The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

“I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. “Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.” And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.” – Sam

Number of Times Seen – approximately 12 times (twice in theater including opening night, DVD and 28 Feb 2014)

Brief Synopsis –Frodo Baggins sets off on a journey across Middle Earth to destroy the One Ring of power.

My Take on it – This is my personal favorite of teh trilogy because it shows how the innocence is lost among all of the members of the fellowship.

The Hobbits are the true stars here, but we also get to see Gimli and Legolas as the comical sidekicks (when they aren’t kicking butt and sometimes during).

This movie purposely doesn’t show us much about the will of the race of men because Boromir is just a supporting character here and we only start to get to understand the weight on Strider’s shoulders which are more realized in the next two movies.

Peter Jackson and his co-conspirators were able to completely transform New Zealand’s countryside and transport us to Middle Earth.  I heard a tale years ago that NZ is the only country in the world which has every kind of environment known to Earth (including Tundra) and the locations used in this movie prove that it may actually be true.

The main characters of the whole trilogy are Frodo and my personal favorite Sam who show that their friendship can help them overcome all odds allowing them to continue on to their final destination.  Sam is seen by many people as just a sidekick, but he really is the driving force in giving Frodo hope that their mission can succeed.

I was quite disappointed when this movie lost Best Picture to A Beautiful Mind (2001) because the story is richer here and gives off a more epic feel (duh) which the Academy usually likes, but I think that the fantasy genre was just too much for them to swallow at that point and wanted to make amends to Ron Howard for him losing the big awards for Apollo 13 (1995)

Bottom Line – Excellent movie.  Still my personal favorite of the 3. Amazingly presented in all aspects by Jackson and his crew! Highly recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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