O.T. You may now throw rocks at me(LOTR)

Whistle
1

May I be the first person on the Chiff board to say I really, really, really don’t get the whole Lord of the Rings thing?

I haven’t admitted this, well, except to Bob and the other Bob(who officially known as Robert) that I don’t get the hype. They, however both own the fourty DVD set, (which includes live footage of the inside of Froto’s trailer) and are a little stunned I can’t get into it.

I’m not sure why the whole experience is lost on me . . . maybe it reminds me of the seventies and the neighbors playing D and D. I’m past the seventies and the unicorn fad.

So, I didn’t see the first . . . because I just didn’t have time to see the first. Saw the second with my dad and his wife, she thought it was a stand alone movie, I knew it wasn’t, went along for the ride and spent the three hours more phycologically lost than I ever was before.

A while back, I Emailed Bob(the former Bob) about my experience at The Two Towers. It was pretty funny.

I saw Lord of the Rings “The Two Towers” on Friday. I was visiting my dad and Jana, and as part of our day’s activities, she wanted to see it.

I NEVER SAW THE FIRST MOVIE!!



Nonetheless, who wants a party pooper around? So I went to see The Two Towers
. . .

AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!

MY LIFE MAKES NO SENSE!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS MOVIE!!!

AND WHY WON’T IT END!!!



PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!





(sniff) . . . mommie? . . .



(whimper)



OK, onto the story behind the madness. Jana wanted to see it, but didn’t know it was a sequel. And it was a sequel that was wholly and totally dependant on the first. The three of us sat there, yes, impressed with the special effects, but unable to follow the story line.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING!



To make matters worse, it is the single most longest THING in the known
universe(and middle earth). My back hurt, my ears buzzed, my eyes strained with utter disbelive in my total lack of comperhension. And everything the screen faded to black, I had hope . . . ANY HOPE . . . that the credits would roll pass my weary eyes.



BUT NO!!!



It didn’t stop there! It never stopped! All the love and hope that I had in
the world has left me as I gaped at hour after hour of unworldy, butt ugly
monsters and blood letting.



I left the theater . . . finally. I think the movie reel finally snapped
under the weight of five tons of war footage. The ushurs unlocked the
theaters doors . . . begrudgingly. I left, my heart heavier, my wrinkles more pronounced.

Jana backed into a car as we left the parking lot. Irreverable damage has
been done, in more ways than one.

On the other hand, I’m really attracted to Froto.

I know this is hopelessly OT. First, Alan, don’t lock me out. And second, I know you want to huck a rock at me, but remember you’re online and you’ll just crack your monitor.

It just feels good to say it.

2

I can sympathize. I was a huge fan of the books thirty years ago and had read them several times, right up into my mid twenties. My son bought the DVDs and I half-watched the first two movies. They’re fine, I guess, for movies, but I’m just not a big fan of movies (I haven’t gone to a theater in close to fifteen years). Maybe my memory is just too good because even after not reading the books for twenty years I could spot the areas where they deviated from the story line – nothing major but when you live in your imagination even a minor departure is jarring :slight_smile:

3

If you haven’t read the trilogy and gotten into it, it won’t make sense.

“Hucking” a rock…I like that!

4

What’s to get? A bunch of fairy tale creatures, and fairy tale creature wannabes, turned into a much less interesting (and sevenfold times seven more long winded) story. Still… the Hobbit comic book has lovely pictures.

5

The only part we have enjoyed is about the Hobbits eating
breakfast
2nd breakfast
elevenzees
lunch tea
supper
dinner
now my husband expects that many feeding a day, ha ha ha
Lolly

6

Just to explain (not to convert)…I read the books back when I was 19yrs old, far from home in the military, back in the day, you know. The books were a great adventure for me, my friends were reading them, and we all enjoyed them and sharing our reactions to them. I read them on the night shift working on a psych ward. I remember this other guy sitting like a stone statue in a chair, elbows on knees, reading non-stop the whole shift. I did his bed-checks and stuff so he could be in Middle-Earth. I understood. I made a ceramic head of Tom Bombadil, which I still have 20yrs later. My sister, later on, married this guy who put up a calendar picture of the Ents in his living room. We still laugh about it. When my 18yr old son was 7, he had to memorize a poem for school. I helped him recite “Nine rings for mortal men…” He had to stop working on it because it was too scary. We STILL laugh about that and he’s climbing out of his skin waiting for the movie to come out. We’ll buy the Two Towers dvd and watch it before going to see the last one. When I saw the first movie, I was stunned by the early scenes of Hobbiton because it looked the way I visualized it way back when (and ever since). If I hadn’t read the books, it probably wouldn’t have done much for me. The books for me and a lot of others were part of our growing up. They left an impression. The movies are revisiting that. That’s why we’re so damn picky about whether the director got it right. (I’m a bit bummed that Tom Bombadil was left out of the first movie, even though he wasn’t essential to the MOVIE. He was a great character in the book.)
Tony

7

I’ve only seen the first one so far, and oddly enough, the visuals were close enough to what my mind’s eye saw in those books back in the '70s, give or take some scene placement. The Hobbit’s dwellings were far more cozy, tasteful and well-lit than my imagination offered up, however. I wouldn’t mind living in one, now.

