[Erulasto]

Let's take a deep breath. Repeat after me:<P>Tolkien... is not God.<BR>LOTR... is not the Bible.<P>Now that that's out of the way, on to the movie.<P>Why on earth is it so important that the movie slavishly follows the book? I for one was glad that the elves were written into Helm's deep, because I got to see them in action. The shot of them marching there, accompanied only by the sounds of their weapons, their footsteps silent... that alone was worth the price of admission.<P>The shot of a veiled Arwen standing by the dead King Elessar took my breath away.<P>The sight of the Rohirrim charging against the Warg Riders, along with the music, insipred awe.<P>The camera panning around Éowyn, the nordic fiddle playing the Rohan theme, as the banner of the Mark flies off in the wind... pure gold.<P>Legolas' gravity-defying mounting of the horse - epitomizing everything I thought an Elven warrior was - quick, light, nimble, superhuman strength. My mother, who hasn't read the books commented that the scene made her think elves must be really light. PJ pulled off conveying this without a single word needed.<P>Théoden reciting the 'Where is the horse and the rider' poem. Pure brilliance (pun not intended, mostly). Sure, it's not the original verbatim, but it carries the <I>spirit</I> of the Rohirrim perfectly.<P>Never in my wildest dreams could I hope for such a magnificent portrayal of Middle-Earth. I don't understand how anyone cares about the details of the narrative. That was never the magic of Tolkien, nor his main incentive in writing the story. I see the minor plot changes of PJ, FW, and PB as a GOOD thing, not because they're better than Tolkien's version, but because the WORK on the screen, and I get at least some sense of surprise from the movies.<P>Never did I dream that the people adapting the movies would work so hard in getting the things that mattered right:<P>They got the accents right. And I'm not talking about the various english accents. No, the ELVISH accents. Speakers of Sindarin sound like Welshmen who've lived in Ireland for ten years; Saruman's Quenya chant sounds like a Finn singing a verse from Kalevala. They coached Christopher Lee to sound like a Finn, for 5 seconds of dialogue.<P>The Shire looked like the Shire, to the last little detail, and they planted crops a YEAR beforehand to make it look authentic, for chrissakes.<P>The Orcs look a bit different from what I imagined (they were more Warcraft/Warhammer influenced in my mind), but they FELT right. The Rohirrim both look and feel right. The first time I saw Gimli's helm, I smiled in delight because it was just PERFECT for a dwarf.<P>The land in the movie IS Middle-Earth, more than any cartoon or drawing or rendition has ever been. I am incredibly thankful that this movie was made by someone who cared about the right things - the world, the feel, the sense of culture and history, the emotional weight of the work, not pedantic regurgitation of every plot line and character á la Columbus's Harry Potter movies. If you want the book word by word, read the damn thing! That's why Tolkien wrote it!<P>At first I got mad at people yelling stupid things like 'abomination' and 'travesty' and 'sacrilege'. Now I just feel pity for them - pity that they have such small, unimportant lives that warrant this level of fury over a movie; and more importantly, pity because I wish they could see the movies as I have seen them - with utter wonder and gratitude to truly feel like I was finally walking in Middle-Earth.<P>edit=<BR>PS. How could I forget 'Forth Eorlingas!' and Theoden, Aragorn, &co in full armour, riding out of the Hornburg, mowing through the Orcs like so much warm butter. Amazing.<p>[ February 15, 2003: Message edited by: Erulasto ]