Beginner's guide to 'Lord of the Rings'
Tony Lee
The Daily Yomiuri

It's the biggest thing in the world--maybe the universe. Just ask any fan. Peter Jackson's movie version of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic The Lord of the Rings officially opens Saturday. The promotional magic glittered last week, with stars from the film at a press conference in Tokyo.

Of course, some would say magic has been in the air since 1956, when Tolkien's allegory of the battle between good and evil was first published. It presented the reading public with Middle Earth, a fantastical world created from the language up and populated by wise immortal elves, mine-dwelling dwarfs, pint-sized hobbits, brutish orcs and proud, fallen humans.

Though epic in conception, The Lord of the Rings is based on solid characterization and a simple plot that follows the fortunes of Frodo Baggins (played in the film by Elijah Wood), a young hobbit who is gifted the Ring of Power. The artifact confers invisibility, but also brings out the baser nature of those who come in contact with it, and characters--whether human, orcish or elvish--will literally kill for the ring.

Jackson knows all too well that his film must be spot on if it is to please the demands of devoted fans, who savaged U.S. animator Ralph Bakshi's earlier attempt. Not many people recall Bakshi's Lord of the Rings of 24 years ago simply because it was so bad. Admittedly, the technology of the times was primitive, but there are plenty of other reasons the 1978 flick was a flop.

For starters, the music sucked. The film ended halfway through the trilogy (reportedly from a lack of money). And the Disney-style animation failed to do justice to the very adult subject material.

However, Bakshi's film did define the correct way to say "my precious."

With recent advances, film technology is finally in a position to faithfully reproduce the wonders of Middle Earth.

Jackson's film closely follows the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, which lays out and begins the quest that Frodo must undertake--to cast the ring into the lava-spitting Mount Doom, "in the Land of Mordor, where the Shadows lie." Only with the destruction of the ring will True Evil be banished from the land. To aid Frodo in his quest, the races of Middle Earth assemble a Fellowship--three men, three hobbits, a dwarf and an elf.

The relationships between the races as exemplified by the Fellowship is an integral part of the film trilogy, especially as they relate to Frodo.

The reluctant Ringbearer claims the role almost by default. While the ring is coveted by those who have shadows in their souls, hobbits are an uncomplicated and innocent race, and hence unlikely to be tainted by the ring's evil nature. His truest counselor in the Fellowship is Gandalf the wizard, who knows more ancient lore than you could shake a pointy hat at. For his strong performance, British actor Sir Ian McKellen received a supporting actor Oscar nomination--one of 13 reaped by the film, the biggest haul for any film this year.

Gandalf is the proverbial wise man of the mount. In many ways the spiritual center of the Fellowship, Gandalf is the classic philosopher of action. But he is also given to humor, and has a special place in his heart for hobbits and the weed they smoke--which may or may not be tobacco.

A good friend to Gandalf is Aragorn, or Strider (Viggo Mortensen). Heir to the throne of Gondor, but in self-imposed exile, he has very modern doubts about his moral strength. Specifically, he fears repeating the mistake of his ancestor, Isildur, who claimed the ring but failed to destroy it and was ultimately corrupted by it.

The third man in the party is the tragically conflicted Boromir (Sean Bean). A deceptively complex character, Boromir seems to be a simple soldier, but is in fact symbolic of the fall of man and of Middle Earth as a whole. Like Tolkien, Jackson paints a world in mourning for former glories, the remnants of which can be seen in the visually stunning elven realms of Rivendell and Lothlorien. While the idea of man having fallen from grace is not new (see Paradise Lost), it is seldom so deeply interwoven into a mythological worldview.

Liv Tyler plays Arwen, the most prominent female character but still given little airing in the movie. Jackson's script bumps up her part--drawing heavily on The Silmarillion, a later companion piece to the trilogy--to put more women on screen, and moviegoers can expect to see more of Arwen in the second and third films, due out at the end of this year and the end of 2003, respectively.

Against the Fellowship are ranged an army of bestial orcs led by the wizard Saruman the Betrayer and his infernal creation, the uruk-hai--an evolutionary step up from the orc.

In a break from the books, the uruk-hai is given major thug billing.

There are other monsters who perform similar roles, including a cave troll and a balrog. Putting these on screen was a mammoth undertaking, especially as special effects necessarily comprise such a large part of bringing the epic to the screen.

The task of rendering the visual effects, including CG effects, fell to New Zealand's Weta Workshop, who was in charge, among other things, of making each orc unique--like terra-cotta warriors, no two look alike--and creating a memorable look for the principals. Gandalf is particularly satisfying, as he conforms to the staff-wielding robed stereotype of a master prestidigitator while allowing McKellen room to show off his superb acting skills.

Purists will also note that Weta made all the non-elves in the Fellowship look appropriately weatherbeaten, while the wood elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom) consistently appears with a smudge-free complexion, in keeping with the Platonic nature of Tolkien's elves.

But no amount of makeup could shorten John Rhys-Davies, who as Gimli the Dwarf, was required to seem as if he stands a head above the miniscule hobbits and a head below the taller races. As well as judicious use of clever camera angles, Jackson called again on Weta's technical wizards, who used blue-screen overlay techniques to achieve an end result that at best is absolutely convincing, but at worst will grate on sophisticated viewers.

The cast also received intensive sword training from the same coach who trained Errol Flynn. Properties included 200 suits of armor, 2,000 rubber and safety weapons and 100 handmade weapons produced by expert blacksmiths, leather-workers and armorers. "Everyone became quite skillful at fighting," Bean said.

Different fighting styles were also created for each race. Bloom likened the elves' martial art to that of samurai. "The elves have incredible strength...and the poise that samurai have--ever-ready to turn on a dime."

In all, the cast and crew of more than 2,000 spent close to two years shooting the series, at a cost of 270 million dollars. In a break with normal blockbuster sequel tradition, all three movies were shot at the same time. Along with the favorable exchange rate and lower prices in New Zealand, the continuous shoot had other advantages.

Speaking of the isolation so far from the world's main movie-making centers, Tyler said, "We were in a creative bubble...(and) were able to play a lot discovering our characters." The isolation also allowed the cast to read the original books, which Tyler called "a wonderful piece of literature."

Other advantages to the simultaneous shoot are that actors can maintain their focus--a task in which they were ably helped by Jackson himself. Calling the director a "guiding light," Wood said the cast often drew strength from "his passion for what we were doing."

Moreover, like the Fellowship, "everyone (in the cast) pulled each other together," Bean said.

Another prominent feature of the film was the landscape, which the camera drinks in lovingly at every chance. According to Bloom, "Peter (Jackson) created a character that wasn't really there, and that was the landscape."

In fact, the connection between New Zealand and the movies is so strong that the country's media-savvy prime minister, Helen Clark, has appointed an unofficial "minister for Middle Earth affairs," giving him 9 million New Zealand dollars (500 million yen) to eke out the most in tourism and spin-offs from the series.

And then there is the inevitable Merchandise of the Rings. In Japan, major processed food maker Bourbon Corp. is marketing a line of Lord of the Rings tie-in products, including a CD-ROM, trading cards and stickers, all due out Tuesday.

But these are all beside the point. As it was for Jackson and his cast and crew, the important thing is not to lose track of the original books. Bean describes the movie as "a reminder that spirituality is a richer and more rewarding path to follow than materialism," and says it shows that "people can be stronger by joining together and learning from each other rather than trying to destroy each other."