LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (film, 2001)

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (film, 2001). Peter Jackson, dir., prod., part of script. Frances Walsh (as Fran Walsh), Philippa Boyens, PJ, script, from the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Andrew Lesnie, cinematographer. NZ/USA: New Line Cinema [US], The Saul Zaentz Company, WingNut Films [NZ] (prod.) / Distribution: complex, primarily New Line and Warner Bros. for the USA and Alliance Atlantis Communications for Canada. First of three parts, one for each book of the trilogy. Filmographic information from IMDb:, q.v. for complex credits for artistic design.

Epic fantasy film. See for images of the destruction of forest to build an underground armaments factory for swords and armor: a low-tech industrial wasteland with "dark, Satanic Mills" (William Blake, "Jerusalem"). The impression here and elsewhere in the film is in the tradition of Hieronymus Bosch's hellish visions and Pieter Bruegel's Dulle Griet and The Triumph of Death (as described under "Comedy" in Encyclopaedia Britannica 1974 (EB3), [4.965]). More generally, the images show the destruction of the Greenworld and its replacement by low-tech fabrications created for "orcs," who in appearance and the plot are a variety of literal demons.