill Dale, which I never envisioned as that kind of rocky landscape, but after they left Rivendell, for instance, they travel through Hollin, and that matched for me. so did Lothlorien, and Amon Hen, and the Falls of Rauros, and Hobbiton. Want to move into Bag End. It was fun.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

It was late, I forgot too many names...


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Call me a fanatic, but I just got home from my second viewing of the film. I tried to watch for the mistakes (I caught the vanishing chain around Frodo's neck in his Rivendell wake-up scene and the reversing hands on the statues). But try as I could, I never saw any sticker on a apple, and I go too absorbed in the story to bother looking for shadowy cars. My husband says the people who catch mistakes like that must have gotten a bootleg copy online and spent hours looking for details like that.

A colleague at work is strong in his dislike of the film, stating that the script was inane. He says he liked the book. I had to laugh, because most of the dialogue was lifted in large pieces directly from the book. Incidentally, the audience included people from about age 5 (too young!) to 65. Three eighth grade girls sat in front of me. They came to drool over Elijah Wood and the guy who plays Legolas!


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