Did you realize when you saw it that The Lord of the Rings would be an enduring piece of film history? Because I just wasn’t thinking about that.

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jackfaire@reddit

My only thought was that Elijah Wood as Frodo made up for North.

With Phantom Menace I greatly enjoyed it as did the theater I saw it with and everyone I knew even my Stepdad who is a big Star Wars nerd. He loved Jar Jar Binks. When Attack of the Clones was coming out that was the first I heard that a group of very loud people had decided it was garbage and that everyone else should agree.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Oh those people were around immediately after “Menace”: trust me.

You’d think they’d have shut up even by now…

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jackfaire@reddit

In other fandoms they'll justify still coming around to bitch about new content as "well I used to like it so I'm entitled to complain about the related stuff I don't"

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Thomisawesome@reddit

I remember after Two Towers came out, I was bummed that I’d have to wait so long to see part 3.

Now I wish I could still be in that moment knowing there was more LOTR to come.

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No-Championship-8677@reddit

Yeah I really did

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

I remember feeling like it was going to be a very memorable film watching experience (I had never read the books). After coming out of the theater, I went, "yeah, this one is going in the history books."

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Valahiru@reddit

When you get the aerial shot of the stairs collapsing in Moria it suddenly occurred to me that I was having a once in a lifetime cinema experience

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DetectiveObjective00@reddit

We were in high school when The Fellowship of the Ring was released, and we kept talking about it weeks after we watched it in theaters. We didn't realize it's going to be an enduring piece of film history, but we sure damn enjoyed every moment of it.

Same thing after watching the Two Towers and The Return of the King. I'm glad I saw it in theaters.

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clippervictor@reddit

I knew from the moment it premiered. I was an avid Tolkien reader since my childhood and seeing the first few minutes of the first movie I know it would become a milestone in movie history.

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Joeva8me@reddit

It definately seemed epic. But I don’t know, is it really that influential? All of the cultural references are from the books unless you’re a huge fan. I’d say Harry Potter is 10x mors and I don’t like either one just because kids are still reveling in the books and movies. I guess time will tell, my kids have no clue what lord of the rings is.

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StillhasaWiiU@reddit

I knew it was special, but it didn't blow me away like The Matrix did.

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garygnu@reddit

I was watching Fellowship with my friend in the theater. I had seen it but he hadn't. When Frodo wakes up and Elrond says, "Welcome to Rivendell..." I leaned over and said, "Mr. Anderson." He busted up. It was great.

Anyway... yeah, the Rings Trilogy is a great epic, but doesn't rise to that special, world-changing level like The Matrix.

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cruciblefuzz@reddit

Oh yeah. Smith is such an iconic role and few Americans had seen him before.

When I found out that Hugo Weaving was going to play Elrond, I said to my fellow movie/LotR geek friend, "Miss-ter Bag-gins. One of these rings has a future. The other does not."

(The one with a future of course being Vilya, Elrond's ring, and no, I am not a virgin🤣)

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garygnu@reddit

Smith is such an iconic role and few Americans had seen him before.

I had, actually, but didn't know it. On a high school bus road trip in 1996, we watched Speed and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Between the different accent, wildly different roles, and a tiny screen, I didn't recognize Weaving.

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cruciblefuzz@reddit

Interesting double bill. The "bus" theme, I guess.

Only saw Priscilla after I had seen The Matrix.

Hugo Weaving and Terence Stamp: least accurate portrayals of drag performers ever.

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bambinone@reddit

I saw Fellowship in theaters once. I saw The Matrix in theatres 14 times (I was 17, it was amazing, and I certainly wasn't going to go see TPM a bunch of times).

Since then... I don't know, man. I re-read and re-watch LotR every year. The Matrix and its sequels? Not so much.

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wheres_the_revolt@reddit

The Matrix changed my worldview.

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Cisru711@reddit

I was too busy thinking about why they left out Tom Bombadil.

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madogvelkor@reddit

Yes, since the books had been since the 60s or so and the movies were a really good adaptation of the books.

Which, I think is where The Hobbit and Rings of Power failed. The Hobbit added way too much to the story and dragged out what should have been 1 movie. I tried showing my daughter and she got bored in the beginning dinner.

Rings of power did good with the aesthetic but made way too many changes to something that has an insanely devoted fan base and decades of pseudo-scholarship around it.

