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Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh? (Read 10113 times)
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Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Apr 17th, 2002 at 5:09pm
 
Good to hear you finally saw it Rad.  The settings were very nice.  Yeah, being able to swing a broadsword with 2 barbed arrows in you is a bit of a stretch. 

I loved it too and think that the movie (and the forthcoming ones) will be an excellent advertising vehicle for the books which are better than the movie (but isn't that almost always true?)
 
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #1 - Apr 17th, 2002 at 7:17pm
 
Never yet seen a movie that surpassed the book. There is simply far too much detail in a book that can never be incorporated into a movie.

I saw a piece on TV that said the movie followed true to the book .. which I am reading now. Smiley

If nothing else, I think ppl feel compelled to see it, cuz they'll be at a loss for episode's 2 & 3.

btw - i read (in the into to the book) that lotr is inaccurately called a trilogy. It's actually a single novel/story, published in 3 separate parts/books.
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #2 - Apr 17th, 2002 at 10:43pm
 
Yes, that's right.  The single book was published in 3 parts...publisher's decision.  I'm a bit of a Tolkien nut so I didn't want to start spouting off knowledge/fanboi opinions and appear too wierd  Grin
 
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #3 - Apr 17th, 2002 at 11:01pm
 
Cheesy

I also read somewhere that (I think) Amazon.com ran a poll where lotr was voted the 'most beloved book of the last century'. Numero uno.

Personally I read far too many books deemed 'practical' .. such as 'Photoshop tips' etc. .. so lotr brings balance to my reading life.
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #4 - Apr 17th, 2002 at 11:57pm
 
Yeah, reading (or listening) to LOTR helps me get back to the scientific publications I read and review.

There's a book called "JRR Tolkien:Author of the Century" which deals with the uproar that those polls caused amongst the professional literaii as well as a good summary of Tolkien's life and a breakdown of the story.  It's written by the professor which took over Tolkien's chair at Oxford.  Good stuff.

Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/061812764X/qid=1019102183/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8...
 
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #5 - Apr 18th, 2002 at 4:32am
 
Thx for the link. Didn't know it was such a big thing (that a book had been written about it). I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but I like that cover. Simple. Understated. I actually strive for those design ideals with the site .. (altho fail miserably).

I enjoyed the few posted pages. He seems like such a humble man .. especially for someone labeled 'Author of the Century' .. like the way he worked extra jobs that were considered 'beneath him' to make extra money. I've done that. Ppl can relate to that sort of thing.

So have u seen the movie many times?
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #6 - Apr 18th, 2002 at 9:30am
 
Well, since I have two brothers, a brother-in-law, and some old college buddies that also enjoy tolkien (but live in different areas of the country) I ended up seeing it with them four times in different regions  Shocked .  It did get a bit stale at #4, although I'm sure I'll enjoy the extended version that comes out on DVD in November with the extra hour of material.

The parts that I enjoyed best were the initial arrival of Gandalf to the Shire and his conversations with Bilbo (before and after the party), since I felt that those parts really captured the spirit of the books and characters involved in the scenes.  The Last Alliance of Elves and Men and the Moria scenes were also enjoyable and pretty much true to the books. 

What really made it click for me was the attention to detail that Jackson obviously took in making the movie.  It was the small stuff.  The fact that in the Last Alliance scene the men's bows are black (as described in the Silmarillion, "the black bows of the Numenoreans").  The fact that they got Elendil's banner right in the Last Alliance scene.  I noted that Strider/Aragorn is wearing an elvish ring (not a ring of power, but one that was given to one of his ancestors Barahir by the elf lord Finrod Felagund and that Elrond gave him at his coming of age).  Unless you read one of the appendixes after the end of "The Return of the King", you don't even know that he would have been wearing it...there's no mention in the books.

Obviously the movie isn't the book; otherwise, the movie would have been required to be ten hours long instead of three.  But with careful cutting and attention to detail, Jackson and co. have made something that I am satisfied with.

And yes, Tolkien really seems to have been a down-to-earth kind of guy.  The kind that we need more of in this world.
 
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #7 - Apr 19th, 2002 at 7:38pm
 
In most films made from a book, I think that directors change parts as necessary to make the story work for the medium (film) .. but inn a book such as lotr .. that is considered 'the book of the century" .. from the author of the century .. the director has to more closely follow the book.

the fact that he followed the book's details so closely is a testament to the book, and is a way of paying homage to it.

if he mucked it up, i'm sure many tolkien fans would have his ass. Smiley

You need to see it at least 10 times to be a certifed lotr nut. Do you like *all* tolkien's books, or just lotr?
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #8 - Apr 20th, 2002 at 1:05am
 
Glad to hear that I'm not a nut  Grin

I've currently read the trilogy (multiple times), the Silmarillion, and a couple of the "history of middle earth" books which contain the manuscripts that Tolkien wrote but didn't get incorporated into the Silmarillion after his death.  I've also read some of Father Giles and Ham.  The last was a bit hard to get into...it's more light fairy-tale fare than serious book.

The Silmarillion is essentially the backstory of LOTR and deals with the creation of middle-earth and the wars of the Valar, elves, and men against the mightiest Valar that turned to evil (in the most basic terms).  I actually find myself liking that book more and more although it is a very dry read when most first pick it up (it's full of names and places; some parts read like a history more than a novel...see "Tolkien died before he finished it".)  I suppose the main reason for that is because I picked up the Silmarillion on CD (read by Martin Shaw) and play it when I make the 2.5 hour drive to St. Louis to see my SO...and I actually find myself liking it a lot better listening to it rather than reading it.  And when I reread LOTR afterwards I found that I knew all the backstory that is never explained in LOTR...it made for a different (but still enjoyable) reading experience.  It's 14CDs so I've been busy ripping and encoding (thanks for the EAC article, btw Wink ) it onto 2 CDs at 96kbps format...you don't need much better for audiobooks.

Silmarillion CDs:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553456067/qid=1019278775/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8...

If you have read the Silmarillion and liked it, I would also try to pick up "Morgoth's Ring" which is one of the last of the "History of Middle-Earth" series which I also enjoyed.
 
 
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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #9 - Aug 20th, 2002 at 4:58am
 
Good short stories or novellas often make fine movies
(Barry B Longyear's Novella Enemy Mine, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep a short novel, which was adapted to BladeRunner)
but it is rare that a true novel works well, and if it does the screenplay has to be another animal entirely, disappointing the reader. (Gone with the Wind)

Fellowship of the Rings was reasonably accurate, but to a degree I resent the imagery imposing itself onto my minds own screenplay, In places I felt that I was the better Art Director  Grin In others it was far past what I envisioned.  Wink

When a movie is made of such a popular novel, the burden is immense, the balance struck here was about as good as it can get, and yet, still lacks the depth of character development that really makes this story so priceless. Its a fine companion to the book, but Im immensely glad I read it (several times) before I saw the movie.
 

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Re: Finally saw Lord of the Rings eh?
Reply #10 - Apr 25th, 2003 at 4:48pm
 
Hope you don't mind me dropping in to your discussion. I am from the Uk, Tolkien was british of course so the book has always been a classic over here and I guess in the rest of the world as well although I can't say, the point is the richness of the imagination has always been impossible to capture on film until cinema has reached its current level, that is the real testament to the author. The previous cartoon attempts have floundered I guess due to money and/or audience buy-in. my personal opinion is that the hobbit (precursor to the lord of the rings) is a great extended "short story" but the Silmarilon and other "background" works haven't got the story line to hold the interest. like the lord of the rings which the undoubted centrepiece of the mans work
 
 
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