8

One of my favorite books - read about 30 years ago. I love that type of adventure story with characters you care about in a pitched battle with evil. I always thought it would make for a fantastic but difficult movie. Years ago they did that disappointing animated Hobbit thing that was awful. This is truly a triumph in movie making - absolutely brilliant all the way round - the concept (shooting all three together), the location choice, casting, action scenes, direction, acting, special effects (which really take back seat to the relationships and concepts). What really gets me is that 30 years ago, I formed pictures in my mind of the characters from the books, and Peter Jackson’s characters match those pictures! So far, the only thing that keeps this from perfection is a bit of somewhst choppy editing in the second movie (IMHO).

I don’t know whether this is really based on the period preceding WWll, but there are enough similarities so that the universality of events (evil almost triumphs because good men fail to act until it’s almost too late, etc.)
makes suspension of disbelief particularly easy.

To each his own; but this one is definitely my cup of tea.

Regards,

PhilO

9

Well I must admit that I have carried these three books around with me for 35 years. When ever I need a vacation I spend it in middle earth. To me it is a master piece written by a master story teller. I wont go into the history behind this tale because if your into the triligy you already know it and if not it would take way to long to tell. I also think the movies so far have been truely well done. (I was disapointed that Tom B was left out also)
Galum is exactily how I pictured him in my mind and the sets are fantastic, as are the digital efects. I knew there would be departures from the book but I didnt find them distracting. I have know idea how many times I have read these books but I know I havent reached the last time yet. I do that with quite a few authors, Sterling Haden and his two books are true works of art in the clasic sence, Voyage and Wanderer are his works and his life to boot. You may remember him as an actor back in the 40s and 50s. He was also the gereral in the Peter Sellers movie …oh boy blank out . Just another senior moment. But you know the movie I`m talking about, the atomic bomb movie. Anyway I love Tolkien and all his works.

Tom

10

I love the books and enjoy the movies. Maybe I just haven’t grown up yet.

11

Tony and Blackbeer did a pretty good job of describing the personal way that the books were a part of late 60s and 70s culture. i remember when everybody seemed to be reading them when I was in high school.

I would say that, in a time when reality was being questioned big-time (and somewhat enhanced by drugs), along comes this complete other place that is both comforting and fearsome but with an entire historical and artistic overlay (graphic arts dimension of maps, runes, etc). Idealistic values of heroism, moral struggle of good vs. evil (particularly when it seems assured that evil will prevail) are all combined to touch people on many levels. Remember that people were also into M.C. Escher, Maxfield Parrish, Carlos Castaneda and things Arthurian in those days, too.

It’s funny that the whole phenom has re-surged but it definitely took current digital technologies to put it to the screen. Might be seen as Lord of the Baby Boomers.

For some, its an updated walk down Memory Lane, and for others, the movie series represent that same “other reality” as before. If you think about it, the Matrix series also represent a whole other-reality thing, though infinitely grayer and grittier that LOTR.

12

I love the books. I enjoyed the first movie, but I was dissappointed in the second in many respects. I do wish they had been more faithful to the book in the second one like they had in the first. I mean, where the heck did those stupid elves at Helm’s Deep come from? Did Peter Jackson just pull them out of his rear end? In the books, the whole point was that the elves’ time was over: they were fading and they were leaving middle earth for good. It was time for men to take charge of their own destiny. There were no elves at Helm’s Deep. There should never have been elves at Helm’s Deep. That makes absolutely no sense. And nevermind them blowing the whole Elrond-Arwen-Aragorn thingy up. It was a footnote in the books, barely mentioned outside of the appendices. Go figure…

13

I used to feel old admitting that I’ve been reading the books for 40 years, but after reading the previous posts I feel better :wink: I can now admit that I’m enough of a geek to have put off seeing the first two movies just so I could go see all three at once.

Now, away Dancer, Prancer and Vixen! It’s off to the movies we go, hah hah!

14

Though I read the books (a couple of times) and enjoyed them, I just have never gotten “it” about LOTR, whatever “it” is. I saw the first movie on video; I’ll get around to seeing the second and third eventually, probably on video as well. I can see where the whole good/evil thing and the fantasy aspect appeals to people, but it’s just not me.

