ROTK - Ultimate Best Film winner

[Sauron the White]

WCH - one could say the same of any beliefs. The beliefs of the people who participated in this film poll. Your political or social beliefs. My beliefs about what shoes to buy.

So what?

This is a Tolkien site and I thought people would like to hear the great news.

What does addition have to do with anything?

Sounds to me like you just don't like the movies and you are displeased to see that so many people do. This is hardly news that they are going to stop the presses for.

[Mnemosyne]

My issue with the poll is not so much that the will of the masses may be right or wrong, but that the masses themselves are automatically limited by the nature of the poll.

This is not a representative sample of the population; it's a sample of people who were online (specifically on Yahoo), knew about the poll and cared enough to vote in it. Which automatically skews the population such that it's younger. Plus there are a lot more people active online who care about Lord of the Rings than, say, Casablanca (I can't even think of an equivalent of a Balrog-wings debate in that universe!).

Now, I'm sure that there were plenty of people in the poll who were simply movie afficionados in general and had some really tough decisions to make when casting their vote--and voted for RotK. But we have a still-active fanbase out there, including Yahoo groups, and they could very well have influenced the voting--it doesn't take that large of a margin if things are close.

Call me again when the poll seems to be statistically valid and then I'll celebrate.



Also, what release of RotK are we talking about? The theatrical release for me felt as if it was depending too much on the EE and so had a lot more plotholes than, say, Fellowship.

[Sauron the White]

Gee whiz folks - this news would have gone over better on a Star Wars board. I would have thought people on a Tolkien board would have been very happy to hear it.

[Mnemosyne]

I would be a good deal happier if I felt it were telling me any sort of information I could trust! As it is, I can't manage to dredge up any sort of feeling for it, negative or positive, even though I am certainly not ambivalent about the films themselves.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

ROTK cinematically was good, but had way too
many absurd changes to be considered in the
top 1,000 movies (sorry). To cite some, maia
Gandalf's assaulting the Steward of Gondor,
the green slime at the BotPF, yadda,
yadda, yadda.
On the other hand FOTR was very good (and the
only one I really rewatch). If I was an Academy
voter I'd have been hard pressed to choose
between it and Chicago .

[Gwathagor]

Wow, weird. RotK was good, but it wasn't that good. Certainly not better than Godfather, Casablanca, Gladiator, or Lawrence of Arabia. I wonder if RotK will stand the test of time as well as some of those other films.

[Morthoron]

Personally, I would like to see the age demographics of the survey. I wonder if a large proportion of the voters have even seen such films as Lawrence of Arabia or Casablanca, or even have the wherewithal to judge the merits of a great film.

On the American Film Institute's Top 100 films, Fellowship of the Ring is rated 50th. That sounds about right; although I have misgivings for the manner in which the AFI list is concatenated as well.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Gee whiz folks - this news would have gone over better on a Star Wars board. I would have thought people on a Tolkien board would have been very happy to hear it.

Oh come on, STW– you know we fancy ourselves as intellectuals here. Do you really expect us to be thrilled that a bunch of Yahoo! users have voted "Return of the King" TEH MOST AWSOMEST MOVIE EVAH LIEK WHOA!!!!111!!!!

So humiliating...

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Gee whiz folks - this news would have gone over better on a Star Wars board. I would have thought people on a Tolkien board would have been very happy to hear it.

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Oh come on, STW– you know we fancy ourselves as intellectuals here. Do you really expect us to be thrilled that a bunch of Yahoo! users have voted "Return of the King" TEH MOST AWSOMEST MOVIE EVAH LIEK WHOA!!!!111!!!!

So humiliating...

Actually, the folks at TheOneRing.net are doing handstands of joy due to the proclamation, but they have always been more film/fan boy oriented (not all, there are many serious Tolkien enthusiasts there, but there are even more Legolas-lovers). I think there are perhaps more folks here who are interested in the literature and not so much the films; at least that's my impression. Personally, I don't consider RotK in my top 10 films, or top 20 for that matter. The poor scripting and juvenile plot changes ruined the experience for me. Brilliant cinematography, great special effects, but ham-handed direction and some questionable casting. I am sure you have a difference of opinion in that regard, but we wouldn't be having many in-depth discussions here if we all followed the company line.

[Durelin]

I always get disturbed by how much some of the *intellectuals* here love to attack anyone who insults their *intellectualism*. You've gone well beyond the the usual complaing about the films on this thread.

Get over yourselves enough to be respectful maybe, please?

I apologize, but I really did feel that was necessary. I should have left bad enough alone, but here I am hitting the reply button...

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by Durelin

I always get disturbed by how much the *intellectuals* here love to attack anyone who insults their *intellectualism*. You've gone well beyond the the usual whining about the films on this thread.

But we're such elitists around here, Durelin, we simply can't.

Speaking strictly about movies here and not books. I feel if any LOTR movie should win best film it should have be Fellowship of the Ring. It was far more magical than Return of the King and I thought the script was better than either of the other two LOTR movies.

Still there are better movies that have come out since ROTK. There are scenes that if I had never read the books would jump out to me as ridiculous and stupid compared to the larger story. Example: Denethor's almost Mel Brooks-ish death plunge, how was that not funny? Or all the build up of Saruman in the first two movies, but in the theatrical release he's not even shown..., and why should Merry and Pippin be honored like Frodo and Sam?

As a movie ROTK has great battle scenes and for the most part the dialogue is good (ignoring all and any references to Arwen being tied to the Ring). But to label it the greatest movie of all time is far fetched. In my opinion it's not even the best of the three, much less the best movie I've ever seen. I will still gladly watch it and suspend my annoyance at book changes to enjoy it, but I'd hardly put it above great pieces of cinema like Gone with the Wind, Schindler's List, or even Little Miss Sunshine.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Durelin

I always get disturbed by how much some of the *intellectuals* here love to attack anyone who insults their *intellectualism*.

If that was directed at me: uh– you do realise I was trying to be funny, don't you?

*sigh*

'Tis a thankless task. Or perhaps I'm just not– *sniff* – not very good at it... *sob*


*broken-hearted weeping*