You And The Fellowship Of The Ring

[Prof. Rachel Selenia]

It's been ten years since The Fellowship of the Ring was released in cinemas all around the world. Because we all come from different places and have different backgrounds and all that, wouldn't it be fun if we told about our own relationship to this movie?


Did you watch it in the cinema when it was released? Had you been waiting for it a long time, or did the trailers in the cinema make you interested just before it was released? Did you go to the premiere? Did you dress up? Did you go alone or with friends? Had you read the book first or was the movie your first contact with the world of Tolkien? Well, you get the point.

What has been your relationship with this movie during these ten years? Have you watched it many times, or just a few? Any watching traditions, like getting together with friends to watch it each year? Do you still notice new things and details when you watch it? Do you have any fun stories to share that have to do with you and the FotR movie?

In short: Tell us about everything that has to do with you and the Fellowship of the Ring movie!

Each post you write will earn you 10 Silmarils if you are a HOLTS official member! So yes, you are allowed to post several times and to reply to other posts. This is meant to be a sort of discussion, after all.

Alright, let's start sharing stories!!

[Eia Donne]

I think the very first connection I had with the movie was the teaser trailer about a year before FotR actually came out. I can't remember which movie I'd been seeing in theaters, but during the previews there was a trailer for the trilogy, claiming how it was the first of it's kind with all three movies being shot at once, and these beautiful shots of the landscapes. I'd had a passing interest in the series for a while now (my mother had gotten me the boxset several years prior and while I'd read the Hobbit, the prologue of FotR had deterred me from making any further progress), but all of a sudden I was wrapped up in the awe inspired by the teaser, and knew I HAD to read the books before the movies came out! Lucky me I had just made a VERY obsessed LotR friend who let me on the secret that the prologue isn't terribly crucial to the plot, and I could skip it if need be.

The more I got pulled into the books, the more excited I got about the movies. I think LotR might have actualy been the series that introduced me to the concept of "fandom." Sure, there had been plenty of books prior to these that I was obsessed with (Animorphs was probably the first series I couldn't get enough of) and the idea of looking for fan art and fan fiction wasn't that strange (Harry Potter was my gateway to that), but never had my circle of friends not been enough for discussions. I needed MORE. Through the previously mentioned friend I got introduced to the LotR Plaza (an online forum site that I beleive is still around) and had a blast interacting with fans from around the world, creating my own fan art/fiction, and even creating my first fan-OC, Eialyne, to run around and role-play within Middle Earth as well as the real world. I think even the first webcomic I started keeping up with regularly was one by the name of "Waiting for Frodo," about a group of fans camping out infront of the theater for the movies.

As far as actualy viewing the movie is concerned....honestly the experience didn't remain in my memory all too well. I know I went to see it in theaters, but I cannot remember if it was with friends, with family, shortly after opening (never got to see a midnight showing as they were all released during finals!) or quite a while into it's run. My theater visits of TTT and RotK were much more memorable truth be told. TTT because one of my friends made character shirts for all of us (I was Eomer) and after the movie we went to a bakery for lunch, where we reinacted a condensed version of the movie in the parking lot, playing our respective roles. RotK because it was so epic, plus my best friend (the one I've been mentioning previously) had gone to an LotR gathering/convention the week before, and she was having fun watching our reactions since she got to see it opening night.

Now while the actual theater visit of FotR didn't stick with me (actualy, make that both theater visits as I was not able to go see the EE in theaters this summer even though I made it for the other two), two other events afterwards did. The first was my birthday party that following July. Apparentaly the father of one of my friends knew someone in the movie biz. I don't know the specifics, but he'd lent them a preview tape of FotR, and of course she brought it over for us to enjoy. However, as I mentioned, it was a preview copy, and about every 20 minutes or so, scrolling text would appear at the bottom, proclaiming that if we were viewing this we had to call 1-800-NO-COPIES. We cracked up every time, and the number became an inside joke with us for years to come.

The second was when the movies were actualy released. At the time, my parents were still a bit uneasy about the midnight release thing, but I managed to convince them to let me go to the release party at Hastings with a group of friends that night. We had a blast, and as we still didn't have a DVD player yet, I had to get the VHS version, making me the odd person out among my friends (actualy, I think it was even the very last VHS I ever bought). But two of my friends came home with me that night, and we started watching it immediately (of course still joking about 1-800-NO-COPIES, or the lack of it at least), resuming it once we woke up the next morning.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

I am fortunate, in a way. I didn't become aware of the Fellowship of the Ring movie until all the regular movies were out, so I didn't have to WAIT for the next one!



In fact, I think the extended versions of the first two movies were also out, so I could watch them AND the making of them (which I really enjoy watching).

Then I had to wait for the extended version of movie 3. That was very difficult ... but well worth the wait. In the meantime, though, my awareness of these movies was brought to light by Cosmo and Elynx who were passionately discussing THESE MOVIES and I was all 'what are you talking about'?

