The Lord of Rings: Fellowship of Ring (Special Extended Edition) [VHS]

Just love this movie! Violence & death, not for small children!

I've watched the original trilogy for years now. With the recent loss of my extended editions however, I decided to watch this most recent time on Prime. I hate to say they don't measure up at all to the extended editions; it feels as if over half of the movie is missing, altered from what it is meant to be. I did see one of the most recent other reviews giving only 2 stars because they claimed the movie only used 22% of the book, but you must realize that the amount of time it takes to make a movie, and even just to watch one for the general movie-viewing public, it just wouldn't be practical to make a movie with the entire book the size of the original. Even the absolute most hard-core fanboys (if they have any idea of the time and cost that goes into making this scale of movie) would admit that. Considering the scale of these movies and the fact that they got funded all together before even one was released, and at the immense budget that was at the time unheard of for cinematography, it actually very impressive how well they did. The praise these movies get are not just for pretty visuals and big actors, but by the effort the movie creators went to in order to stay as true to the books as possible with out changing major factors which I'm sure most anyone can agree with after seeing the vast majority of movies-based-on-books in the years that followed.Would fans have appreciated a movie that mirrored the book in it's entirety? Sure, who wouldn't? Except for all the people who were not originally major fans before something like these movies came along for those of us that perhaps a bit more visual based or less inclined to reading. I myself read books before seeing the related movies, but I understand that these movies had an incredible impact on people who had never even read the books, or even heard of the LotR beforehand. And to someone who isn't already invested, a single 11 hour movie is an easy thing to say no to. It may be commonplace now, but a 3 hour movie was a mighty stretch at the time of this release. It wasn't truly until after these movies showed some of the underlying potential that filmmakers even realized that a general audience would sit through something this long.For all the faults this movie and it's trilogy predecessors have, one would have to be truly ignorant to not see the feats that were accomplished with this series. Realistically feats that would be impossible to duplicate ever again. The Fellowship of the Ring - the Return of the King are 100% my number 1 recommendation to any fan of the genera, or just anyone in general.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring was a powerhouse of an ensemble film, featuring an all-star cast, fantastically detailed sets, an almost insane attention to detail, and gorgeous cinematography. It's no wonder that while only released in 2001 it immediately vaulted to the #50 spot on the new AFI Top 100 listing, while other classics like Doctor Zhivago dropped off the list completely.I should caveat first that I grew up reading and adoring the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I re-read it probably once a year. I absolutely adored Aragorn, and all of my daydreams were about me as Aragorn's loyal companion. In the books, you see, Arwen hardly appears. She's a footnote in an appendix. This first book is all about men, men, and more men. I suppose Galadriel shows up at one point, to pass around presents, but that's about it.So when I went to see the film, it was almost a religious experience. The Weathertop scene, where the hobbits are calling out "Strider" in panic, had me shiver. These were my dreams coming to life.The attention the WETA workshop put into every scene is legendary. They literally had the book open and were reading the pages to know what to do. They hand carved proper Dwarvish ruins along all surfaces of the caves in the Mines of Moria. Viggo learned to speak Elvish and lobbied for more dialogue in the language. They tended to the gardens at Hobbiton for a full year so it had a "lived in" look.Yes, they had to cut out some of the book. Heck, the movie was already 3 hours long! I do not mind that at all. And I also do not mind that they gave Arwen a part! Up until now we had ONE FEMALE. That was it. One. I realize the book was written in the "dark ages" of 1954 but still! Surely there could be more females involved. Even with the TWO whole females in the movie, they never even interact. They are both there solely to be foils to the menfolk.Still, one cannot blame Jackson at all for that. The responsibility for that goes back to J. R. R. Tolkien. Some purists were already upset enough that Arwen got to speak in the movie :). I imagine a hostile rage would have erupted if more than that occurred.So absolutely I adore Lord of the Rings, and I own all the different versions on DVD. I highly recommend watching it. It is glorious in its own right, and so much of what it shows and says has infiltrated its way into modern culture. Watching TV, reading novels, or going to movies can often involve an expectation that you "get" the references involved.