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Jonestown_Juice@reddit

Yes. When I saw Fellowship of the Ring in the theater I knew it was very special. I was so happy it was good after the crushing disappointment of the original Dungeons and Dragons movie.

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Oraistesu@reddit

It's pretty fascinating that the D&D Movie and Fellowship were released by the same studio, 1 year apart.

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General_Mousse_861@reddit

I agree here for a few reasons:

DnD movie went into production three years earlier than Fellowship. Fellowship took a year less to develop while using brand new special effects technology and filming all three movies in the trilogy simultaneously.

DnD had more time with a lot less digital resources. This means the back end production had more time to do less. They could have made the movie be better.

But they are totally different situations so comparisons aren’t exactly fair on many levels.

One factor that cannot be ignored is Peter Jackson’s genius.

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Oraistesu@reddit

One thing we can all agree on is that Jeremy Irons was having a great time.

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Jonestown_Juice@reddit

Yeah.

My best friend and I who had been playing DnD since we were like 10 years old went to see that in the theater. To say we were disappointed was an understatement.

But LoTR made fantasy cool again.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

“Just like you thieves: always taking things that don’t belong to you!”

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Moxie_Stardust@reddit

I just subjected my partner to that D&D movie recently. While it's still a bad movie, at least this time I knew it going in so it was easier to have fun with the parts that are entertaining.

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Jonestown_Juice@reddit

Yes it's fun to laugh at. Jeremy Irons hamming it up is pretty great.

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OoT-TheBest@reddit

After the Cave Troll scene, I knew we had something special on our hands.

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oakomyr@reddit

I’ve never left a theater with the same feeling I got from FOTR

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Blando-Cartesian@reddit

I saw it in a theater when Fellowship of the ring came out. It was clearly Star Wars original trilogy level movie.

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cruciblefuzz@reddit

Having been a big TLotR/Hobbit fan since my high school days in the 70's, when I heard that someone was going to make a movie trilogy I didn't have high hopes.

But then I watched the first trailer in a theater, and was thinking "hmm, the guy playing Gandalf looks pretty cool, Middle Earth looks great, this might not be a total travesty" until the very last bit, where Aragorn asks Frodo "Are you frightened?" "Yes." "Not nearly frightened enough!"

At that moment I knew that it was going to be great and I couldn't wait for it to come out. I'd never seen nor heard of Viggo Mortensen before, but holy fsck, that guy was born to play Aragorn. It's simple: Viggo Mortensen IS Aragorn as Keanu Reeves IS Neo as Alan Rickman IS Snape.

(I had a similar experience seeing the trailer for Harry Potter and the Philosorcerer's Stone. Alan Rickman hissing out "Mr. Potter. Our new celebrity" made me want to read the books just to find out who that guy was)

Since I knew how compelling the story of TLotR is, I knew that the movies were going to be very popular.

Almost 25 years later, I still shake my head at how good the adaptation is, what great casting, acting, just filmmaking overall it has. Jackson and his writers made some changes, but they're changes I mostly like. Pulling the story of Aragorn and Arwen out of the appendices and making them part of the main story is something that Tolkien should have done in the first place. Them doing that helped me realize some important things about the whole story and what drives Aragorn.

(The Battle of Helm's Deep with surfin' Legolas and a dwarf tossing joke notwithstanding)

The Hobbit movies are a demonstration of how bad the Lord of the Rings movies might have been.🤮

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thetzar@reddit

No. I was just so pleased that they were doing a good job with it, after the disappointments of the Star Wars prequels and (later) the Matrix sequels.

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Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit

I remember how I had never seen such an array of different colors in a movie. I was blown away. Maybe because we grew up on the cartoon of the Hobbit and stuff.

Still wish “where there’s a whip, there’s a way” was in there some where.

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Mountain-Fox-2123@reddit

No i never think about what a movie will be in the future when i watch it.

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Moquai82@reddit

Lord of the Rings was before Peter Jackson cultural significant. It kickstarted parts of todays fantasy.

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New_Forester4630@reddit

I generally dislike Fantasy due to its 70s, 80s and 90s visual cinematic aesthetics but 2001 LotR changed that...

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Festygrrl@reddit

So. Boring. An ex boyfriend dragged me to see the one of the Hobbit movies in the theatre and I was angry that it took so long, and that they didnt use the fucking birds.

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Shot-Aardvark6704@reddit

Oh man, I love properly placed commas

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VVrayth@reddit

Absolutely. It was this scene, the one referenced in your header image, that did it too.

