Subject:
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Lord of the Rings movie
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 19 Dec 2001 10:40:16 GMT
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Viewed:
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245 times
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No Spoilers here!
I too wanted this to be the Film of the Decade, but after viewing it in the
flickering dark, all I can say for sure is "Now we had better have it
again." As soon as possible, like tomorrow night.
There are numerous original touches to the film version. Plot for sure, but
also in characterization. Gandalf and Elrond seem altered in character,
other characters are not so much altered as quickened by having new scenes.
There is some gravity, and some moral dimension, but this is of course a
film with crowds of undead, and telescoping zoom lenses, which are like
having candy in between every dish of a meal. Some sequences are hurried,
some to good effect, others not so good. The Council of Elrond has much
less gravity, and no storytelling.
We finally learn where orcs come from. Much more sensible than I had been
led to expect.
At the end there are fewer loose ends than the book has (it is a movie after
all) but also less tension. At least one audience member gasped, unaware
that the story would not be completed tonight. Ring virgin!
The Ring (Sauron too) is very active in this movie. One of the motifs of the
books is how every character reacts to being tempted by the Ring -- that's
here, and some of those scenes work less well than others.
I'm not sure if there is a firm structure to the film. Perhaps it was
something about the frequency of plot twist and resolution, or the pacing of
setup and payoff, that seemed sloppy. Haste was always the enemy in these
things.
The music: maybe less memorable than the awful score from the 1979 version,
certainly more unobtrusive than beautiful. Otherwise there is no poetry,
outside of one jingle.
The movie introduces one role never mentioned in the book: while Frodo may
be the Ringbearer, one of the other hobbits becomes Gandalf's Hatbearer.
More Hatbearing would have been a good inside joke. Considering the inherent
laughability of some elements (anything involving the undead raised snickers
from the audience) the real jokes seem ill-timed.
The movie, of course, is too short. I do not think any of it is boring, with
the possible exception of that awkward pause in Bilbo's Speech, and I would
have gladly stayed in the theatre even longer. But one has to sleep
eventually, every road must come back to the door where it began, and two
years from now we'll be able to block out an entire day to sit in front of
the Rings, and that will have to be enough.
-Erik
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Lord of the Rings movie
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| I'll have to come back and read this later in the day, despite the "no spoilers" (and what's to spoil, I know the story backwards and forwards). My son gets out of school at noon today, so I'm taking off early today and going to see the movie (if (...) (23 years ago, 19-Dec-01, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
| | | Re: Lord of the Rings movie
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| Note: the second time through I listened to the music more. It's good too. Darn it, it has been in my head all day. You can hear the entire album in QuickTime: (URL) movies cost 30% less in the Midwest... (23 years ago, 21-Dec-01, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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