uHollywood

The Lord of the Rings trilogy has got to be quite simply the best movie adaptation of all time.

I state this because, before going to see this film (or, more accurately, the first part of this film) I was, quite frankly, scared. Scared because I had read the book several times and had, in my mind, my own picture of what Middle Earth looked like, what Hobbits looked like and how they acted, what Gollum sounded like and so on and so on. This was why I had avoided like the plague the earlier cartoon version. I didn’t want ‘my’ experience of Lord of the Rings ruined, because I intend to read the book again at least of couple of times before I follow Bilbo and sail off into the sunset!

If you have not seen the film (and there must be at least two dozen people left in the world who haven’t!)DO IT NOW! – preferably on a massive screen but, if that’s not possible, dvd will do perfectly well. You’ll find that time goes into limbo while you watch. The three and a half hours of the first part literally fly past. Its unlike any film I’ve ever seen in the sense that it grabs you and then holds you to itself and won’t let you go. Even the kids in the audience stayed quiet and attentive…no sweet-paper rustling, no ‘How long to go?’ questions, you know the normal kind of thing. None of that. The same goes for the latter two parts. As the French say, ‘C’est magnifique!’

Why was it such a good adaptation? Probably because the director, Peter Jackson, used addicts like me who are on internet-based discussion lists to try out ideas about characterisation and settings before committing things to celuloid. This way, the people who loved the books and who would form the basis of the film’s audience and effectively ensure its success or otherwise, would not be disappointed. And we weren’t!

The film’s setting in Jackson’s home country of New Zealand was also inspired because it contains all the landscapes in which the action takes place. This ranges from the rolling country of ‘The Shire’ in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand to the quarry outside Wellington where the final battle is set, to the snow-covered mountains of the South Island where the initial part of the Quest takes part.

The motion picture creates its own Littleuniverse around you and it. You get lost in make-believe in a film which leaves you (or this watcher/participant at least) wondering which travel agent you have to visit in order to get a one-way ticket and the itinerary to Middle Earth. All aboard!