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QuoVadimusDana@reddit

100% knew it was epic at the time.

Then again I also thought all 3 matrix movies were epic at the time 🤦‍♀️

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ApatheistHeretic@reddit

I was really hoping so. I read and loved the books. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the PJ movies.

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Stimpisaurus@reddit

I had a feeling we were watching something special. I saw all three for the first time at a theatre on my college campus. The theatre was packed abd crowd was rowdy. A lot of us cosplayed characters (before cosplay was even a thing!) I remember after the second movie thinking this was our generations star wars.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Cosplay was evidently a thing well before that.

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Stimpisaurus@reddit

Yeah it certainly was! It just didn't have the main stream awareness it does today. I remember dressing up as Chewbacca when the star wars prequels were in theaters. Then again when Monty Python and the Holy grail was in theaters for its 25th(?) anniversary. We didn't call it cosplay, even though this what we were doing lol.

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Drslappybags@reddit

I realized it was a lot of walking.

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guyako@reddit

I recall making some statement to the effect that it was the best, most epic, and most culturally relevant trilogy since the original Star Wars.

There was no doubt in my mind that it would be a favorite for decades.

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scifithighs@reddit

I went to see it specifically because "wait, the guy who made Dead Alive?!"

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sticky_applesauce07@reddit

Some of us skipped school to finish books.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Hoping that you’d find a way to wish a luck dragon by your side, were you?

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Vandergartt@reddit

In love with this Neverending Story reference

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sticky_applesauce07@reddit

It was an escape.

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Clear-Journalist3095@reddit

No. I was 13 and was thinking about my crush on Orlando Bloom 🤣🤣

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comeupforairyouwhore@reddit

Yeah. I expected it to be a classic as soon as I heard it was being made and who was attached to it. It was very hyped up at the time and rightfully so.

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CycloneIce31@reddit

I was just so excited to see it on the big screen, live action and hoping it would be done well. Then I was blown away.

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Sabres00@reddit

I actually don’t think it aged well.

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BigPoppaStrahd@reddit

Did I speculate about its future? No, i typically don’t when watching movies. But i did know that I was watching something incredible and special. This felt to me like it was the first time a fantasy movie was able to depict the fantasy races in a believable manner. The moment Frodo jumped into the cart with gandalf and we saw Elijah Wood transformed into Hobbit scale it was mind blowing. I thought this was the beginning of a new era of fantasy movies and we’re finally reaching a point in film making where the “unfilmable” can finally be done. If anything I had thought that The Lord of the Rings was going to eventually be overshadowed by some new ip that outshines it technically. With that I have been let down, nobody else, not even peter jackson, has attempted anything on it’s scale since

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boredlady819@reddit

Check out Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. This is The March of Death.

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hoopstick@reddit

Everyone always talks about death and chess, but the rest of the film is an amazing road trip basically. The first time I saw it I remember expecting some somber arthouse thing, but I was blown away by the characters, the humor and setting and general optimism of the story. Definitely deserves every bit of praise it receives.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Either that or Halloween 3.

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boredlady819@reddit

or both are homages

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LanguageNo495@reddit

I thought the same

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tiny_purple_Alfador@reddit

I'm one of the weirdo nerds who grew up with the animated version. Like my dad was kind of a closet fantasy geek and it was a whole bonding thing for us. It had always been this niche thing to me, cuz none of the other kids knew what I was even talking about. If I tried to show them the movie they'd get bored and wander off (Which, like, I love the Baskhi movie, but that is completely fair, actually.) I don't think I realized how deep the fandom ran until the movie came out and I saw people crawling out of the woodwork to get excited. Like where were you assholes when I was eight? I was so used to seeing it as a niche thing, I thought it was gonna stay that way. I assumed it would do passably well at the boxoffice and then become a hit on video kind of thing.

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jakebird88@reddit

I slept through the films. Too much talking and walking. I kept wondering when Samwise and throw it over were going to fuck... then I woke up when I saw the large eagles and then wondered where they have been the whole time.

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Brave_Tangerine5102@reddit

I did

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SwimmerClassic5083@reddit

I knew within the first 10 min of the first film that it was a masterpiece.

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izlib@reddit

I reveled in getting to be part of movie history. I absolutely knew what was in store for us.

I became a huge LOTR nerd in the 90s when I read the book for the first time.

