The long-lost Lord of the Rings adaptation from Soviet Russia is a spectacular fever dream

You might think you’re familiar The Lord of the Rings, But nothing can quite prepare you for the adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s classic fantasy text made in the Soviet Union.

In 1991, the first television-made film on Leningrad Television was finished prematurely. Guardian. But the station’s successor, 5TV, recently unearthed a copy from its archives, and uploaded the entire work to YouTube two Parts.

With a time of about 1 hour and 50 minutes, this adaptation focuses only on the first book of Tolkein’s trilogy, the Fellowship of the Ring, And is a riot of low-budget special effects, quirky camera work and Soviet mood music.

Instead of an epic Hollywood fantasy captured so well by Peter Jackson, this adaptation feels like a weird fairy tale told by pipe-smoking nuts in the woods. In other words: it completely captures the legitimate aspect The Lord of the Rings, Just we are not necessarily used to one.

If you haven’t got time to watch the whole thing, here are some choice moments, such as one identified and stamped by YouTube user Chris Stalker with help two notes:

• Opening sequence. Music composed by Andrei Romanov of the Russian rock group Aquarium, an incredibly banging shot of One Ring, and snippets of Nazal through the snow.

• Smagagol fights Déagol, claims the One Ring and turns into Golam. For the Soviet adaptation Smégol has none of the “slow changes in a secret shadow of his former”. Nope: He puts on the ring and suddenly he sees the green skin secretly. And finally why is the chorus going to “rrrrrrr” in the background? That, my friend, is a small thing called ambiance.

• Set your hobby on an adventure. If this bit looks like a behind the scenes footage from the theater troupe of the 1990s, because it is. Where did you sleep? Why is it that a buff argues with eating a mouthful? Who gives a damn Drop ahead to see them trapped in the Old Forest.

• This is the old Tom Bombadil, who is my partner! Here he is: one of Tolkein’s characters, a mysterious figure Who can be god, And who avoided Peter Jackson’s adaptation to opt out of the plot. He can certainly be removed from the story without much harm but it is still a pleasure to see him here with his wife Goldberry.

• Frodo meets Aragorn in The Prancing Pony. As Stalker notes, the creators have from this point on, the hobby is left to try to look younger than the other characters. Soviet Aragorn is certainly less sexy mystic than Viggo Mortensen, but who really doesn’t.

• Council of Elrond. It seems that one of the scenes in Shakespeare’s history is more than Jackson’s juicy elegance of Rivendell, but it works. Skip ahead to see Sarman coming to the Gandal orc army, Beautifully sung as little dudes in horned helmets on nothing at the bottom of the screen.

• Battling orcs in moriya. The orcs are less demonic creatures here and more simply “some friends I guess.” What the special effects lack is more with unstable camera work. Skip ahead looking for them to find khazad bridge

• Enter the magic and magic of dance …. This is very much how I remember this scene from books. Elves are immortal and live forever in strange enclaves. It means that you are basically a cult. Meanwhile, fond people are stunned by how good they are at dancing and then get drunk. Skip ahead a few minutes and you can see Galadryl Be tempted by a ring.

• Frodo breaks an apple with his hands! No, I know this scene is otherwise a bit boring and mainly weird and weird about Boromir but the apple thing is still cool. Have you ever tried to do this? it’s very hard.

• Frodo and Sam doing it for themselves. Everyone else is corrupt with power: only friendship remains! I love the ending here, especially the music. What exactly is it The Lord of the Rings About the heart: Just friends are friends.

And all! It is indeed surprising that this adaptation aired a decade before Peter Jackson’s blockbuster trilogy. If only the Soviet Union survived a little longer, we could see similar rendering The two towers And Return of the king.