Random Thoughts On Lord Of The Rings
Nov. 4th, 2004 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloWe spent election day watching Lord of the Rings. The rental company had sent us disc one of TFOTH and disc one of TTT, but, happily, the whole of TROTK. We watched the whole thing minus those two chunks, but- hey- we knew the story anyway.
The simple mythical story suits our times. The bad guys are ever so bad and the good guys are ever so good. Actually, "mythical" is the wrong word. True myth has nothing to do with good and evil. LOTR isn't a myth it's a morality play.
I don't think it's possible for a morality play to be great art- and LOTR certainly isn't, neither the book nor the film.
Tolkien stole Gollum from Dickens. He's part Fagin, part Uriah Heep.
God, but aren't the Riders of Rohan boring!
The scenes I like best in the book go for little in the film. The Mines of Moria and the Dead Marshes. Jackson's Dead Marshes are particularly feeble. He doesn't do spooky at all well.
Talking about spooky- the silliest thing in the story is the bit where Aragorn rides to the rescue at the head of an army of deaders. Tolkien rather skates over it (as well he might) but the film exposes the full absurdity of the idea. An army of monsters is swept away by an army of ghosts- all green and glowy like halloween novelties- oh please!
The battles scenes are OK, but they're not the greatest ever filmed.
The greatest battle scene ever filmed is in Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight.
The second and third are the opening and closing sequences of Saving Private Ryan. The battles in Kurosawa's Ran are pretty amazing too.
So why didn't they just get one of those eagles to carry the ring-bearer? No-one ever sees them coming. Frodo could have dropped the ring into Mt Doom from a great height and- bingo- the whole mission would have been done and dusted in half an hour.
The simple mythical story suits our times. The bad guys are ever so bad and the good guys are ever so good. Actually, "mythical" is the wrong word. True myth has nothing to do with good and evil. LOTR isn't a myth it's a morality play.
I don't think it's possible for a morality play to be great art- and LOTR certainly isn't, neither the book nor the film.
Tolkien stole Gollum from Dickens. He's part Fagin, part Uriah Heep.
God, but aren't the Riders of Rohan boring!
The scenes I like best in the book go for little in the film. The Mines of Moria and the Dead Marshes. Jackson's Dead Marshes are particularly feeble. He doesn't do spooky at all well.
Talking about spooky- the silliest thing in the story is the bit where Aragorn rides to the rescue at the head of an army of deaders. Tolkien rather skates over it (as well he might) but the film exposes the full absurdity of the idea. An army of monsters is swept away by an army of ghosts- all green and glowy like halloween novelties- oh please!
The battles scenes are OK, but they're not the greatest ever filmed.
The greatest battle scene ever filmed is in Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight.
The second and third are the opening and closing sequences of Saving Private Ryan. The battles in Kurosawa's Ran are pretty amazing too.
So why didn't they just get one of those eagles to carry the ring-bearer? No-one ever sees them coming. Frodo could have dropped the ring into Mt Doom from a great height and- bingo- the whole mission would have been done and dusted in half an hour.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-05 09:17 am (UTC)The nazgul are supposed to be these invincible, immortal terminator types, but every time anyone stands up to them they wimp out. On Weathertop Aragorn routs five of them with nothing more than a flaming torch- and they run off with their nightshirts on fire.
And earlier one of them turns back at the Brandywine when the hobbits are within his grasp for no better reason than that his horse doesn't want to get its hooves wet.