Before Hollywood finally gave The Lord of the Rings the go ahead (aside from an animated version), the Soviets were ahead of the curve. In 1985 they created a version of The Hobbit behind the iron curtain. How is this possible? Well at the time, Soviet Russia didn’t care about American copyrights. The costumes are about the most awesome thing I’ve seen in awhile, not to mention the overacting and the sets. Ok, so this is the best worst movie before Troll 2. I think Peter Jackson could take some notes here, not only did they make only one movie instead of three, but it comes in at a scant (by today’s epic standard) hour and ten minutes. Right now there’s no subtitles (a work in progress is available here), but here’s a list of scenes so you can move through it and get a feel for how the major moments play out. Smaug is incredibly giggle inducing.
- Dwarves 0:18
- Orcs 0:27:47
- Smeagol 0:34:04
- Smaug 0:54:41
- Climax First End 0:59:28
- Second End 1:01:50
- Third And Real End 1:07:40