[HPFGU-OTChatter] LotR Movie

[A B]

Susan:

"For the person who has not read LOTR -- in my
personal very humble 
opinion, they are the books of the century -- run do
not walk read 
them, read them,...I am envious of a friend (age 45)
who had NOT read 
them, and just did at my urging. He is stunned and
awed."

me: There's nothing like that first read! Oh to
re-capture the feeling! Definitely read the books
first. This, ironically enough, is coming from someone
who saw the Bakshi fiasco before she read LotR! Yes,
it was awful, but I didn't know how awful at the
time... I do have to give credit to that movie for
leading me to the story; it's still my favourite! BTW,
there's a hilarious review of the Bakshi movie
somewhere; I'll look it up for those who are
interested.

Susan:
"For those who HAVE read LOTR, I just read something
about how in his 
life time Tolkien was seen as a "character" and a bit
of a loser..
he drank beer and sang drinking songs in ancient
languages....!!!"

me: I don't know how this makes him a loser. He did
have friends to share these interests with. C.S. Lewis
was one of them. He could tell the odd off-colour joke
as well. There was one posted on a Tolkien newsgroup
once that I thought was pretty funny. *Anne is
starting to think she's about to be put in with the
losers singing Old Icelandic drinking songs... <eg>*


Susan:
"I was unimpressed with the trailer ---- yet I am
delighted by the 
HP trailer..I am wondering...

My feeling is that those who make LOTR movies follow
their own 
vision...the dialogue in the LOTR trailer was nothing
like that of 
the books, which is really stupid, if you have great
literature, use 
the language, don't distort it or dumb it down!....but
perhaps JKR's 
living influence on the HP movie will help it stay
true to the spirit."

With a work as long as LotR, even if they are making
three movies, there will be, inevitably, things cut
out. And yes, this means following someone's vision.
Peter Jackson (the director of LotR) has said he's
following his vision. He's also stated that he's
making these movies for people who read LotR 10 or 15
years ago, not fanatics like me who try to read it
every year. I'm not quite sure what to make of that,
but I've realized from the time I first heard of the
project that the movie wouldn't be a carbon copy of
Tolkien. How could it be? It seems to me from the
Tolkien forums I've participated in that almost every
reader brings their own vision to the work. The things
the serious Tolkienites disagree on are almost beyond
belief! (Do Balrogs have wings? Who is Tom Bombadil,
anyway? Is Glorfindel of Gondolin the same Glorfindel
as in LotR? Are Orcs corrpted Elves? Do Elves have
pointy ears?)

I've only seen the trailer once on TV (I have a very
slow computer and little patience with downloading the
trailer). I must say I paid little attention to the
dialogue, but I did like the overall atmosphere of
what I saw.

Tolkien was of two minds when he considered selling
the movie rights (and he did sell them in his
lifetime). He would either sell them for a reasonable
sum to someone who had an artistic vision similar to
his, or sell them for a good bit of money and not
worry about the outcome. One of the purposed scenarios
(made in the 60s) was so ridiculous, it's laughable.
It had Lorien as a fairy castle and eagles used as
transportation about every two scenes. needless to say
he didn't sell the rights to the person who came up
with this. In the end, nothing got made until after
Tolkien himself was dead, so he had no input at all.
And I believe the Tolkien estate has distanced itself
from the current project. 

In the end we'll just have to wait and see. I,
personally, am planning on seeing Fellowship when it
comes out. (And I _never_ go to see movies in the
theatre! That makes two trips to the movies I'm
planning this fall.) Whether I go see the other two
will depend on what I think of the first. But granted,
by Peter Jackson's own admission, I'm not part of the
target audience.

Anne


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