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Jacksons abiding love for the source material comes across in the wealth of incidental detail (the stone trolls from The Hobbit, Bilbos hand-drawn maps); and even when he deviates from the book he does so for sound dramatic reasons (the interminable Tom Bombadil interlude is deleted; Arwen not Glorfindel rescues Frodo at the ford). New Zealand stands in wonderfully for Middle-Earth and his cast are almost ideal, headed by Elijah Wood as a suitably naïve Frodo, though one with plenty of iron resolve, and Ian McKellen as an avuncular-yet-grimly determined Gandalf. The set-piece battle sequences have both an epic grandeur and a visceral, bloody immediacy: the Orcs, and Sarumans Uruk-Hai in particular, are no mere cannon-fodder, but tough and terrifying adversaries. Tolkiens legacy could hardly have been better served.
On the DVD: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring two-disc set presents the original theatrical release (approx 171 minutes) on the first disc with a vivid Dolby 5.1 soundtrack and a simply splendid anamorphic print that allows even the darkest recesses of Moria to be glimpsed. The second disc contains 15 short behind-the-scenes pieces originally seen on the official Web site plus three substantial featurettes. The Houghton Mifflin "Welcome to Middle-Earth" is a 16-minute first look at the transition from page to screen, most interesting for its treasurable interview with Tolkiens original publisher Rayner Unwin. "Quest for the Ring" is a pretty standard 20-minute Fox TV special with lots of cast and crew interviews. Better is the Sci-Fi Channels "A Passage to Middle-Earth", a 40-minute special that goes into a lot more detail about many aspects of the production and how the creative team conceived the films look.
Most mouth-watering for fans who just cant wait is a 10-minute Two Towers preview, in which Peter Jackson personally tantalises us with behind-the-scenes glimpses of Gollum and Helms Deep, plus a tasty three-minute teaser for the four-disc Fellowship special edition. Rounding out a good package are trailers, Enyas "May It Be" video and a Two Towers video game preview.--Mark Walker
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantasy ride to another reality,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2001] (DVD)
I love the book and researched Tolkien the man many years ago (though I dont consider myself a Tolkien expert or total LOTR fanatic). Like many others I waited and waited and waited for the movie to come out ever since it was announced that it was in the pipeline. And I have to say, even though I had many reservations about the leaked plot changes, some of the character choices and such, no movie has ever transported me into its reality more than this one. I came out of the cinema (4 times in total) nearly speechless each time. It blew me away. I understand some folks disappointment at changes in the movie and the way Jackson handled certain things, and as one reviewer put it, it IS Jacksons Lord of the Rings, it has to be. At the end of the day it is his interpretation and it is humanly impossible to translate exactly such a masterful epic from the medium of literature to the media of screen. But in my opinion Jackson has done a fantastic job. The characters themselves for the most part are excellent. Ian McKellen was not on the screen, it was Gandalf. I have never been so convinced of a character. Ian Holm was amazing, the first meeting of him and Gandalf evoked so much emotion. I could go on. Like any movie, different people will have different opinions, but for me, this movie is without a doubt the movie that showed me for 3 hours, theres a different reality. And two more to come, I just pray they are up to the fellowships standard.
50 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest film ever made...?,
By simonmcentyre@hotmail.com (England, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2001] (DVD)
I am a great fan of epic - always have been, always will be. Films like Braveheart and Gladiator have always got my blood pumping, but until I watched LOTR:FOTR I truly had never known what epic was capable of in film!This film is like no other I've ever seen before - it does not merely draw you into the film, it actually places you smack in the middle of it! I watched it on the opening day, and when the credits came up everyone was sitting in perfectly still silence for about a minute before going. Why? Because everyone had to recover from the shock of remembering they were in the real world and not Tolkien's Middle-Earth! I had read the book four times previous to seeing the film, so naturally I was expecting to be critical of how the film totally destroyed the book. Fortunately, this is definitely NOT the case. Peter Jackson had to cut the plot down somewhat - I was suspicious of how this would effect the story. I can safely say he did the book-to-film conversion as well as could possibly be done. He even added a few things to the film (such as deeper characterisation of Arwen Evenstar) so as to make the conversion perfect! The special effects are awesome - the battle between Mordor and the Last Alliance at the beginning of the film is truly breath-taking, pushing CGI technology to an entirely new level. I expected the effects to be great, but they truly did go beyond what I could possibly have imagined. The acting is fantastic - Ian McKellen plays Gandalf to perfection, and Frodo makes an extremely convincing hobbit! Christopher Lee was chillingly masterful of the traitorious Maia Saruman, and I thought Orlando Bloom as Legolas couldn't possibly have been portrayed better! Each character was superbly cast - a handful were perfectly cast. The musical score is wonderful - Howard Shore is truly masterful in capturing the atmosphere, whatever the scene. From the Dwarven of Moria, to the ethereal Elven woods of Lothlorien, to the epic battle at Amon Hen, the musical score is done to perfection whether the scene is one of action, fear, melancholy, joy or mystery! Overall, this film MUST be seen by EVERYONE. Not only that, but everyone with a DVD player MUST buy it! If you don't have a DVD player, go out and buy one just so you can watch FOTR on it! This will most likely be the greatest DVD experience of the year!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank Toilkien,
By Jason Lee Pearce (Wallingford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2001] (DVD)
When i heard that the epic trilogy of The Lord Of The Rings was being adapted toa live action film i realised i had to take the oppertunity to read the books before the first film was released.I began reading The fellowship of the ring and within two weeks i had finished it. I went straight out and bought the second in the trilogy. One week to finish that. Then again went straight out and bought the third and final book, this took me two weeks to finish, 5 weeks in all to read this whole epic. When the first film was released i saw it on the opening night and was gobsmacked by the intro, but as the film went on i found it slightly deterring to the book, yet it is still possibly my favourite film ever, or at least until The Two Towers and The Return of the King are released. It would be impossible to keep completely true to the book and keep audiences happy. This film is awesome, i now have the 4 disc DVD and have watched it twice since buying it in a week and have begun re-reading the novels before The Two Towers is released on december 19th, buy it, watch it, watch it again, watch the extras, by the four disc version, watch those extras, then if you haven't read the book read it, if you have, read it again.
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