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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
Peter Jackson's glorified video trivia game doesn't hold up to the grandly human epic that defined a generation.
Jan 9, 2002 | A lot can happen in 25 years, and in the high-flying, high-budgeted realm of action moviemaking, a lot has. So much, in fact, that the seminal movie of a generation, "Star Wars," really does seem like it came out a long, long time ago, from a galaxy far, far away. Yet the 1977 icon, still one of the top 10 earning films ever, continues to be revered by its fans as one of the all-time greats.
Enter Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," hyped as the "Star Wars" for a new generation, complete with two more films in the can and action figures already on the racks. The movie's rocket start at the box office -- $205 million after 19 days and more than $350 million worldwide -- is fueled by a massive fan base for J.R.R. Tolkien's 20th century "Lord of the Rings" books. The numbers coincide with critical acclaim: The CGI-loaded fantasy is everything that makes a contemporary Hollywood action film notable. It has an epic story, it's visually stunning and it has a transporting imagination behind it that gives the action life. The first installment of the three-part series remains faithful to the spirit of Tolkien's novel. By and large, even the fanatics seem pleased.
"LOTR" and "Star Wars" share a long list of structural and thematic similarities. They're both mythical creature fantasies hellbent on rescuing good from the clutches of evil. Both feature circumstantial heroes who make Oz-like journeys and come of age in the process.
There are also dozens of superficial similarities. Both movies feature mentors who duel bad guys atop narrow passageways, as well as secondary villains -- Darth Vader and Saruman the White, both deserters to the dark side, both fond of telekinetic violence -- who provide the more visible nemesis. Along the way, both heroes encounter women in white gowns, cynical older-brother types, sidekicks playing for laughs and faceless cannon fodder (Storm Troopers and orcs). Both make use of mystical languages, mystical spiritual beliefs and pivotal scenes in bars and in watery mucky-mucks (compare the swamp at the gates of Moria with the garbage chute in the Death Star).
And both have monstrous, devoted followings. Even beyond the genre they share, these likenesses are hardly coincidence. George Lucas' campy space western, made with $11 million, borrowed as liberally from Tolkien's fantastic world as it did from Buck Rogers, the knights of the Round Table, Saturday afternoon cliffhangers, the "Wizard of Oz," images of World War II dogfight combat, fairy tales and classic myth. At the same time, by beating "LOTR" to the screen, "Star Wars," along with music videos, arcade games, "Star Trek," Bruce Lee and legions of kung fu movies, "Alien/Aliens," "Jurassic Park," "Braveheart," "Sleepy Hollow" and "Gladiator," contributes to the inevitable been-there, done-that aspect of Jackson's oeuvre.
Commercially, "LOTR" may not best the $925 million raked in by "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace," the No. 2 earner of all time. But with high-flying effects technology and generations of book fans, "LOTR" could top sixth-ranked "Star Wars," which grossed $461 million domestically and $798 million worldwide, and has just been surpassed by "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
Of course all these stats and dollar figures only tell one side of the story -- and it's a less compelling tale. Box office receipts are merely votes in a popularity contest, and the fact that drivel like "Independence Day" outgrosses the original "Star Wars" may not prove anything at all. A movie's ability to entertain, engage or enlighten us, and its significance to the culture at large, aren't things we can judge until after we've bought the ticket and contributed to the box office figures. And those figures can't help us assess what's in our hearts: Does "Lord of the Rings" hold up against "Star Wars?" Which is the better film, and why?