My Uncle was in the film industry, and he gifted us a subscription to some sort of cinema graphic fx magazine. It was more of a periodic book than a magazine. It was thick and beautiful. Tons of color pages showcasing the best fx work of the film industry.

Around the late 90s, I can't recall the date exactly, but I feel like 1998 sounds right, I remember seeing advertisements in the back, kind of like a classified section, putting a call out for fx artists who would be interested in working on the lotr film project. You can tell how excited everyone involves was from the language used. Everyone involved, were so enthusiastic about it that you could tell it was going to be a project of love.

I started obsessively visiting theonering.net for just any sneak peaks I could get. I had done the same thing for the star wars prequels. After the betrayal and disappointment that was the star wars prequels, I was timid about getting my hopes up.

I remember seeing Liv Tyler on Conan giving a preview of the Elvish language and that's when I first learned that the actors were actually learning the fantasy language for the film. They weren't cutting any corners, other than the ones that just had to be cut to convert the books into a film format.

I went into the theater expecting the best. The opening with galadriel's voice over, I still get chills from the memory.

The transition into the Shire, with Howard Shore's "Concerning Hobbits", the sets and the music just made me want to live there. I was so happy. The Shire and Hobbits made me happy. I'm feeling joy just thinking about Gandalf's introduction and his smile and laugh.

Man, now I need to watch the trilogy again... I remember when the movie ended with Frodo and Sam looking out over Mordor, Enya's "May it Be" starting up, and people in the theater saying "wait, the movie's over?", because the idea of having a pre-planned trilogy without a resolution had just never been done before like that before.

While I knew it was going to be a trilogy that followed the books, I still had to audibly laugh at how these people were upset that the movie was over. These people who just came to see just another movie without realizing what they were getting into, but were sucked in enough that they enjoyed it so thoroughly that they were upset that it was over.

My friends and I, we were in high school at the time, camped out in front of the theater for all three films so that we could get tickets for the first showing.

So yes, I knew before, during, and after, that this was a big deal, and I'm joyful that I feel like I was able to experience it to the fullest.

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CaptPotter47@reddit

I got bored about an hour into it and me and buddy discussed leaving. But our other friend refused.

So we sat and watched it.

I watch the extended version once since then. And that was more than enough.

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anonuemus@reddit

Kind of. It was clear that it is an epic story and everybody knew how long it took make these movies.

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Sunday_Schoolz@reddit

Yes. Holy shit. 3+ hour movie that I couldn’t take my eyes off? Yes.

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ringobob@reddit

Yeah. But I'd read the books, and the Hobbit had been one of my favorite books growing up. Didn't seem worth the effort unless it was going to be something big.

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AverageDrafter@reddit

theonering.net was a daily visit for me all through out the production. I was a massive PJ fan from Bad Taste and I could not wrap my head around that THIS guy was the one who finally got THIS film made. When they showed the Moira preview clip, I knew immediately this was going to be generationally massive.

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redcurrantevents@reddit

I was a huge Tolkien fan and I liked Bad Taste and couldn’t believe they were trusting the Bd Taste guy with LOTR. He did good though.

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harrilal@reddit

Yep!! I wasn't a PJ fan, but am a massive Tolkien nerd. One ring everyday. From when they were just posting concept art all the way through. I was HYPED.

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antisocialnetwork77@reddit

I saw it in theaters and thought it was ok. I watched it again in a Vegas hotel room a few months later and a few months before the VHS came out (remember when it took like eight months to come out on video?) and liked it a TON more. Bought the VHS day one and was obsessed, and have been ever since. By the time Two Towera came out I definitely knew it was something special.

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BlueProcess@reddit

Yup. I knew right away. They got so much right.

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discostud1515@reddit

Yes, they are the only dvd’s I have purchased. I’ve only watched them all a few times but I knew I would want to own them .

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jacksonmills@reddit

Honestly, yes

There are only a few times in my life when I've experienced something and knew it was going to be a classic while I was watching it.

It was just so epic and so well done, I remember how much people were cheering/applauding, it was an experience to see it in the theatres for the first time and I'm glad I got it

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docsuess84@reddit

Having loved the books as much as I did, I remember being completely blown away that Peter Jackson’s vision of how the Mines of Moria looked was exactly how I saw it in my mind, and it was crazy seeing it on a physical screen. Just never imagined something of that scale would ever happen. I can’t help but think it’s kind of similar to how my dad probably felt when he saw OG Star Wars for the first time.

