Special Screening: The Fellowship of the Ring

Last night, Hollywood 18 here in Huntsville had a special screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings and of course, I went! I’m not sure that I’ve ever mentioned it here before, but The Lord of the Rings is one of my most favorite movie series. I watch these movies every six months or so and I would almost venture to say I’ve seen them over 100 times. Maybe not; maybe closer to 50 times – at any rate, I’ve watched them quite a few times.

When Jackie and I went to see Something Borrowed a few weeks ago, I saw in the commercials leading up to the movie that H18 was going to have these special screenings on Tuesday, June 14 (Fellowship), June 21 (Two Towers) and June 28 (Return of the King), and immediately made plans to attend. It’s not every day you get to see your favorite movies on the big screen. Even though I saw each of these in the theater two or three times each, that was 10 years ago, and it may be another 10, or never before it happens again.

On the way to the theater, I stopped at Firehouse Subs to get a sandwich to sneak in along with my contraband Diet Coke. I also got a small popcorn. Hey, I was hungry and it’s hard to watch a movie without popcorn. I went into the theater to find a seat and just as I was about to plop down, someone called out my name. It was Janice J. from church. She and her husband Randall (you know him as Manchester United, Tony) were there and they invited me to come up and sit with them, which I did. I was a little disappointed in the theater selection at H18. I was hoping they would put it on one of the larger screens, but instead they showed it in one of the smaller rooms. In all honestly, I would have loved it if these had been shown at Rave (better seats, more leg room, bigger screens, etc.) but Rave doesn’t usually have these types of special screenings.

Peter Jackson (Director/Writer/Producer) introduced the film. The extended versions of the films have been remastered for Blu-Ray, which I suppose was the reason for the special screenings. Each of the screenings are of the extended versions, which is great because these are the versions I own on DVD and have come to know and love. This was also the first time the extended versions have been shown in theaters.

Each of the extended versions is about three and a half hours long; so, I knew I was in for a long night of movie watching. There were no previews and the Peter Jackson speech lasted only a few minutes. So, the movie started close to 7:00 and it was over around 10:30. Admittedly, I got very squirmy in my seat and was also very tired. I have been taking one Tylenol PM at night to help me sleep since the prednisone I am currently taking makes me not want to sleep. I took one with me and popped it in about 8:00 as has become my routine this past week, and that certainly didn’t help matters. Surprisingly, I didn’t get up to go to the bathroom one time – this will shock those of you who know me and my small bladder personally. Aside from my fatigue, it was a great night. Next week, I’ll be off all medications (hopefully) and expect to not be so tired. I might even try to get in a small nap before I go.

If you love The Lord of the Rings trilogy as much as I do, you should definitely come out to see the next two movies. The cost of the ticket is $12.50 because it is a special event, but to me, it was totally worth it just to see it all on the big screen one more time.