The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring// First Time Watching!!!

Boromir is one of the best tragic heroes ever written. A particularly poignant moment in the film that is often overlooked is when he and Aragorn first meet in Rivendell - Boromir is fanboying over the shards of Narcil but when he notices Aragorn watching him he plays it off, going so far as to drop the blade... he's perpetually trapped between pride and shame, between hope and despair, with the survival of everything he has ever loved resting square on his shoulders while he gets to labor beside, even forced to be subordinate to, the man who was born to fill his role and has rejected it out of hand. Those words don't even begin to do him justice, it's just a brilliant character.

Viggo knows how to ride horse, fish, and hunt. He was already a ranger.

"That's Steven Tyler's daughter", True rock queen 🤟🤟🤟🤟

The reason Boromir is kind of angry at Aragorn is because Boromir has lived to protect his homeland (Gondor) his entire life. Gondor has been on a complete decline since the line of kings ended, and Gondor sits in constant view of Mordor just watching as the power of Mordor continues to grow towards the inevitable war that cannot be won, or prevented. Boromir has lost almost all hope which is why he is so desperate for the ring believing it can save them. Of course, he learns the hard way about what the ring really is. Boromir feels like Aragorn is ashamed, and is neglecting his place as a potential king out of disgust, and somewhat forsaking it's people. He doesn't realize until the end that Aragorn is simply unsure of his own path, and still trying to find his way this early into the story. Aragorn is on a personal journey of becoming worthy of his own bloodline before he feels he even has a right to take the throne of Gondor. The scene with Bilbo and Frodo where Bilbo's face changes to demonic evil isn't actually real, it's Frodo seeing through the lens of the ring itself. The ring makes him see what it wants in order to break him down, isolate him, sever any ties of friendship, and ultimately control him. The ring wants to enslave Frodo constantly, and seeks to pervert the good within him.

Your comment on the nine companions is exactly right! In the book, Elrond states that they are nine specifically in order to oppose the nine corrupted men. He aims for that number even before Merry and Pippin are chosen, and only allows them to squeeze in because of his quota.

Your take on the Hobbits’ unusual resistance to, even disinterest in, the Ring’s promise of power is on point. Some of the details of the Hobbit members of the Fellowship that were present in Professor Tolkien’s book were glossed over in the process of film-making: Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrine Took (Pippin) were, from the beginning of Frodo’s journey, fully witting volunteers rather than just casual ‘spur of the moment’ recruits to the adventure. Merry and Pippin were the scions of the Shire’s two dominant, high-ranking families, Æthelings, if you will. Frodo, though related to both ‘noble’ families, was drawn by Professor Tolkien to be a well off member of the squirearchy, the landed gentry. The hobbits in general, as inhabitants of an easily farmed productive region were comfortable and customarily used to limited vistas. Hobbits were often concerned with what, to people in more precarious places or times, would seem to be marginal quotidian matters. The other defining characteristic of Hobbits was their unexpected toughness, their ability to resist evil and oppression without becoming oppressive in turn.

Arwen's necklace is not so much actual immortality, but a symbol of what she is willing to give up for him - a Lady's favour for her Knight, to use the Arthurian reference (Tolkien also did some work in that arena, so you're not wrong in noting the similarities)

The Ring's power is never fully shown in the movie, but is alluded to in both media. The most immediate effects we see are the invisibility, but also the bearer of the ring stops aging. This is why Gandalf had been slightly alarmed at Bilbo not having aged when they first meet, and why Bilbo felt, "like butter scraped over too much bread.He could recognize that his life seemed to be going on for an unnatural length of time, even if he didn't know why on a conscious level. The Ring also allows the bearer to understand the language of others, but it's main effect is to control the will of other, particularly those wearing less powerful ring. In order to do so, however, the bearer must be as powerful as Sauron or the wizards (who are a sort of angel in the Middle Earth pantheon), or be exceptionally powerful being like Elrond and Galadriel. The know that, despite their derision for the "corruptibility of humans" they would fall even quicker, and their power would be turned to evil uses. Sorry for the double comment, I cannot stand leaving novel length comments.