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TopRedacted@reddit

I just remember thinking it was long AF in the theater.

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Emergency_Mushroom97@reddit

I was sleeping through it. I worked at the theater and tried more than once and couldn’t make it 😫

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kaotate@reddit

I’ve made it through one and was like, that’s it. I can’t watch two more.

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BrashPop@reddit

Yes!! Something about these movies makes me just conk out.

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Funandgeeky@reddit

I was thinking “this could be longer” and thankfully Peter Jackson listened. Those extended editions are still some of my most prized possessions 20 years later.

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BrashPop@reddit

No, because these movies make me fall asleep immediately. I can’t even remember anything that happens in them, the second they start I’m out like a light.

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citrus_sugar@reddit

I’m here, these movies are mid-millennials; I was a full adult and stopped going to the theaters before this came out and then my friend made me marathon them all one Saturday and that was enough for me.

I think of Clerks 2: we’re walking, we’re walking tosses ring shrugs

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wheres_the_revolt@reddit

Pretty much yeah. It is a great adaptation of a very beloved and great book series. As soon as I saw it I knew Peter Jackson had nailed it and it would be a classic.

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Vaguely_vacant@reddit

I remember it being way better than I expected. Didn’t think I’d be watching it at least once a year 20 something years later

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ccafferata473@reddit

I was skeptical when they announced it because of the tendency of Hollywood missing a lot on fantasy IP's in the past.

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No-Hospital559@reddit

I left the theater pretty much indifferent about the first one, fell asleep during the second one and never saw the third one. I love movies but I just never got into these.

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Acrobatic-Canary-571@reddit

Never saw it

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sajouhk@reddit

I haven’t watched any LOTR movies.

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PlanetLandon@reddit

I distinctly remember my little group (we were in film school when these movies released) leaving the theatre after the first one, and one guy said “it’s happened. You can put anything in a movie now and it will feel real”.

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UnluckyCardiologist9@reddit

I knew it was something special. I had never heard of the books. I just went because my older friends wanted to go watch it and I wanted to hang out with them. At the end they were like meh, and I was yelling MOAR!!! lol. It was just so visually beautiful and had a good story going.

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SuperNintendad@reddit

I didn’t realize it until I was leaving the theater after Fellowship, and I noticed the audience wasn’t just one demographic. It was everyone there were multi-generations of families all going together. It just struck me that, “oh yeah, this story has been adored for decades.”

But it really sank in when regular people all suddenly knew who Gollum was.

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Cael_NaMaor@reddit

No. When I saw it I was just floored at how amazing the film was. Didn't & don't care about it's endurance... I just like it because I like it.

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dance-9880@reddit

I hired the first movie from the video store when that was a thing. I got half an hour through it and then I gave up because I was bored. For fantasy filmed in NZ, I much prefer Xena. Lucy Lawless is a legend.

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PilotC150@reddit

When I started watching the trilogy with my 11-year-old daughter I had to explain to her that it’s essentially a single 12-hour story. Setting up the history and world takes a bit of time. I mean, the Fellowship isn’t even formed until halfway through the first movie!

So, quitting after 30 minutes of a 12 hour story is effectively the same as quitting a two-hour movie after 5 minutes because you don’t like it yet.

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dance-9880@reddit

I read the hobbit in year 7 for English, it didn't do it for me either. I think LOTR is a love or hate thing. It's certainly a big money spinner still for NZ tourism, good on em.

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LordPizzaParty@reddit

When it came out I hadn't read any of the books but had a basic familiarity with the story and watched the Hobbit cartoon a million times as a kid. I followed the production on those early movie websites, watched the trailer as many times as possible, then saw it on opening night as somehow was weirdly disappointed? I'm not sure what happened there. I found the action thrilling of course but I didn't understand what was going on with all the more ethereal, dreamy stuff involving the elves and all the middle earth background stuff. I maybe just had different expectations?

When the trailer for Two Towers dropped I thought it looked good so I rewatched Fellowship and THEN it clicked and I was obsessed with LOTR for several years. Saw Two Towers five times in the theater, including the final screening at my beloved local movie palace which closed down in early 2003. And I rewatch the trilogy annually and find new things to appreciate about it. Heck, the Fellowship prologue alone has more cool, iconic shots than any modern blockbuster.

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