The road goes ever on and on…
Per The Guardian, a Soviet Union era television adaptation of the first book in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, has found its way to the internet after 30 years. Titled “Khraniteli”, the 1991 movie was made just a short time before the Soviet-era ended in Russia. According to The Guardian, its the only adaptation of The Lord of the Rings made in Russia; this isn’t much of a surprise, as the source material wasn’t translated into Russian until the 80’s.
“Khraniteli” only ran on television once before disappearing into the vaults of Leningrad Television. And now, 30 years later, Leningrad Television’s successor, 5TV, dug it out and uploaded it to YouTube in 2 parts. Coincidentally, Russian LotR fans had been trying to hunt down recordings of the movie for ages.
Aside from the fact that it’s rudimentary sets and decidedly budget, often in-camera special effects are a treat for some modern viewers (the videos have racked up over a million views, and not just exclusively from Russian-speakers), the film includes some material that got chucked from the Peter Jackson films released over a decade later. Notably, Tom Bombadil wasn’t cut from this adaptation, which is significant, as most adaptations seem to drop him since his part in the book is so small and not terribly relevant to the overall story. Also of note is the score, provided by Andrei Romanov of the rock band Akvarium.
Granted, unless you know Russian, you’re going to be stuck with auto-translated closed captions if you want to try and make heads or tails of what’s going on. But, both parts can be viewed on YouTube right now:
Source: MSN
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