The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - In restrospect, are you glad you saw the movies?

Lyta_Underhill · 09-28-2003, 02:56 PM

I can certainly understand disillusionment when one is jarred from a personal understanding of the books to a very different image of all your favorites in a movie; however, I must agree with those on this thread who say that the films are a respectable effort that enhanced my enjoyment of the books. It is sometimes difficult to picture scenes and characters in ME without seeing the actors and sets sometimes, but my effort to find as much Tolkien artwork as possible gives me so much diversity in this tiny sphere of a brain that I can draw a sort of "holographic" awareness of the true nature of Middle Earth, a sort of collective consciousness, rather than a personal one. <P>Sure, I was mad about the Faramir scenes, the chronic Frodo power drain in favor of the "doe in the headlights" theme, the sudden haste and gullibility of Treebeard and the Ents, the general time compression, etc. but a lot of it is inherent in filmmaking and adaptation of a rather long, slow paced, detail-heavy work. I think the spirit has been maintained for the most part, so I am certainly the richer for having seen the movies!<P>On a tangent, I noticed this same effect when I recently re-read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and then decided I wanted to see a movie adaptation. I noticed that in the two versions I watched (1939 and 1993), both left out Tom Sawyer completely and compressed the ending radically. I was a bit angry when I noticed it on the first one, but then by the end of the second one, I was OK with it, because it was inevitable and the spirit was maintained. (BTW, Elijah Wood is an EXCELLENT Huck Finn, better than Mickey Rooney, IMO, but this could have been script focus..etc. etc.) OK, back to your regularly scheduled discussion! <P>Cheers,<BR>Lyta

09-28-2003, 02:56 PM	#30
Lyta_Underhill Haunted Halfling Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: an uncounted length of steps--floating between air molecules Posts: 841	I can certainly understand disillusionment when one is jarred from a personal understanding of the books to a very different image of all your favorites in a movie; however, I must agree with those on this thread who say that the films are a respectable effort that enhanced my enjoyment of the books. It is sometimes difficult to picture scenes and characters in ME without seeing the actors and sets sometimes, but my effort to find as much Tolkien artwork as possible gives me so much diversity in this tiny sphere of a brain that I can draw a sort of "holographic" awareness of the true nature of Middle Earth, a sort of collective consciousness, rather than a personal one. <P>Sure, I was mad about the Faramir scenes, the chronic Frodo power drain in favor of the "doe in the headlights" theme, the sudden haste and gullibility of Treebeard and the Ents, the general time compression, etc. but a lot of it is inherent in filmmaking and adaptation of a rather long, slow paced, detail-heavy work. I think the spirit has been maintained for the most part, so I am certainly the richer for having seen the movies!<P>On a tangent, I noticed this same effect when I recently re-read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and then decided I wanted to see a movie adaptation. I noticed that in the two versions I watched (1939 and 1993), both left out Tom Sawyer completely and compressed the ending radically. I was a bit angry when I noticed it on the first one, but then by the end of the second one, I was OK with it, because it was inevitable and the spirit was maintained. (BTW, Elijah Wood is an EXCELLENT Huck Finn, better than Mickey Rooney, IMO, but this could have been script focus..etc. etc.) OK, back to your regularly scheduled discussion! <P>Cheers,<BR>Lyta __________________ “…she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.”