I have seen this trilogy probably a million times - okay, maybe not a million, just a few hundred thousand - but that doesn't make it any less awesome to see it again. It's a great movie, a great trilogy, about nobility and bravery and pride and humility and greed and good and evil and friendship and fortitude and loyalty and a hundred other things.T and I were just getting ready to pack up and head to bed one night when we heard Cate Blanchett recite the opening narrative of The Fellowship of the Ring on TV. I knew I had to get ready for bed, so I headed to the kitchen to clean up what was left from dinner. Dad said he was going to bed too, but fifteen minutes later he was still watching. Eventually, he shut it off, right before I went upstairs.
But then, not two nights later, we were just finishing up dinner one night when we heard Cate Blanchett recite the opening narrative once again. Perfect timing! I got to see my boyfriend!
The only problem with seeing one movie is that, not only do I want to see the other two now, but I also want to re-read the books. What I am going to do? I can hardly keep up with my school reading! Perhaps I'll just have to get my fill by playing on the One Ring wiki, which has such a wealth of information, it's practically like reading the books anyway, just without the great prose. There are so many great quotes, even in the movie, that I want to put them all here - except that would be silly. Instead, I'll just give you a link.
Bottom line: see it. See all three. Read the books first. Do it!
From one Lord of the Rings nerd to another, solid post. I just finished re-reading the series (my fourth time through it) about two weeks ago, and always catch myself glued to the tube when TNT has one of its LOTR marathons on. Certainly one of my favorite epics to ever be translated to the big screen. We all owe Peter Jackson a massive debt of gratitude for his mostly excellent translation from word to screen.
ReplyDeleteHowever, after recently rereading the series, I find myself hung-up on certain changes made from Tolkien's narrative to Jackson's film. This isn't about content that was excluded, such as Tom Bombadil, Radagast the Brown, and the destruction of the Shire by Sharkey, but rather how key scenes were grossly altered and characters misappropriated. Here are my gripes:
-Saruman was corrupted by Sauron, but in the end was out for himself and not a direct stooge of Sauron.
-There were no elves at the Battle of Helm's Deep.
-Denethor was a mean and depressed old steward, but he was never derelict in his duty of defending Minas Tirath and he planned to fight a losing battle until the end. He was too strong-willed and duty-bound to be fully corrupted by the Palantir. It just made him see defeat and depressed him beyond recovery. (Which still had profound adverse affects) His portrayal was the most off from the books and that departure in character it seemed needless to the macro-narrative.
All that said, awesome series both written and cinematically. Plus, Boromir's redemptive death scenes always stirs me.
I am off in taking exception to the aforementioned?