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The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) (2016)

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IN CONTEXT

GENRE

Fantasy

DIRECTOR

Peter Jackson

WRITERS

Peter Jackson, Phillippa Boyens, Fran Walsh (screenplay); J. R. R. Tolkien (novel)

STARS

Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen

BEFORE

1994 Heavenly Creatures, based on a notorious New Zealand murder case, brings Jackson critical prestige.

AFTER

2005 Jackson’s box-office blockbuster King Kong is a remake of the 1933 classic.

2012-14 Jackson repeats the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with a three-part adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit.

Not since the biblical epics of Hollywood’s classical era has a movie been made on the scale of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For many years, J. R. R. Tolkien’s sprawling fantasy novel was considered to be unfilmable. Only with rapid advances in computer-generated imagery did the mythic locations, creatures, and vast battle scenes become a possibility for a movie director. However, although the movie fully exploits its special effects, it does not depend on them. Its success owes far more to the skill of its director, Peter Jackson, who also cowrote the screenplay.

Jackson understood that he had to compress the intricate backstory as much as he could, keep the narrative pace fast, and maintain focus on the central character of Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). In doing so, he pulled off the notable feat of pleasing the novel’s worldwide legions of fans while also engaging with those viewers who had never read it.

Frodo is an innocent, a hobbit who has come into possession of the long-lost ring of power, and with it holds the fate of Middle Earth. Guided by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), he sets off on a quest to destroy it in the fires of distant Mordor, the evil land where it was forged. He is protected by a fellowship of eight others, including men, a dwarf, and an elf. Frodo’s character matures with each ordeal he overcomes; knowledge and experience change him, but he does not lose his innate goodness. Although he has guides and magical objects to aid him on his journey, in the end it is his goodness that shields him.

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Much of the movie’s critical and box-office success was due to Jackson’s trimming of the plot, enhancing the action sequences, and expanding the female roles.

Good vs evil

Behind the complex story is a very straightforward fight between good and evil. What gives this struggle added nuance and jeopardy is the ring’s insidious power to corrupt all who come near it, including those on the side of good—the stout-hearted members of the fellowship. Frodo alone is immune to the ring’s evil, but his duty as the ring bearer becomes an increasingly burdensome one.

In the hands of a lesser director, the movie might easily have become a convoluted sword-and-sorcery saga. Happily, Jackson’s realization of Tolkien’s world is instead one of the most successful novel-to-movie adaptations ever produced.

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Four hobbit friends, Merry (Dominic Monaghan), Frodo (Elijah Wood), Pippin (Billy Boyd), and Sam (Sean Astin), set off on their epic quest.

PETER JACKSON Director

Born in New Zealand in 1961, Peter Jackson grew up fascinated by the fantasy movies of animator Ray Harryhausen, and began making shorts with a Super 8 cine camera at nine. He received no formal education in film, and learned through trial and error. His first feature, the cult-classic horror Bad Taste, was made in 1987. Fame came with Heavenly Creatures (1994), based on a true-story murder committed by two schoolgirls, which won the Oscar for best screenplay. In 1999, Jackson got the go-ahead to make The Lord of the Rings into three big-budget movies, in a deal with Hollywood studio New Line Cinema, although the movies were shot entirely in New Zealand. The Return of the King (2003), the final episode of the trilogy, won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In 2005, Jackson directed a blockbuster remake of King Kong, his favorite childhood movie.

Key movies

1994 Heavenly Creatures

2001-03 The Lord of the Rings

2005 King Kong

2012-14 The Hobbit

What else to watch: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) ✵ The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) ✵ King Kong (2005)