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selenakYesterday brought my Two Towers DVD. Yes, I'm among those who couldn't wait for the Extended Edition, which of course I will devour in due time.
Once again I'm overwhelmed with love for Jackson & Co. Yes, nothing in this world is ever perfect (pace Aeryn and her view on TalynJohn, if you'll excuse the Farscape reference), and yes, I can nitpick if I want to (still think the Theoden exorcism was overdone, though I realise the cinematic reason, and think there are too few Ents in the Entmoot - the storming of Isengard has the right number, though), but that doesn't matter. Jackson and his crew, praise them with great praise - damn it, I knew filking would be addictive.
TT with its firmly separate storylines certainly was the most challenging of the three volumes to adapt, and I maintain they did a great job of it, down to making the choice of saving Shelob for RotK. That is a stunner of a scene, and shouldn't have to compete with the Helm's Deep/Isengard showdown but be allowed to stand on its own. My favourite scenes of the movie are still the ones with Frodo, Gollum and Sam - and if I have to pick one of those gems, it would be the sequence starting with Frodo stroking the ring and continuing with his and Gollum's conversation - but I love the Rohan scenes as well. Brad Dourif elevating Grima Wormtongue from ineffective third-rate villain to watchable creepiness, including twisted sexual tension with Eowyn and that ambiguous moment of a single tear when watching Saruman's army. Eowyn coming to splendid life via Miranda Otto. And oh, Theoden. Bless PJ and co. for visualizing the loss of Theodred so the audience can see it instead of just being told. "No parent should have to bury their child." That still tears me up.
Aragorn I was more or less indifferent to in the book - I mean, I liked him, but he never interested me as much as the other characters - which completly changed through the movies. Partly through Viggo Mortensen's acting - I think Sean Bean, in the FotR cast commentary, put it best when calling it "soulful" - and partly through the script changes, which I thoroughly approve of. Aragorn having no doubt that it's his destiny to be king of Gondor, or that Arwen should give up her immortality for him, is not as compelling as Aragorn growing into his role as king, having to come to terms with doubts, and not taking Arwen's sacrifice as granted. Speaking of Arwen, who certainly was one of the biggest bones of contention pre-release of the movies and partly afterwards, too - she was a cypher to me pre-film, but the movies and Liv Tyler's performance made me get out my copy of RotK and look up the appendices for The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. The sequence in TT when Elrond predicts her fate is such a beautiful, haunting visualisation of what Tolkien describes there, and one of my favourite scenes.
To return to the hobbits: I can't think of Frodo and Sam now anymore without seeing Elijah Wood and Sean Astin in the parts. They're exquisite. One of the interesting differences between book and film is this: in the book, we get basically only Sam's pov from TT onwards. In the movie, we get both Sam's and Frodo's, which makes for a shift in perception of Gollum as well as for a greater awareness of just what the ring is doing to Frodo. Being slowly eaten up from the inside is, I would have thought, hard to convey in visual medium, but the script and the gifted Mr. Wood come through and score.
Of the featurettes, I have watched the Extended Edition preview, and yay for the Faramir & Boromir & Denethor flashbacks! (Though I never had a problem with Movie!Faramir, nor saw him as a villain. Faramir is the only character who comes into contact with the ring for the first time in this film. Frankly, if he had been given his "wouldn't touch it if you paid me too" reaction from the book - which comes after lengthy conversations and meals in a pretty relaxed atmosphere, something you can do in a novel but not at this point in a movie - it would have been anticlimactic. Extending his temptation period? Fine, no problem.) I also watched the RotK preview, and long for December stronger than ever. Do you know that it only hit me know that the music used during Boromir's conversation with Aragorn in Lothlorien, when he describes Minas Tirith, is going to be the Minas Tirith/Gondor theme? Yes, I am slow at times. As the beautiful Rohan theme, it fits perfectly.
Speaking of the music: the video for Gollum's Song, which uses different footage from the one making the rounds on the net last winter, makes me want to rant again about the injustice of the Academy not nominating it. It's more deserving and original than any of the songs which were nominated, but decidedly not feel-good, and so it didn't make the cut. Grrr. Argh.
Back to my DVD now.
Once again I'm overwhelmed with love for Jackson & Co. Yes, nothing in this world is ever perfect (pace Aeryn and her view on TalynJohn, if you'll excuse the Farscape reference), and yes, I can nitpick if I want to (still think the Theoden exorcism was overdone, though I realise the cinematic reason, and think there are too few Ents in the Entmoot - the storming of Isengard has the right number, though), but that doesn't matter. Jackson and his crew, praise them with great praise - damn it, I knew filking would be addictive.
TT with its firmly separate storylines certainly was the most challenging of the three volumes to adapt, and I maintain they did a great job of it, down to making the choice of saving Shelob for RotK. That is a stunner of a scene, and shouldn't have to compete with the Helm's Deep/Isengard showdown but be allowed to stand on its own. My favourite scenes of the movie are still the ones with Frodo, Gollum and Sam - and if I have to pick one of those gems, it would be the sequence starting with Frodo stroking the ring and continuing with his and Gollum's conversation - but I love the Rohan scenes as well. Brad Dourif elevating Grima Wormtongue from ineffective third-rate villain to watchable creepiness, including twisted sexual tension with Eowyn and that ambiguous moment of a single tear when watching Saruman's army. