Fellowship of the Ring spellbinding -- and profound

By Peter T. Chattaway

HARRY POTTER may rule the box office, but Gandalf is the wizard to beat if you're looking for a film that offers spellbinding entertainment and a profound engagement with moral issues.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first installment in New Zealand writer-director Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, and it is that rarest of movie treats -- an epic spectacle that is also a personal labour of love.

From its opening scenes, which spell out the history of the One Ring -- how it was created by the evil Lord Sauron, how it was taken from him when he was defeated by an army of elves and humans, how it corrupted the souls of those who came to possess it, and how it ended up in the hands of the short, humble hobbit Bilbo Baggins -- the film paints a vivid, compelling portrait of an ancient world and the fascinating creatures that lived, fought and died there.

The film gets even better when it settles into its main story, and for one simple reason -- despite the vast sums they spent on sets, props and special effects, the filmmakers pay close, careful attention to the relationships between individual characters. The actors, almost without exception, do a marvelous job of bringing the inhabitants of Middle-Earth to life.

Ian McKellen, a superb actor who may be best known for playing the villain in films like X-Men and Richard III, delivers an amazingly complex performance as Gandalf, giving the wizard an appealing, down-to-earth humanity -- he even bumps his head on the ceiling the first time he enters Bilbo's tiny home -- yet losing none of the character's dignity or authority.

If Gandalf is a Christ-figure, then McKellen's performance is one that all other actors who portray Jesus might want to study.

Elijah Wood is also quite good as Bilbo's nephew Frodo, who inherits the magic ring and, when he learns that Sauron hopes to find it and use it to conquer the world all over again, reluctantly accepts that he must destroy the ring himself -- a task that can only be accomplished by trekking deep into Sauron's territory and throwing the ring back into the volcano in which it was originally forged.

Several of the film's supporting actors also do exceptional work, especially Ian Holm as Bilbo, Sean Astin as Frodo's nosy but loyal friend Samwise Gamgee, and Sean Bean as the human warrior Boromir, whose own temptations take a tragic turn.

The story can be applied to current real-world issues in several ways. To accomplish his mission, Frodo joins a nine-person 'fellowship' which includes the wizard Gandalf, three other hobbits, two men, a dwarf and an elf, and it is possible to think of their group as a sort of multicultural coalition. The film also links genetic engineering with ecological devastation, as the evil wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) tears down trees, digs great holes in the earth and breeds a new race of monsters that is half-human, half-orc.

On a more spiritual level, the film also deals extensively with the themes of temptation and sacrifice, as Gandalf and others wrestle with the power that the ring could give them, and as Frodo selflessly puts the fate of the world ahead of his own desires.

The film has its flaws, but these are more than compensated for by the breathtaking scenery, the lively, sweeping score by Howard Shore, and some fantastic special effects. (The battle with the troll in this film is far, far superior to the equivalent scene in the Harry Potter movie.) Watching The Fellowship of the Ring is like getting a glimpse of a dying world, and it leaves you wanting to see more -- and with two sequels on the way, that's a good thing.