One of the priests in my church, however, is an absolute LOTR fanatic (and one of the foremost Tolkien scholars in the country, seriously). He swears that you’re not going to heaven until you’ve read the books and/or seen the movies. (He seems pretty happy about the movies, though I have not discussed them at length with him.) He has a party every year on Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday. And so on and so forth.

As for me, I much more enjoy Narnia as opposed to Middle Earth. The Chronicles of Narnia are some of my absolutest favoritest books, and I have read them countless times. And I find something new in them every time. So I guess I can understand the obsession.

Beth

15

Ah, TSam, that’s life in the Cineverse. After all, the guy responsible for “Braveheart” said, “I never let facts get in the way of the truth.”

sigh

16

I read the books and have seen/own both (soon to be all) the movies. The writings are excellant as he (Tolkein) was WELL versed in the art of writing/language and to me this is reflected in his books.

I am also happy they made the movie to fit his whole set and not just another pic that crams an enormous story into 2 hours of film.

As for the FAD, I think it reflects the the old winner good Vs. evil or right Vs. wrong. It is the “Star Wars” of the new century (or whatever they are calling it now) and gives kids a lesson. Not an Aesop type of lesson but something to think about.

It’s nice to sit back every once in awhile and be taken away to a place who’s story line doesnt involve drugs (although they do smoke their pipes a lot), Gore, guns, and all out violance. Not to say there isnt any, but in these movies in a way it’s justified. This will be a classic for a long time to come.

17

Like Tony said, no Bombadil was hard to accept, speaking of deficiencies.
he was just about my favorite character, in a way, because his existence never was explained to my satisfaction…

18

To get back to mamakash’s dilemma… I think it’s probably just a matter of individual taste and mindset. The Two Towers is as much of a stand alone movie as the second movie of a trilogy can be. But a 3+ hour movie in a genre that’s not particularly to your taste is probably not going to be very enjoyable.

The reason why the movies are such a hit are because of many different factors. There’s the fan following from the books, there’s the folk who are impressed by any movie with great special effects, some people go for the epic good-v-evil, etc. And the commercial market was quick to jump on the coat-tails too.

The current social atmosphere does hearken back to the '60s and '70s. Why LotR became so popular in the States nearly 20 years after the first printing is still a mystery to me but I wasn’t alive then.

As for my take on the movies, I think they do great things for the legacy of Tolkien’s work. Peter Jackson and his crew brought Middle Earth to life in the best way possible. I’m glad Lucas or Spielberg didn’t get their hands on this. Gollum was brilliantly done. They made the unreal and fantastic real and believable but not so much to spoil the element of magic and fantasy.

I do disagree with some of the changes in storyline to incorporate Elrond and Arwen in. I hated that Arwen held the Nazgul at bay at the Ford. Aragorn falling off the cliff in the warg ambush was silly. And Haldir and the Elves had no place in Helm’s Deep. Those are my chief complaints. Tom Bombadil was missed but even before there was a whisper of the movie being made I knew that the Old Forest sequence wouldn’t make it into a movie.

But all and all I think Peter Jackson, Weta, and all involved did a stellar job. I do worry though that now we’ll see more Elves, Dwarves and Rangers at Highland Games and Celtic Festivals which is a phenomenon I don’t particularly care for.

Cheers,
Aaron

19

Its really pretty simple. The LotR trilogy, much like Star Wars and Terminator 2, has changed the face of movie making. It has a level of detail never before seen, its a fantasy movie that hasn’t been treated like it is for children, and it is long enough to tell the story well. It is the most massive movie undertaking of my lifetime.

This could mean the end of the rediculous fantasy movies with women fighting in leather or chainmail bikinis with perfectly manacured fingernails. Don’t get me wrong…I like a woman in a leather or chainmail bikini as much as, if not more than, the next guy. But I am tremendously tired of fantasy movies being done so poorly, and unrealistically.

If you look closely when you watch any of these movies you will see that the actors are tired, they are sore, they are dirty and grimy. I love this level of detail and realism.

20

Don’t feel alone, Mamakash, I’m not a fan either. My best friend is a rabid fan and sees each movie ASAP when they come out. I saw the first one (at her house, she of course owns it), and had she not explained it all to me, I wouldn’t have understood any of it. I grew up the late 60s and early 70s when the books were popular, but I couldn’t even finish The Hobbit. And I was disappointed after sitting for 3 hours, struggling to understand the plot, and having no closure. It didn’t make me want to see the rest of them.

It’s just not my thing, I guess. My friends can’t seem to understand that, but I can’t help what I like or don’t like.

I do have to say that it was a wonderful piece of movie-making, both technically and aesthetically.