Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) by Roy W — 28 Sep 2013

For all audience who only cares about the morals of a movie, the Lord of the Rings trilogy might utterly disappoint you. After all, there seems to be nothing unique in the movie, and the only things noticeable are the splendid visual effect, immersive music, intriguing quest and then no more. Certainly the movie catches our initial curiosity and later our empathy, but every great movie can do this with ease.

Unlike an allegory, the Lord of the Rings has no moral, or more precisely, it needs no moral. I dare to challenge anyone who claims that he can summarize the essence of our life, of this kaleidoscopic world we strive in. Indeed, our life can never be fully generalized, and there are simply too many aspects of it to start and end with. By definition, morals are summarized to deal with different situations and dilemmas in life, but a booklet of mottos is not equivalent to life itself.

It's the similarity the Lord of the Rings shares with our reality that makes it look somehow "moral-less". The Lord of the Rings is another reality, and I choose to believe in the validity of it. It reminds us of our childhood fantasy, of our unfulfilled dreams at night about adventures toward the unknowns and impossibles. One by one all boys have once dreamed about conquering the devils, subjugating the uncivilized, and maintaining eternal peace for the world. All those objectives resonate with the theme of the Lord of the Rings. Perhaps the Lord of the Rings could be a dream of another old boy, and that is the writer J.R.R Tolkien himself.

The Lord of the Rings needs no moral because it's yet another reality. What makes this movie so extraordinary is all its vivid portrayal of a familiar kingdom. We may initially feel distant from and untouched by the characters, but their choices in life have already made a shift to our mentality. The movie subtly prompts us to make decision in our life, like the whisper in Fredo's mind, but it could both encourage and desert us. We don't need to call the Lord of the Rings a "must-watch-trilogy" for everyone, yet we're deeply aware that watching it might make a difference to our daily, shire-like life, or perhaps even a greater difference in our also daily, but rather adventuresome dream.