I just caught a preview of “The Fellowship of The Ring”, shown during Film 2001 here in the UK. It was from the scene in which Gandalf go es to Bag End and tosses The One Ring into the fire. [More] Thanks to SithLordSi for that nice review!
Category: Original TORn
Starting with the shot we are all familiar with from the first theatrical trailer, Gandalf grabs Frodo’s shoulder and spins him round, blurting “Is it secret? Is it safe?!”. The looped dialogue was spoken in a slightly different way from how we have heard before, but the footage was identical. We then cut from Gandalf’s face to a shot from inside a chest, looking up at Frodo as he rummages inside, searching for The Ring. Meanwhile, Gandalf looks anxiously out the window. Eventually Frodo finds it, sealed inside a small envelope. Before he can say anything, Gandalf snatches it from him and drops it in the fire. “What are you doing?” asks the bemused hobbit, as we cut to a shot of the envelope burning and shrivelling up. Eventually, The Ring is revealed, and Gandalf reaches in with a pair of tongs to retreive it. He then gives it to Frodo, saying “Hold out your hand, Frodo. It’s quite cool.” Then he asks “What can you see? Can you see anything?”, to which the Hobbit replies “Nothing. There’s nothing.” Gandalf turns away from the fire, with a disappointed look on his face, when Frodo suddenly exclaims “Wait! There’s are markings. Some form of Elvish, I can’t read it.” We see him holding The Ring as the letters begin to glow as shown in the trailers. “There are few who can,” says Gandalf, looking grim. He turns back to Frodo, before continuing: “The language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here.” Looking up, with a terrified look on his face, Frodo breathes “Mordor?!”. We then cut to a low angle shot of Gandalf, zooming slowly in on his face, as he speaks: “In the common tongue, it says: ‘One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.’
The clip ended here. My impressions: it was very accurate to the book in terms of detail and dialogue. Like many have stated before, Ian McKellen IS Gandalf. Elijah nails the accent and doesn’t over-do it…I liked him a lot in this clip, which bodes well for the movie in terms of the audience sympathising with Frodo. The detail in Bag End was incredible, and the proportions between the two actors was spot-on. I’m baffled as to how it was done. The cinematography was beautiful, natural looking, and powerful – especially the close-ups of the ring and Gandalf’s face. There were a few quick cuts and camera movements when Gandalf snatched the envelope, but it really did convey the urgency of the situation. I heard all new music also – pretty subtle, but building gradually. It felt like a less bombastic version of the music from that Balin’s Tomb sequence shown in the FOX Special. Overall, the whole thing was great.
Thanks to SithLordSi for that.
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