Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Barry]

I think it is a children's book from beginning to end. Tolkein never intended it to be an adult story; that is what the LOTR is. If anything, The Hobbit was intended to be an introduction to the LOTR for older readers.

I thought Jackson made a pretty good fist of the film. The LOTR is a sprawling book with such an enormous back story, that it would have been almost impossible to transfer it fully to the screen. As far as the set design was concerned, well that was in virtually all cases exactly how I had imaginined the scene in my 'minds eye' when I read the books (some forty years ago).

The second book; 'The Two Towers' is quite rambling with the Fellowship having been broken: the remaining members going in different routes, and there are a lot of battles going on. Parts of 'The Return of the King' are almost mystical. Jackson was right to prune these out, though the meaning and implication of the Scouraging of the Shire is not correctly brought out, nor so the departure to the Western Lands by all the Ringbearers. Jackson was also right with the deletion to all references to Tom Bombadil and Goldberry: they come from an earlier time of Middle Earth, which is why the Ring has no effect on them. The viewing audience already had to assimilate much, so their appearence would have been too confusing.


I rewatched the extended DVDs last year - I really must get around to re-reading the book (Something I have said I ought to do since the screening of the first of Jackson's films!).

[Macca]

The Hobbit was written before LOTR I think - so cannot have been intended as an introduction. Agree on the set design of LOTR, it was pretty much spot on excepting some of the 'Tellytubbyland' Shire sets.

[synsei]

The book paints Faramir as a gentle but dutiful man who is always living in the shadow of his brother. There is much love between Boromir and Faramir and both brothers are painfully aware of the unfair treatment their father hoists onto Faramir, and yet both do there duty for the love of Gondor. The reader develops a deep respect and sympathy for Faramir as this section of the book draws on, which deepens immensely when Faramir is badly injured. In the Film the slow build of respect and sympathy is lost quit early on when Faramir does a Boromir and vows to return the ring to Minas Tirith and his father. Why when there is no need? Frodo and Sam didn't need to take part in the Battle for Osgiliath to , as Jackson put it, flesh out the action. Read the book man, the battle is as traumatic as it needs to be without Frodo, Sam and Gollum. In fact their being there detracts from these scenes IMO.

[Macca]

It is a long film and we could pull it apart as fans if we wanted to but on the whole it does get so much right especially the visuals which as Barry says are almost exactly as we imagine them when reading. Just a shame he lost the plot a bit towards the end - literally and figuratively

[synsei]

Don't get me wrong Martin, the guy did a fabulous job on the whole. As Barry mentioned a couple of posts ago, it is as if Jackson had been inside my head when I read the books, everything looked exactly how I imagined it would. I have the extended DVD's and once in a while I put a day by and watch them all. Fabulous

[Barry]

The Hobbit was written before LOTR I think - so cannot have been intended as an introduction. Agree on the set design of LOTR, it was pretty much spot on excepting some of the 'Tellytubbyland' Shire sets.

Yes LOTR was written after The Hobbit, but it was intended by Tolkein that The Hobbit should serve as an introduction to LOTR. Later editions of The Hobbit, post the writing of LOTR, say as much in the preface. The Hobbit was written as a childrens book, LOTR as an adult book (or more accurately, for those readers of The Hobbit once thay had grown up).

I liked the Shire (they did have Tolkein's illustrations to work with). My only difference was Lothlorien was not quite how I had imagined it, but was a very acceptable substitute.

Sauruman's tower and the depection of the subsequent uprooting of the forest to forge weapons for Sauron was very well done, as was the creation of the uruk-hai. My only real dislike, and one which made me wince, was the depection of the Ents on the march - far to Disneyesque!

[Barry]

The other night, this:

The Buena Vista Social Club



A warm hearted and excellent music documentary about the making of Ry Cooder's, Grammy winning, 'The Buena Vista Social Club'. The latter is a 'must have' CD for all lovers of Caribbean music.

Watching this DVD you get some wonderful glimpses of Cuba before the revolution: faded, run-down Spanish colonial buildings and sadly rusting 1950's American cars - fins and all!

[synsei]

Actually Middle Earth and the eventual plotline for The Hobbit sprang into being as bedtime stories thought up on the spot for his son Christopher when he was little, and in fact although The Hobbit was begun before Lord Of The Rings, J.R.R did not actually complete it until after WWII and his completion of LOTR, at least that is what is written in the Appendices of my early 70's copy. There are quite a few differing accounts but this is one a tend to trust as it was written by Christopher Tolkien.

[Barry]

According to my copy of The Hobbit (Fourth edition, 1978), it was first published in 1937. And according to my copy of LOTR (the three volume version, second edition, fourth impression, 1969), was first published in 1954.

According to the Foreword to The LOTR, it was started shortly after the completion of The Hobbit in 1937. It seemes it took some 12 years in gestation with some passages written in 1944 being sent out to Christopher Tolkein, then in South Africa with the RAF.

I can well believe the whole idea of Middle Earth, Hobbits, Orcs and all started as bedtime stories told by Tolkein to his son.

I was too dogmatic when I stated that in my copy of the Hobbit it says it is an introduction to LOTR. I was wrong - what it does say, as a footnote on the last page, is: "If you are interested in Hobbits you will learn a lot more about them in The Lord of the Rings".

The Prologue to The Lord of the Rings makes some reference to 'The Hobbit' (or more correctly, Bilbo's book entitled 'There and Back Again') in mentioning the Shire, Hobbits and of Bilbo's finding of the One Ring, just before he met Gollum.

[MartinT]

Flight



Well-acted document of the downfall of an airline pilot from heroic rescue of a doomed airliner to the discovery and attempted cover-up of his alcoholism. This is possibly the performance of a lifetime for Denzel Washington. Getting the fine detail of a drunk - the highs and lows, the unpredictability - just right takes some doing and he is utterly believable in the role.

I wonder if anyone else appreciated the rather fine female form in the opening scene? Not to mention the stunning redhead he meets later in the story.

I thought the film was in danger of a severe slip in morality, appearing to condone the taking of cocaine as a pick-me-up, but the strong storyline and powerful ending take an altogether different 'line'. A good film, better than I expected it to be.