Artist intent versus viewer perception - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 06-24-2012, 04:20 PM

Feel free to kill this thread if it's been done before.

I've been watching the movie with the commentaries running - designers for starters but then got interested in cast commentary later in FOTR & Two Towers.

Two interesting points came out from it.

Theoden's character explaining that he was trying to get across the idea of slowly coming back from decrepitude, not entirely trusting Gandalf at first. One instance is that Gandalf grabs his arm the way Wormtongue used to, and it brings back to Theoden that sense of "do I - can I trust him?"

Here's the thing - (sure, it's different from the book, so much is, I don't care to take this thread in that direction) - that was totally lost on me in all my viewings until I heard his commentary. It looked to me like Theoden was being willfully obstructionist, and I found it really irritating.

I'd be interested to read others' takes on that and other such instances.

Here's another one: commentary from the designers came out that they showed Two Towers Uruk Hai as aging and Return of the King Uruk Hai as experiments gone badly wrong.

What I remember is seeing this gray haired, slightly aged Uruk, and I remember thinking - ah, a somewhat hale and smart orc to have lasted to old age.

In other words, I totally missed the designer's intent.

How about others?

06-24-2012, 04:20 PM	#1
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,072	Artist intent versus viewer perception Feel free to kill this thread if it's been done before. I've been watching the movie with the commentaries running - designers for starters but then got interested in cast commentary later in FOTR & Two Towers. Two interesting points came out from it. Theoden's character explaining that he was trying to get across the idea of slowly coming back from decrepitude, not entirely trusting Gandalf at first. One instance is that Gandalf grabs his arm the way Wormtongue used to, and it brings back to Theoden that sense of "do I - can I trust him?" Here's the thing - (sure, it's different from the book, so much is, I don't care to take this thread in that direction) - that was totally lost on me in all my viewings until I heard his commentary. It looked to me like Theoden was being willfully obstructionist, and I found it really irritating. I'd be interested to read others' takes on that and other such instances. Here's another one: commentary from the designers came out that they showed Two Towers Uruk Hai as aging and Return of the King Uruk Hai as experiments gone badly wrong. What I remember is seeing this gray haired, slightly aged Uruk, and I remember thinking - ah, a somewhat hale and smart orc to have lasted to old age. In other words, I totally missed the designer's intent. How about others?