30 for 30: 2001 — "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
What’s this all about? I turn 30 on Sept. 26, 30 days from the start of this series. To celebrate, I’m going to watch one movie a day for 30 days and spend 30 minutes writing about each one. This post is about 2001. Click here for the original newsletter in the series. Other entries: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
2001 was a watershed year in a lot of ways. As I write this, mere days away from the 20th anniversarry of 9/11, writing about the impact a series of fantasy films had on me (and the world) seems kind of trivial. But then again, I think the fantastical elements of “The Lord of the Rings,” Peter Jackson’s three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnum opus, is exactly what we needed in December 2001, and it’s exactly what we need now. I also think the collective trauma we were all going through was part of what helped “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” peform so well at the winter box office that year. We were looking for an escape, however brief.
You can’t talk about 2001 in film without talking about “The Lord of the Rings.” Even if you’re not a big J.R.R. Tolkien nerd, there is no denying the cultural impact director Peter Jackson’s film trilogy has had on Hollywood and the world at large. It, along with “Sorcerer’s Stone,” paved the way for the rise of tentpole franchise filmmaking, but it was Jackson and “LOTR” that revolutionized special effects and changed the way many franshises are shot. Most importantly, Jackson and Co. finally figured out how to translate Tolkien’s words to the screen.
I came late to these movies and didn’t see them, or start reading the books, until middle school. The posters for “Fellowhip” kind of freaked me out whenever I saw them at the theater, even though some of my church friends assured me there was nothing to be afraid of.
In those church circles, “LOTR” and “Chronicles of Narnia”= Good and Christian. “Harry Potter”= Bad and Satanic, even though all have witches and wizards and Harry Potter is clearly a Christ figure, but I digress.
(Thankfully, my parents were never huge sticklers on that front, unkike some other kids’ parents I knew. I once had a friend in high school who told me her parents forbid her from reading “Twilight” in the home, so she found a loophole and read it in the garage. Legalism just teaches your kids how to get away with things.)
I heard a lot of youth group sermons riffing on the themes presented in “LOTR” and the first time I saw “Fellowship” was in a church classroom. Even though it was sancioned by the church, there was something thrilling about watching this PG-13 movie in church, like I was getting away with something. I found the books, then the soundtracks, and read the whole trilogy before “Return of the King” came out. I think I ended up finally seeing the third mvoie in theaters on post where we lived, but that was the only one I saw when it came out. Later, I found the DVDs and the Extended Edition DVDs, which were like catnip for a little movie nerd who wanted to learn everything about how movies get made. And I’m not alone; a lot of people cite those DVDs as how they first got interested in moviemaking. It’s like watching your own little mini-film school. It was awesome.
And even though I was a Harry Potter fan first, I come back to Tolkien’s world more often. Part of that is because of “Fellowship.” It’s the first in the trilogy and the easiest one to access, both in book form and film form. Tolkien eases you into this rich tapestry of a world he’s woven with language, magic, legend and beautiful landscapes. I start reading this book and watching this movie and I don’t want to leave The Shire.
While re-reading and re-watching the whole trilogy this year in celebration of “Fellowship”s 20th anniversary, I was struck by how differenlty I approached the material now than I did as a 14-year-old. Back then, I couldn’t wait to get to the battle scenes because I had seen so much of them in the movies. Now, I was surprised to see the most violent moments of the movies are relegated to a few pages of the book at the most. Tolkien wasn’t concerned with showing gratuitous violence; he was more concerned with showing the causes and the fallout of that violence. “Fellowship” has one great big action scene toward the end of the movie, but the bulk of the movie is about a young hobbit deciding to set forth on an adventure to destroy a weapon. No wonder it resonated so deeply in 2001. And no wonder the clearly defined struggle of good vs. evil of “The Two Towers” and “Return of the King” resonated so deeply in the years to come. Here was a war with clear sides, framed in a way that let us escape from the coming chaotic real-life war ahead.
I’ve written earlier in this newsletter about the Christian (and Christmas) symbolism of “Fellowship.” But take away all of Tolkien’s religious references and Christ imagery and strip out the fantasy lore, and the story is about nine ordinary beings from different tribes who decide to trust each other with a giant task in the hope that good will triumph over evil. This hope transcends feuds across racial lines and familial bonds. It cancels out everything else and gives the two main protagonists, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, something to cling to on their journey.
It’s a work of fantasy, but the elves, men, dwarves and hobbits of “LOTR” teach us humans a valuable lesson: Living in “unprecedented” or “not normal” times doesn’t excuse us from trying to do good. In fact, it’s more important:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Up next: I’m not joking when I say that 2002’s “Big Fat Liar” had a long-lasting effect on me.
Letter of Recommendation
Pop culture website Polygon is celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Fellowhip” as well with its Year of the Ring series.
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