Lord of the Rings

[butterfly]

It's been hard to me to go indepth on LotR - I feel like Pippin, realizing just how big the world is. I want to go meta, wax lyrical on the glorious connections and truth that resonate throughout the story, but when I go to write, I find myself at a loss for how to put something this wonderful into plain, simple words.

I want to speak of how amazing the soundtrack is (as when we hear a bit of the Shire theme on the mountain with Frodo and Sam). I want to talk about the women of the movie and why I like all four of them. Liv says in the TT commentary that she likes that they didn't keep Arwen at Helm's Deep because not all strength is about using a sword, that Arwen can be strong without being a fighter, which is something I very much agree with. I love how Rosie, Eowyn, Galadriel, and Arwen are all so different from each other, and each so strong in their way.

I want to talk about how much I loved the editing of the film. I'm glad that there was no Scouring, because we didn't need the hobbits to prove that they'd grown. We saw their change - it didn't need to be anviled in.

I love this film - Lord of the Rings. This long, three-part movie. I love that there are no 'previouslies'. I love the extended editions. I love the friendship and the love.

I love that, apart from Sauron himself (and I have doubts about him), nothing starts out 'evil'. Gollum was once Smeagol. Orcs were once Elves. The wraiths were once men. Saruman was once wise. Denethor was not always mad. And then we see the draw of Sauron with Frodo, though the Ring, and also with Pippin, through the Palantir, though his was thankfully brief and didn't leave that hunger in him. They turned because of their assocation with Sauron, who is our Big Evil, and yet, I do not think he was always thus. He's a symbol of power and corruption, which says to me that there was once a Sauron who hadn't yet been corrupted. A Lucifer stand-in, perhaps? No one could claim that Sauron lacked in pride.

Edit: And I'd just like everyone to know that I had to go back to skip=860. See? I was right to be terrified at the thought.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I love this film - Lord of the Rings. This long, three-part movie. I love that there are no 'previouslies'. I love the extended editions.

Which mirrors quite a bit how I love the books. Where you love that there are extended editions and the featurettes - I loved how there is the Silmarillion and all of Tolkien's unfinished fragments. That there is a tremendous depth to this universe, and even though we don't really see it all in the LotR, film or narrative text, we can feel the very solid foundations beneath the story.

I love that in Tolkien's initial drafts, Aragorn entered the story in Bree as a Hobbit named "Trotter".

He's a symbol of power and corruption, which says to me that there was once a Sauron who hadn't yet been corrupted. A Lucifer stand-in, perhaps?

I would urge you to read The Silmarillion, or at least give it a shot, if you have time. It's a different sort of read, but would give you a bigger perspective as to Tolkien's cosmology. Sauron is not the Lucifer stand-in, but rather a primary minion of Tolkien's Lucifer stand-in. That stand-in having been defeated and banished at the end of the "First Age". (Isildur's defeat of Sauron marks the end of the "Second Age" and the destruction of the ring marks the end of the "Third Age".)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I love the history and the story and the world. I adore the sense of world. I just wish very much that I liked Tolkien's prose. Because I do adore this glorious world he created.

If the Silmarillion is written in a different style, perhaps it will be more to my liking. I do want to know all these things.

[clarinut.livejournal.com]

Whenever I hear that part where The Shire theme comes in, I just get all teary. I just love the "hobbit music." I'll hear that theme, and it just puts me in a good mood. It's such amazing music.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

The Silmarillion is in many ways a different style. It's essentially a set of smaller chapters and unfinished narratives written over a span of about sixty years, and then compiled after his death by his son.

Side note - Tolkien began writing LotR because his publisher demanded a sequel to The Hobbit before he would consider printing what became the Silmarillion.

In any case, it's kind of like reading the Appendicies at the back of the RotK. Or a history text, or perhaps the prose Edda. Tolkien's prose is quite offputting at times. And a lot of folks who like LotR or the Hobbit can't read the Silmarillion.

You can actually read the Silmarillion without reading LotR. Check it from a Library - you'll get a sense within the first few chapters whether you can read it or not - and whether or not it's a "buy" for you.

ITA

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Thing is, I really can't nitpick about the films. Oh, certainly, there are things I wouldn't have done--I'm reserving judgment on the gratuitous-angst "Arwen is dying" thread until I've a) seen the final version, and b) heard PJ's rationale--but I can't imagine anyone making a better, more faithful adaptation, especially given the realistic constraints of budgets and a filmmaker's vocabulary. The thing that matters to me is that the themes, the characters, and the very vividness of Tolkien's world were all kept intact.

The casting was magnificent. Frodo should always have had Elijah Wood's amazing eyes. Sam is perfectly embodied in Sean Astin's humble, gentle-yet-iron-hard performance. Viggo Mortensen gave Aragorn not just a body, but a soul. Who but Cate Blanchett could have embodied the power, grace, immense wisdom, and beauty of Galadriel? I've never seen such an ensemble in a movie, with each actor perfectly inhabiting his or her character's skin.

And the effects! Some movies make showcases out of effects. In this one, the effects served only the story. I was stunned to hear how many of these sets were actually built either in toto or in miniature. Edoras actually existed on that outcropping of rock for about three weeks. Hobbiton took a year to build and grow. The creatures were exactly as Tolkien had described. Right down to the digital grading--making the Shire richer and lusher than anyplace on earth, bleeding the color from Moria and Mordor, creating the unearthly glow of Rivendell and Lothlorien. It all combined to make these movies reflect the vividness of Tolkien's writings.

Then, of course, the music. I want to bear Howard Shore's children. So. Freaking. Beautiful. I could go on, but I'm already taking up enough space in your LJ. All this is to say: totally on board the love train with you!

[gryn.livejournal.com]

Isn't that the way it always goes?

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It really is. It just immediately brings up the meaning and the memory of the Shire and it's so emotional.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I think that I will - I'll check to see if the local library has it (which it almost certainly will) and I'll give it a try.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, I suppose so. Hmm.

Re: ITA

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I know. It's all so incredibly awe-inspiring. Like you said, there may been places where PJ could have changed the film from stunning and practically perfect to completely perfect, but I doubt there's a soul on this earth that could have done as good a job getting it all together and getting it made so beautifully and so with the spirit of Tolkien (which I do love).