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The story, without spoilers
In the Shire, a green corner of Middle-earth where hobbits care mostly about gardens and second breakfasts, Frodo Baggins inherits a plain gold ring from his eccentric uncle Bilbo. The wizard Gandalf grows uneasy about it, and his research confirms the worst: it is the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron, and its master's servants are already riding west to find it.
Frodo sets off with his gardener Samwise and, before long, his cousins Merry and Pippin. At Rivendell, the elf-lord Elrond calls a council of elves, dwarves and men, and nine companions are chosen to carry the Ring toward the only place it can be destroyed. The film is a journey picture first: snowy passes, dark mines, an elven forest, and a growing sense that the Ring is testing everyone who travels near it.
Part of what makes the first chapter so easy to return to is its pace. Long stretches are given over to travel and to quiet scenes of the companions getting to know one another, so that by the time the road turns dangerous the audience cares about who is walking it. The film ends at a natural pause rather than a cliffhanger, which suits viewers watching one part at a time.
Behind the scenes
Peter Jackson shot all three Lord of the Rings films as one production in his native New Zealand, which is why the trilogy holds together so tightly in look and casting. Filming began on 11 October 1999. Before cameras rolled, the principal actors trained for six weeks in sword fighting with fencing master Bob Anderson, as well as riding and other skills their characters would need.
The production leaned on New Zealand craft from top to bottom: practical miniatures, prosthetic hobbit feet, forced-perspective sets that made Elijah Wood look small beside Ian McKellen, and digital effects for armies and creatures. The film's four Oscars, for cinematography, makeup, score and visual effects, line up neatly with that hands-on approach. Howard Shore's score introduced the themes for the Shire and the Fellowship that run through all three films.
New Line Cinema financed and distributed the film, but it was shot and edited entirely in Peter Jackson's native New Zealand, at the same time as the two sequels. Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Jackson adapted the first volume of Tolkien's novel, and the ensemble ran from Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen to Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett and Sean Bean, with Dominic Monaghan making his film debut as Merry.
Why it still matters
Fantasy was not a safe bet in 2001. New Line committed to three long films before audiences had seen one, and The Fellowship of the Ring had to prove the whole plan. It did, earning $897.5 million on a $93 million budget and thirteen Oscar nominations, an unusual haul for a genre the Academy had mostly ignored.
It also set a template that blockbusters still chase: a trilogy shot back to back, extended home-video cuts treated as events, and fan trust earned through faithful casting and detail. Its ensemble, from Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom to Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee, became the faces that a generation pictures when it thinks of Tolkien.
The opening chapter had to persuade audiences that a three-film commitment was worth it, and it did. Its premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on 10 December 2001 was followed by an original run of $868 million, second only to Harry Potter that year and, at its peak, the fifth-highest gross of all time. Reissues have taken it to about $897 million.
Its thirteen Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, brought four wins: cinematography, makeup, original score and visual effects. In 2007 the American Film Institute placed it on its list of the 100 greatest American films, a rare honour for a fantasy film shot on the other side of the world.