The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - 'An attrocious movie which is a despicable insult to a wonderful book'

davem · 02-20-2003, 04:37 AM

Saucepan man, everything you say about the films is, for me, valid about Fellowship, but not about Towers. I felt so let down by Towers. I can't express how disappointed I was with it.Apart from anything else, by putting so much violence on the screen they had to cut back on the story, so we're only about half way through the actual story, with only 1/3 of the screen time left, so RotK will inevitably have to be butchered to fit the last film.<BR>Also, I can accept that the writers are fans of the book, but, to quote Proffessor Tolkien in 'On Fairy Stories' (talking about a dramatisation of The Wind in the Willows he saw with some children):<BR>'..a perceptive admirer (as distinct from a great admirer) of the book would never have attempted to dramatise it. Naturally, only the simpler ingredients, the pantomime & the satyric beast fable elements are capable of presentation in this form. The play is, on the lower level, tolerably good fun, especially for those who have not read the book'.<BR>A dramatisation of LotR could only have been a poor 'tribute' to the book, but the writers got carried away. They are not good enough writers. They changed some of Tolkien's greatest prose, or replaced it with drivel. 'Even the smallest person can change the course of the future' is, apart from being appalling english, simply not the way Galadriel would express herself - she might say something like (with apologies to the proffessor!)'It has often been seen by the wise that those deemed insignificant have brought to ruin the strongholds of the mighty'. Tom Shippey goes into this whole subject in his book, Tokien, Author of the century, the language each character uses is determined by the character's experiences & also in Galadriel's case by the fact that she is multilingual - she speaks at least 3 languages, Quenya, Sindarin & Westron ( as well as some Dwarvish. Each language (something Flieger goes in to in Splintered Light) comes out of a different perception of the world - the language you speak/think in, affects your perception of reality.<BR>Tolkien's creation is so subtle & complex, & therefore will fall apart, collapse into trivial nonsense, if it's not handled carefully enough. The writers have played fast & loose with the story. I truly believe that the 3rd movie will be a disaster. Towers has introduced too many changes to characters & storyline.

02-20-2003, 04:37 AM	#93
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	Saucepan man, everything you say about the films is, for me, valid about Fellowship, but not about Towers. I felt so let down by Towers. I can't express how disappointed I was with it.Apart from anything else, by putting so much violence on the screen they had to cut back on the story, so we're only about half way through the actual story, with only 1/3 of the screen time left, so RotK will inevitably have to be butchered to fit the last film.<BR>Also, I can accept that the writers are fans of the book, but, to quote Proffessor Tolkien in 'On Fairy Stories' (talking about a dramatisation of The Wind in the Willows he saw with some children):<BR>'..a perceptive admirer (as distinct from a great admirer) of the book would never have attempted to dramatise it. Naturally, only the simpler ingredients, the pantomime & the satyric beast fable elements are capable of presentation in this form. The play is, on the lower level, tolerably good fun, especially for those who have not read the book'.<BR>A dramatisation of LotR could only have been a poor 'tribute' to the book, but the writers got carried away. They are not good enough writers. They changed some of Tolkien's greatest prose, or replaced it with drivel. 'Even the smallest person can change the course of the future' is, apart from being appalling english, simply not the way Galadriel would express herself - she might say something like (with apologies to the proffessor!)'It has often been seen by the wise that those deemed insignificant have brought to ruin the strongholds of the mighty'. Tom Shippey goes into this whole subject in his book, Tokien, Author of the century, the language each character uses is determined by the character's experiences & also in Galadriel's case by the fact that she is multilingual - she speaks at least 3 languages, Quenya, Sindarin & Westron ( as well as some Dwarvish. Each language (something Flieger goes in to in Splintered Light) comes out of a different perception of the world - the language you speak/think in, affects your perception of reality.<BR>Tolkien's creation is so subtle & complex, & therefore will fall apart, collapse into trivial nonsense, if it's not handled carefully enough. The writers have played fast & loose with the story. I truly believe that the 3rd movie will be a disaster. Towers has introduced too many changes to characters & storyline. __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."