Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
My view is that nobody but Tolkien can write Tolkien.
Consider this analogy: a composer today succeeds in writing imitation Mozart which is such an expert pastiche one can hardly tell the difference (although I doubt Mozart's sublimity could ever be reproduced). But in that case, wouldn't we want a composer that talented writing his own stuff, not imitating? Similarly, if there exists (which I doubt) a screenwriter of the awesome talent required to adapt Tolkien well, then his talent is wasted on adaptation.
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That is well put, and I quite agree.
But while the adaptations fall ever short of their source material, Peter Jackson's movies hold a special place in my heart for being my first taste of Tolkien, however tainted it might have been. I suppose my feelings toward them might be quite different had I read the books first. For instance, I
did read The Silmarillion before seeing Rings of Power (I know they don't technically have the rights to The Sil., but they are dealing with things covered in The Sil.) and I surely bear no love for it. Then I ask myself how RoP is different from PJ's movies, and I don't have a very good answer (other than that I far prefer the effects and writing in the movies; some of RoP is downright "cringey", and you certainly couldn't tell that it has a billion dollar budget if you didn't know). So, I guess it's just a bit of favouritism on my part.
In the end nothing can hold a candle to the original work, but somehow I like P.J.'s movies anyway.