Clueless in Middle Earth (WAS LOTR movie)

[davewitley]

Cindy wrote:

> I also think the HP filmmakers should start looking for non-Brit 
> actors, because Wood really had me believing he is British when he 
is 
> actually from California (according to Leno).  I guess good actors 
> can do good accents.

Yes, I too have now seen FOTR -  good game.

I've always thought that surely most American actors can turn their 
hands to a British accent - the problem in the past is just that 
*Hollywood* didn't realise that Britain is the country it actually 
is, and made sure actors didn't use any dangerously subversive 
knowledge they might acquire on holiday.  It must have taken months 
of coaching to get Dick van Dyke's accent so bad in Mary Poppins - 
but I'm sure his professionalism delivered what his bosses thought 
the public wanted in the end.

> 4.  OK, those orcs were just way, way too much and over the top.  

Yes, I agree.  In the book, because the Uruk-Hai are the product of 
crossing men with Orcs, some of them sre at first mistaken for men in 
Bree.  I think the film makers had a problem, though, as from the 
book description they resemble Orientals - they had to be made to 
look inhuman to avoid the racial overtones which IMO are present in 
the book.  (In the third film they will have to deal with the 
Haradrim - men who are deceived by or serve Sauron, and are black.  
None of the goodies are black.)

> 5.  Uh, Frodo puts the ring on and the world dissolves or 
something.  
> I was totally baffled by this.  

I think there is either inconsistency or development in the books on 
this.  In the early stages (ie Bilbo's stewardship of the ring and 
the years immediately afterwards, putting on the ring makes you 
invisible, but you can still see OK.  On Weathertop, it's night 
anyway, but Frodo doesn't see Strider with the branches very well.  
Later still, on Amon Hen (the end of the film) the ring changes 
Frodo's perception, with some things more visible, others less.  
IIRC, he can sense Sauron's orcs preparing for war across Middle 
Earth, for example.  In later books, the ring's power (or Frodo's 
habituation to it) is such that the normal world is made misty and 
insubstantial when he puts it on.

David, thinking Wood was lucky not to end up playing a Hobbit called 
Biggerstaff...