Born of Hope is a recently released Lord of the Rings fan-film and, quite honestly, an embarrassment for major studios. The fact that a group of mostly amateur film-makers, working with a very small budget, can turn out a movie that surpasses most of what Hollywood has released this year is astounding and a great credit to Kate Madison and her team.
The film is set roughly 90 years before Lord of the Rings and covers several years, starting with the meeting of Aragorn’s parents, Arathorn and Gilraen. The story is well-written and well-paced, with just about the right amount of humor to balance out the darkness and violence in it. (And note: there is a level of violence in it consistent with Peter Jackson’s films. This is not intended for children!) I would have liked both sides, Orcs and Dunedain, and particularly Arathorn, to have shown a bit more strategy in battle. Also, not being well-versed in Tolkien’s mythology, I was a bit confused about exactly what the Orcs were looking for. But these are minor points that detract little from the story.
The acting generally ranged from good to very good. Most notable was Beth Aynsley as Gilraen. She played the role with an appropriate amount of enthusiasm and restraint. Andrew McDonald, playing Dirhael, her father, also did an excellent job portraying a range of emotions as he watches his daughter fall in love. The acting did fall apart at times, particularly toward the end, but not enough to detract from the overall quality.
The special effects, though not at the level of the Peter Jackson films, were nonetheless very well done and certainly served the film well. The troll was most spectacular, though more subtle background effects heightened the film’s sense of atmosphere and depth. There was a slight problem, though, with the film’s use of color. They saturated and de-saturated the color based on mood. While this might work well, the jumps were a bit too sudden. When the color is pulled out of the film, you can count on something bad happening in the next five seconds or so.
The music, oh! the music! While quite different from the Howard Shore’s score for the Peter Jackson films, Born of Hope’s soundtrack fitted the film just about perfectly. A search of IMDB reveals that, of the film’s four composers, only Peter Bateman has done previous film work. Other studios might soon be inquiring about working with these composers, the music that good. Please, if anyone from the Born of Hope team reads this, please release the soundtrack on your website.
Born of Hope is definitely a worthwhile film to watch for free online, and would have been equally worth paying to see in a theater. It has a running time of about 68 minutes and can be watched, for free, at http://www.bornofhope.com.
