J. R. R. Tolkien spent almost an entire lifetime world-building, constructing languages and writing stories, most of them set in his fictional world Middle-earth. Yet very little of what he wrote was published during his lifetime. Most of it was for his own enjoyment. And even though many texts have been published posthumously, none have had even a fraction of the impact of his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. So it is perhaps not to wonder that fans have taken to writing fan-fic – and making fan films – in order to satiate their need for ever more LotR stuff. One of the better fan films is The Hunt for Gollum.

The Hunt for Gollum fills in one of the blank spots from the books and films in the LotR series. It tells the story of how Gollum was caught when Gandalf needed information about the nature and whereabouts of the One Ring. There is next to no information about this fascinating subplot in the original material, so the film makers had a great amount of freedom to make up their own story.

Aragorn is the protagonist and the hero here, and some other characters from the film trilogy also make appearances (including a computer-generated Gollum, of course). The actors do a decent job for the most part, and especially Adrian Webster manages to hold up the central role of Aragorn surprisingly well.

The make-up and costumes are really good, too. Well, at least so long as the camera stays at a distance. They should have avoided some of the close-ups, which reveal a bit too much of the budget. Even so, the orcs in particular look impressive for a film like this. The fight scenes do look a bit amateurish and awkward, though not disturbingly so. And, frankly, the fight scenes in the “real” LotR films are not entirely problem free either.

I am sometimes amazed when I look at what amateurs can achieve with next to no budget, but in this case it is perhaps not quite as amazing as it may seem at first. Director Chris Bouchard had already been a professional in the movie business for years (working with music and visual effects) when he took on The Hunt for Gollum. That is not to say that his achievement was not a good one, and indeed, it has helped to propel him into a career as a professional film director.

This film is best enjoyed because it is fun. Not only is there a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour inserted here and there, but you can also tell that the crew had a great time while they were making this little piece, and that feeling rubs off on the finished film. Even so, you have no reason to watch this unless you are a fan of Peter Jackson’s LotR movies. Just like most fan productions, this one needs the support of the original works, and does not really hold up as a self-contained production.

The Hunt for Gollum
Download link
Year: 2009
Running time: 38 min
Director: Chris Bouchard
Stars: Adrian Webster
Image quality: Good
Resolution: Low (644×290)
Sound quality: Excellent
Best file format: MPEG4 (318 M)