24:30 This is a good opportunity to talk about the implied biology of the different races. Dwarves live in halls of stone, and spend most of their time mining, forging, and crafting, while specializing in mêlée fighting in war. This favors the development of nearsightedness, since there are very few long sight lines inside carven halls. Elves on the other hand have spent tens of thousands of years stargazing between tree branches, so they have developed extremely far sightedness. Moreover, they consider the three prettiest colors to be (what we see as) white, grey, and silver, which indicates that their eyes have more cones than ours (they see beautiful colors where we just see drab blurs), which gives them super sharp detail resolution at every point along their sight lines (they also specialize in bows, a considerably longer-ranged weapon). So what Gimli saw as “just a wisp of cloud,” Legolas instantly identified as not just run of the mill Crébain, but Crébain specifically from Dunland.

What director Peter Jackson did with this trilogy is just the biggest achievment in film history (my personal opinion). This is my favorite trilogy and it feels like one movie. So many great characters. The music is fantastic. The quotes. The memes. Everything is perfect. Thanks for sharing your reaction with us. We all wish we could experience this journey for the first time again and watching someone comes the closest we will get.

I’m glad you addressed Tolkien’s WWI involvement, especially this early on; there’re a lot of elements in these stories that take on far greater impact with that in mind. It’s the last major war to majorly feature horses, as mounts and utility, as well as seeing the big mismatch of horse-vs-machine. That’s a big reason he wrote horses as a massive feature of the trilogy (more in movies 2 & 3)

One thing people who don't know about Tolkien miss, is that he was a professor of philology at the university of Oxford and was deep into the study of old languages, myths and the art of storytelling. He wrote books analysing these myths and he created several of his own languages, that he then gave then a world to live in and a specific culture behind them. So the world he spent his whole life creating and the stories within them go very very deep, philosophically, psychologically and story wise. People who read his books usually pick up on that, even unconsciously, subliminally. That's why it has captivated so many people ever since. And Peter Jackson's trilogy has done a wonderful work capturing most of his underlying themes of storytelling. And the score, the soundtrack by Howard Shore is truly inspired! Easily best music ever written for a film trilogy!

For second and third part of "Lord of the rings" - for "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" - please watch the extended editions!! They are so much deeper and better and you will understand the story much better in it's compexity! The extended editions are not only "longer" but much better edited and there are scenes, which you will miss, if you don't watch them!

Very nice to see someone with an interest in some of the folklore that Tolkien rooted Middle Earth in.

Yes, Professor Tolkien was one of the world's leading experts on nosre mythology , literature and language, and beowulf. He was Professor of ancient languages at Oxford University. . He invented his own languages. With dialects. ( for elves, dwarfs ect )

They didn't go onto the Bridge to save Gandalf because they were afraid their weight would collapse what was left of the bridge. Boromir stopped Frodo because he was too important to the quest to risk. Gandalf knew the rest of the Fellowship would be in danger from the goblins if they tried to rescue him and he wasn't able to pull himself up, so he let himself drop. In the book, he never caught himself on the ledge, he just fell and the last words they heard were "Fly, you fools"

Hey, Ylva! I highly recommend you see the EXTENDED EDITIONS of the rest of the trilogy. The first film is mostly the same even with the additional content but the other two add significant material. Go for the full experience! If you elect not to for your reaction, then I strongly urge you to see the longer versions when you revisit the films in the future. By the way, Ralph Bakshi directed an incredible adult animated version in the 1970s using the Rotoscope technique which is a wonderful companion piece to the Jackson films. Only one-and-a-half books were covered before the budget ran out but it is a remarkable accomplishment!

You're gonna absolutely love the Rohirrim. They're basically horse vikings. They're fantastic. Eomer and Eowyn are amazing characters, and Theoden is such a powerful figure. Really portrays that norse fatalism, and some of his lines are based on saxon and norse poetry

Enjoyed your reaction! It is refreshing to listen to a reactor who comes to the movies from a background of European myth instead of contemporary fantasy movies. Tolkien's book is the basis of nearly the entire fantasy genre; it would have been impossible to have Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, or any of the rest without LOTR.

i can't encourage people enough to watch the behind the scenes and "making of" Lord of the Rings. It's amazing the detail, the care, and thought into it all. Just the scale of it all still astounds me. There's hours of video showing the locations, the costumes, and weapons and more. These movies remain comfort films for me, as well as inspiring.