LOTR: Languages, accents, elven archers, FRATRICIDE

[Tabouli]

Rita:
> In one of his essays, Tolkien said something like often people 
have the experience of encountering one language that, as soon as they hear it and even tho' they don't understand a word, seems to be the most beautiful language possible, and that English people very often have this experience with the Welsh language<

(any comments, Dai?) I'm sure I read somewhere which specific languages on which Tolkien based all his fictional ones.  Finnish was definitely one, though I can't remember which.  I think it might have been in the pictorial book they've released with the film (complete with pictures of and comments from each of the main actors)

Cindy:
>Wood really had me believing he is British  

Ahh, this is in the film book thing as well.  Apparently, the idea was for the Men to have American accents, the hobbits English country accents of some sort (not sure which, but happy to be enlightened - was it just me, or did Sam's accent wobble from American to West country or something and back sometimes? If so, couldn't it just have been dubbed over?), the wizards Received Pronunciation English, and the Elves I think some Celto-Finnish hybrid.  When I saw the film, though, it didn't seem that clear-cut.  Pippin was Scottish, surely (though as a fan of Scottish accents I rather liked this), and Frodo sort of southern standard educated English, I thought.  Though I fear all the British listmembers may laugh me out off the list... my British accent identifier is a bit shaky.  Any corrections or comments from them?

Amy Z:
> Weaving isn't British either; he's Australian (and does a flawless American accent, BTW,judging from The Matrix--I'd never have known he wasn't American).  

(Tabouli smiles, a little smugly.  Australians, having been raised in an atmosphere of British and American television, are as a people pretty good at doing accents, even the non-actors among us.  My own standard southern English accent efforts are pretty good IMO, as it's long been the 'educated' English snobbish Australians aspire to, and is hence easily reproduced, though my American attempts need work... rather inconsistent, especially in the vowel department.  Oddly, I find a Southern accent a bit easier than a standard TV west coast-ish accent, probably because it's more distinctive.  I almost always use a Malaysian English accent with my mother.  As for foreign languages, my finest hour was giving a jovial, twirly moustached Air France steward the impression that I was French!  Actually, with my random-ethnicity looks, all I need to do is chuck on a beret, and voila!)

Megan:
> Even /I/ kept hiding my eyes during some of the orcs scenes.  I said
to my mum afterwards, "I understand that they're big and gross and all
that, but do they really have to do THAT many close-ups?!"<

Ha.  Actually, if you've had the misfortune to see his disgusting "Meet the Feebles" (yaaag!) you'll realise that for Peter, he was showing great restraint (and I don't think I'm all that squeamish as a rule).  Think the Muppets crossed with gross-out comedy (I saw it at a party when I was 17, and the boys *loved* it...), e.g. a bunny puppet with what he thinks is 'The Big One' in terms of sexually transmitted diseases going through the movie getting progressively more covered in bursting khaki coloured pustules which spurt fluid all over his dressing mirror...  uuuuug!

>So, what's the point in putting on the ring?

My thoughts exactly (see my review).  There's no way he'll be able to make 'The Hobbit' with that particular interpretation (as Bilbo actually uses the invisibility to do sneaky things), because it renders the wearer incapacitated.

> I thought these were rather funny.  Is Legalos some star-archer of the elves, or are elves naturally awesome at this.<

In most of the fantasy novels I've read (and in Warhammer, a tabletop wargame with miniatures I used to play with a long-ago boyfriend!) elves are always brilliant archers.  (Tabouli reminisces about how her elven units used to shoot from the forests and decimate the forces of the enemy).

Cindy:
> There must be other people who haven't read the books, but they're just not 
willing to admit it.  :-)  We just need a nifty name or acronym to 
entice them to admit to this gap in their educations.  
Maybe "Fellowship of the Celluloid"?

(Tabouli cranks up her acronym muscles again).  How about FR.A.T.R.I.C.I.D.E.  (Fellowship of Rings Avoiding Tolkien Rejectors Introduced Cinematically Into Delightful Escapism)?


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