Hugo Weaving, Web Weaving, Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Review Analysis

Hugo Weaving, The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond Battle



	*n. Hugo Weaving ~ The Lord of the Rings* *US/NZ Movies* *Character: Elrond ~ Isolated Ring-Bearer,Lord of Rivendell, Concerned father, Lore-master, General* *Also (voice only) Isildur, corrupted hero of the Ring* Dir: Peter Jackson Wri: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson



	Ramblings about the films, their Special Editions, and their Hugo Weaving content can be found here: *The Fellowship of the Ring ..... The Two Towers.added 6/12.... The Return of the King added 10/01*



	Hugo Weaving: The Lord of the Rings Plot/Comments: There was once a poster 'Everything I learned in life I learned from Star Wars' with all the Jedi/Yoda quotes. Bizarrely, Star Wars was one of the only moral guides for a whole generation, one of the only places with identifiable role models…and after The Empire Strikes Back ~ certainly after Jedi ~ it all pretty much turned to shit before our very eyes. The generation of Jedis turned to 'irony', consumerism and cynicism… And then along came The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ~ a three hour film by the director of Meet the Feebles and Braindead, which not only woke Gen-X up again, but also gave strong role models to a new generation of McKids.

Hugo Weaving, The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond ears



	The Lord of the Rings trilogy is an astonishing achievement: the Special Edition DVD versions even more so. As the teacher of teenagers it is unquestionably the character-forming Star Wars of its time. However, its characters and plot-arcs owe more to Shakespeare than to Lucas: its character/moral lessons are more clearly defined; the problems are more relevant to the world today; and the films themselves are more unashamedly heartfelt Lawrence of Arabias than Star Wars' Battle of Britains . *Peter Jackson ~ along with Spielberg ~ is perhaps one of the few directors stubbornly unafraid to wear his heart on his sleeve* and go out as much for emotional drama as the action-orientated kind, making these films surprisingly sensitive.



	*The level of detail that has gone into the trilogy is astounding and every frame oozes love and attention:* just as Tolkien created an unseen universe of millennia as the background to The Lord of the Rings, so Peter Jackson and WETA have created a wholly original, unseen background universe told through thousands of props and other design elements, which can be easily overlooked but help to make every frame a fully submersible and believable experience. While true to the spirit of The Lord of the Rings, Walsh, Boyens and Jackson have dared to alter the story to reflect the different needs of film, making for a more dramatic structure (annoying replacement of Glorfindel by Arwen notwithstanding).



	*The Fellowship of the Ring Review* *The Two Towers Review* *Lord of the Rings Galleries* *.Fellowship of the Ring Premiere* *.Return of the King Premiere* *The Doom of Elrond* *Classic Scenes* *Next: After the Deluge* *Back: The White Devil* *Back: Old Man w/Read Love Stories* *Web Weaving* Trainspotter Comments and Queries: Weaving also voiced Isildur's line. Shot around *The White Devil* , *Matrix Reloaded* and *Matrix Revolutions* Cate Blanchett has worked frequently with Weaving, see *The Blind Giant is Dancing* , *Bordertownand Drama School; Miranda Otto co-starred in True Love and Chaos; producer Barrie Osborne also did The Matrix; David Wenham worked with Weaving in That Eye, The Sky, After the Deluge* and *Russian Doll.* Bruce Spence (the Mouth of Sauron) co-starred in The Dirtwater Dynasty , *Wendy Cracked a Walnut* , *Exileand The White Devil . Mark Ferguson, who played Gil-Galad in the prelude, was Weaving's classmate at NIDA. Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie also shot Bodyline, Melba* and *Babe. See The Usual Suspects*for a huge list of recurring Weaving co-workers.



	The casting is fantastic and seems to have been done with as much love and attention as the rest of the trilogy. *Unheard of in a blockbuster, the acting is so good it is hard to rate any one actor above the others* . That said, it is clear that the heavy-hitting, experienced actors are needed for the big speeches, and (besides Bernard Hill) *The Two Towers* suffers from a lack of these kind of performances.

Hugo Weaving, The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond, Ian McKellen, Gandalf



	Hugo Weaving content: Hugo Weaving as Elrond has had mixed reactions among supposed Tolkienistas: most praising the *world-weary, battle-fatigued Master of Rivendell* but some complaining (mistakenly) that his intonation was too close to *The Matrix* 's Agent Smith; that Elrond was too gritty, too manipulative, too grim. Perhaps this is true for those who have only read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (where elves actually go around singing Tra-la-la-fa-la-la and are totally removed from the vainglorious, arrogant, tragic, flawed murderers and heroes of The Silmarillion).

Hugo Weaving, The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond Think



	However, anyone who has read a substantial amount of Tolkien's other work will know that Elrond must be Middle Earth's most miserable, depressed and doomed elf. *Weaving's portrayal is not just the 'Healer of Rivendell' but reflects millennia of abandonments, failures, betrayals, wars, sacrifices and deaths of countless loved ones.* He is tired, physically and mentally; filled with tremendous sadness; sick of paying for the failures of others; wanting to leave Middle Earth and its violence, but mindful of his responsibility to his people; and loyal in his duty to see the One Ring destroyed after seeing it destroy so many others. Galadriel says to Frodo of their shared burden, "to be a ring bearer is to be alone": Elrond is the bearer of Vilya, the most powerful of the Elven rings: isolated and alone. *SeeThe Doom of Elrond for a rundown on the forces which shaped 'the wisest elf in Middle Earth', and arguably, the saddest.*

Hugo Weaving, The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond montage