#50 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The first chapter in one of the best movie trilogies ever is a slow-building, background-establishing tour de force. 2001's installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is my second-favorite, after the epic third and final installment. The story is simple, even if people try their darnedest to make it complex.

A young man is bequeathed a ring that has the power to rule over all of Middle Earth, and he must embark upon a journey to a doomed mountain to destroy it, ensuring peace forever. Nipping at his heels the entire time are minions of the evil ring, led to find the boy and destroy him before he can destroy the ring.

What is most enamoring about the film is its escape factor. I defy anyone to not get swept away by the awe-inspiring landscape of New Zealand, where the movie was filmed. Its scope is so grand, its dialogue and background so rich, it's hard not to feel as if you are in the Shire. (Although, Rivendell is clearly the place to be -- wow.)

I watched the theatrical version (178 minutes) instead of the extended version (208 minutes). Some Peter Jacksonian purists would hoist their noses high into the air because of my bourgeois viewing tendencies, but I felt it was important to watch the movie that everyone originally saw, and was apparently great enough for the AFI voters to choose to start off their Top 50.

This is one of only three movies on the list I saw in theaters ("Toy Story" and "Titanic" being the other two), and I must say, the landscape and visual effects were just as thrilling to me then as they were yesterday. But as an 11-year-old, you would imagine, I did not fully grasp the story (at all). Even when I watched all three of the movies about a year-and-a-half ago, I didn't really know what was going on. Now, it seems that I was just bored and distracted on all other prior viewings. The story was simple, straightforward, and nothing short of gripping.

Altogether, the easy-to-follow story, the unprecedented level of quality in the special effects, and the perfect location scouting by director Jackson, make for the film that is unique in two ways: it is the latest film on the list, coming out six short years before the list was revised, and it is the only truly fantasy film (I mean "fantasy" in the purest sense of the word -- trolls, hobbits, elves; not "The Wizard of Oz"-type stuff). The movie is a fast-paced (as fast-paced as a three-hour movie can be) adventure to a world completely apart from our own, and that in and of itself makes it worthy of its being on this list.