Be it known that I'm a firm canon person. Yes, indeed, when the movie deviates from the book 'watch out'! There were so many places in the Fellowship of the Ring movie where canon wasn't just deviated from but took some astonishingly strange twists and turns. And yet I love the movie. Why? Because the feel of the books was retained. That amorphous, impossible to describe and words just point at it wondrousness was alive in the movie.

\o/

Do I have any traditions that I follow watching the movie(s)? No, not really. I've watched it many times, and watched the extended edition 'making of the movie' many times! I love hearing the people talk about making the movie; they are so passionate about it. All of the innovative creations that they came up with in order to portray the movie as Peter Jackson envisioned -- I am very very impressed.

[Prof. Rachel Selenia]

This is fun and interesting reading - keep these stories coming! Remember you'll get Silmarils too...

[Andie Smith]

I was ten when The Fellowship of the Ring came out. I saw all the commotion about it on the telly, but I didn't care really because I knew nothing about it and I didn't quite understand what the film was about. It was only three years later when I was into The Chronicles of Narnia books that I became interested in The Lord of the Rings.

I had a friend in school who had never heard of Lewis and I had never heard of Tolkien and we found out that they were friends and as we were young and stupid we started to argue about whom was better, but here's the thing: He had only read LOTR and I had only read Narnia, we didn't have enough background to start an argument, but we still carried that on for months.

Then, in that same year, there was a Lord of the Rings marathon on HBO and I decided to watch. I wasn't really impressed by the films and I only started to like them when I finally gave up on being stubborn and read the books.

That was when I fell in love with Tolkien and started to enjoy the films in spite of all the modifications.

QUOTE (Prof. Tarma Amelia Black @ Dec 23 2011, 03:51 AM) Be it known that I'm a firm canon person. Yes, indeed, when the movie deviates from the book 'watch out'! There were so many places in the Fellowship of the Ring movie where canon wasn't just deviated from but took some astonishingly strange twists and turns. And yet I love the movie. Why? Because the feel of the books was retained. That amorphous, impossible to describe and words just point at it wondrousness was alive in the movie.

I couldn't agree more and, although I've seen the films before I read the books, it was the books who made me love the films and I still missed things from the books. But at the same time I was fascinated, when I re-watched them after reading the books, by the beautiful landscapes that were so similar to those incredibly detailed depictions in the books. I think that is the main reason I keep watching not only The Fellowship of the Ring but the whole trilogy over and over again.

[Prof. Rachel Selenia]

I honestly don't remember all the details about the first time I watched "The Fellowship of the Ring"... But I'll do my best!

I think it was the movie trailers in the cinema during the end of summer that made me want to see the movie. I was 13 at the time and just started a new school. When I mentioned my interest in the movie to my new friends it turned out that one of them loved the books - which I had never read. Well, I had tried to when I was 10 or 11, but I thought they were boring. ._. I decided to give them another try - and I was hooked. Me and my friend had so much fun that term, always discussing the books (including "The Silmarillion" and "Unfinished Tales", etc.) and talking about the movie. We were so excited about it and in the end all I could talk about was the books and the movie and my predictions about the movie!

I didn't go to the premiere. I don't remember how long I waited, though. I guess I could look it up, as I believe I wrote about it in my diary... I went together with some friends - but sadly I don't remember clearly who they were... But my LotR-friend, I think she watched the movie before me with some other friends of hers.

Anyway, we had seats in the top row, to the far left, right above the stairs. I do remember that! I remember walking out of there and wanting to go back inside and start the movie again... It was so amazing! So much adventure and action and friendship and beautiful views and and and... I was totally amazed that there even were such scenery in the world. There were some changes that I didn't like so much and some that I didn't like at all - and I still rant about it sometimes - but as a whole I loved the movie!
Back then, Elijah Wood was my favorite. I remember watching a lot of documentaries and behind-the-scenes before and after the movie premiere, and I was just really fangirl-ish about him... By the end of the trilogy, that had changed and my new favorite was Viggo Mortensen - I just love that voice and those eyes!

I must say that my main LotR-fan period was between age 13 to 16-ish. I still had my friend to discuss the books and movies with, and most importantly - I still had time to be fanatic about it. That changed during upper high school, sadly. But there are a few events and happenings that I remember from my crazy fan period. I would watch the movies over and over again, marathon-style, only leaving the television to eat and sleep (because my Mum told me to...). Anyway, there was this event in 2004 or 2005, I think. A group of Swedish Tolkien fans gathered at a university for a weekend, and we watched all the extended editions back-to-back. We had one break, to order pizza... Apart from that, we sat in the university's cinema room, and it was wonderful to watch the extended editions on a big screen!

Lately I haven't watched the movies much. I even think it's been two years since last time. But they are still my favorite movies and I pretty much know them by heart as I watched them so often when I was younger! Hm, I should try to watch them again soon... Some kind of warm-up for "The Hobbit"...




I had been thinking of closing this topic after some time, but I've decided to keep it open, giving more of you the chance to reply (and earn some Silmarils)!

[Prof. Rachel Selenia]

Are there no more stories to share?

[Prof. Rachel Selenia]

Closing this topic. Silmarils awarded to those who posted.