Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/05/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Best joke about Lord of the Rings is when South Park did a take on it. One of the kids was watching the special edition with 8 extra hours of footage. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marc James Small" Subject: [Leica] Lord of the Rings > I was rather distressed to note that several of you seem to have found the > film version of the Lord of Rings unsatsfactory. I found the trilogy > reflected well most of the books though it comprehensively misses the > subtle nature of Saruman's degradation into evil. Other than that, the > films work rather well. > > (I can always nitpick: the presentation of Elrond is far too harsh and > there is no real stress on his import within the forces of good, as the > surviving son of Earendil and the brother of Elros, the founder of the > royal line which Aragorn represents. Thus, Elrond's disapproval of Aragorn > in the films is a bit of a problem, but, then, Elrond is a > behind-the-scenes player in the books so this mischaracterization is less > troubling than the failure to properly portray Saruman.) > > Christopher Tolkien was extremely careful to ensure that the movies held > close to the books in their plot and this was accomplished. Do the movies > represent MY views of the trilogy? No, but they come close. > > And understand that I am a Tolkien freak of the first water: my copy of > the FELLOWSHIP, bought new, is a first-edition Ballantine printing and I > bought the Ace editions of the next two books as Ballantine delayed in > releasing theirs. (Yes, yes, the copy I read now is a much later edition > and incorporates all of the later emendations.) I appreciate the > conscientious effort to produce a series of movies being true to the > author's vision, something which I feel is lacking in the HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE. > > Marc > msmall@aya.yale.edu