20 years of The Fellowship of the Ring
On December 10, 2001, Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", the first part of the film trilogy based on "The Lord of the Rings" novel by JRR Tolkien, premiered at ODEON Luxe Leicester Square, London.
Since the late 50s - early 60s of the last century, many filmmakers, and not only filmmakers, thought about transferring Tolkien's grand trilogy to the screen. But, almost all plans remained only plans. It is known, for example, that The Beatles approached Stanley Kubrick with a proposal to create a film based on The Lord of the Rings. They even assigned roles to each other: Paul McCartney as Frodo, George Harrison as Gandalf, Ringo Starr as Samwise, and John Lennon as Gollum. Kubrick refused, explaining to the legendary musicians that Tolkien's trilogy could not be transferred to the screen.
In 1997, the next idea to create a film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" came to the Miramax film company. The company even announced a tender for direction of the upcoming film based on Tolkien's trilogy. By this point, Miramax had already spent $ 14 million on various preparatory activities. The competition was won by Peter Jackson. But a creative dispute immediately arose between him and the film company. The film company insisted on producing and funding only one film throughout the trilogy. Jackson originally wanted to make three films. And the maximum compromise he was willing to make was to make two films. The Weinstein brothers, who represented Miramax, agreed to produce two films, but at the same time set a condition that the combined budget of the two films should not exceed $ 180 million. But such tough financial constraints did not suit Jackson. In short, the parties took a pause for a month.
During this month, Harvey Weinstein approached Disney with a proposal to co-finance the project. Disney CEO Michael Eisner turned down his offer, believing, like Kubrick in his day, that "The Lord of the Rings" could not be transferred into films, and besides, the fantasy genre had a rather limited audience at the time. Following Eisner's refusal, the Weinsteins reluctantly allowed Peter Jackson to submit the project to other studios. Using this permission, Peter Jackson turned to New Line Cinema film company and managed to get the company interested in his project.
Jackson later said that he was happy that the deal with Harvey Weinstein fell through, calling him a "real bully" who used mafia tricks in his activities. According to some reports, Harvey Weinstein wanted to take the project away from Jackson and hand it over to Quentin Tarantino, and also banned Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd from filming the film. Later, the actresses explained this ban by the fact that they refused Harvey Weinstein his sexual harassment. Jackson vowed never to work with Weinstein again.
Work on the script and visuals began in the fall of 1997, with main production going from October 11, 1999 to December 22, 2000. And it took another year to complete the final work and marketing the picture.
In early 2002, the film received 4 Golden Globe nominations, including the most important: Best Picture and Best Director. In the Best Film nomination, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) preferred Ron Howard's picture "A Beautiful Mind". Peter Jackson's film, along with David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" and "The Man Who Wasn't There" by the Coen brothers, went unrequited. The Golden Globe as Best Director, Peter Jackson, did not get it either. As, however, Baz Luhrmann (film "Moulin Rouge!"), and the aforementioned David Lynch and Ron Howard. The HFPA awarded its prize in this nomination to Robert Altman for directing the film "Gosford Park".
A little later, Peter Jackson's film "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" received 13 Oscar nominations and won 4 of them. But all 4 nominations were technical. In the most important categories for Best Film and Best Director, the American Film Academy gave preference to the film "A Beautiful Mind" and its director Ron Howard.
Outside the United States, the success of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" was more significant. The British Film Academy nominated the film in 14 categories and awarded its BAFTA awards in five of them, including the most important: Best Picture and Best Director. The special weight of these awards is given by the fact that they were awarded in the homeland of the author of the literary source of the picture.
In Denmark, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" won two top film awards: the Danish Film Academy's Robert Prize and the Danish National Film Critics Association's Bodil Prize.
In 2003, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" was nominated by the Japan Film Academy for Best Foreign Film. Peter Jackson's film did not win this nomination; Japanese film academics preferred Mark Forster's "Monster Ball". The company of "relative losers" for "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" formed Gangs of New York" by Martin Scorsese, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by Chris Columbus, and "I Am Sam" by Jessie Nelson.
The overwhelming majority of reviews from professional Western film critics were of an enthusiastic character. Although the main authority of American film critic Roger Ebert rated the film only three stars out of four possible. Ebert explained his "stinginess" in relation to the film of Peter Jackson by the fact that the film "instinctively ramps up to the genre of the overwrought special-effects action picture. That it transcends this genre--that it is a well-crafted and sometimes stirring adventure--is to its credit. But a true visualization of Tolkien's Middle-earth it is not."
Another authoritative American film critic James Berardinelli, who rated the film with a maximum of 4 stars, concluded his very lengthy and full of enthusiastic epithets review with a paragraph: "The strength of Jackson's vision as depicted in The Fellowship of the Ring gives movie-goers cause to hope that we may be in the midst of a cinematic achievement. If The Two Towers and The Return of the King live up to the standard set by this film, The Lord of the Rings will become a milestone not only for its genre, but for motion pictures in general. But, regardless of what the future brings, the single movie we now have before us stands out as one of the most rousing examples of entertainment to reach multiplexes in a long time. At last, someone has figured out how to do an epic fantasy justice on the big screen."
The famous Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefedov rated Peter Jackson's film "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" very highly: "Jackson, who made a bet on a literal film adaptation, managed the main thing – to find an expressive, spectacular audiovisual equivalent to the images born of a stormy Tolkien fantasy and arising in the mind during reading. And at the same time – to preserve a powerful philosophical message, which – along with a far from unambiguous ideological background – permeates the mythology created by the writer...The main thing is that in the first part of the trilogy, if not disclosed, then a thorough application has been made to disclose a topic that does not leave the human race, just like a curse that has been dominating for centuries."
In addition to all the advantages of the picture, noted by film critics and film prizes, the film was a serious financial success. With a total production and marketing cost of $ 140 million, the film grossed over $ 880 million. But not only in the box office of the picture, its financial results were manifested. The filming of the trilogy itself, produced in New Zealand, brought the economy of this country about $ 200 million. The New Zealand government even set up a Lord of the Rings ministry to take full advantage of the economic opportunities that the films of the trilogy presented. Thanks to the creation of such a ministry, the New Zealand army was easily involved in extras in the large battle scenes in this film without much delay or difficulty. But, it is true, when problems arose in East Timor, the New Zealand armed forces were sent there to fulfill the duties of peacekeepers.
On the ratings of Peter Jackson's film "The Lord of the Rings: The Brotherhood of the Ring" by ordinary moviegoers say the following figures: 85% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film ratings from 8 to 10. At the same time, 40% of users rated the film with the highest score - "ten". Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Peter Jackson's film "The Lord of the Rings: The Brotherhood of the Ring" according to FilmGourmand was 10.022, thanks to which it took 43rd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
