Films, for once
Jan. 10th, 2004 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mirrorshardNever done that before - seen the same film twice in one day. Unsurprisingly enough, it was Return of the King.
Now, you just knew there'd be a rave/grouch coming up, didn't you? Well, I'd hate to disappoint you, so here goes.
Rave: Cinematic spectacle and some really good stuff. A lot of it very true to the books, some new and wonderful things, some changes that obviously had to be made (see below).
Grouch: Not nearly enough of it, too much had to be cut. Oh, and the cuts that had to be made to turn it into a happy story. Lord of the Rings is a very very sad story, an elegy - why do you think that the Elven-Rings had to leave Middle Earth? Because the world had moved on, and the Third Age was over, dead, done with. Elves are too fragile to stay in the Fourth Age. Gandalf's task, and that of the other Wizards, was done: humanity (and hobbit-kind and presumably dwarf-kind as well) could look after itself from now on.
The Scouring of the Shire has always been my favourite part of the story, when the evil that had loomed over the world came home, when the great and numinous became reified and the concrete and immediate menace of development threatened the heroes' home. They could save the world, but then when they got home, that needed them too - nothing was safe from the Shadow.
Oh, and Eowyn rocks. Miranda Otto is an actor to watch, I think, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see her getting an Oscar for that role - except, of course, that Sean Astin might well beat her to it. Then again, Sam Gamgee is the real hero of the books, and the films too, so that's one each.
Now, you just knew there'd be a rave/grouch coming up, didn't you? Well, I'd hate to disappoint you, so here goes.
Rave: Cinematic spectacle and some really good stuff. A lot of it very true to the books, some new and wonderful things, some changes that obviously had to be made (see below).
Grouch: Not nearly enough of it, too much had to be cut. Oh, and the cuts that had to be made to turn it into a happy story. Lord of the Rings is a very very sad story, an elegy - why do you think that the Elven-Rings had to leave Middle Earth? Because the world had moved on, and the Third Age was over, dead, done with. Elves are too fragile to stay in the Fourth Age. Gandalf's task, and that of the other Wizards, was done: humanity (and hobbit-kind and presumably dwarf-kind as well) could look after itself from now on.
The Scouring of the Shire has always been my favourite part of the story, when the evil that had loomed over the world came home, when the great and numinous became reified and the concrete and immediate menace of development threatened the heroes' home. They could save the world, but then when they got home, that needed them too - nothing was safe from the Shadow.
Oh, and Eowyn rocks. Miranda Otto is an actor to watch, I think, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see her getting an Oscar for that role - except, of course, that Sean Astin might well beat her to it. Then again, Sam Gamgee is the real hero of the books, and the films too, so that's one each.
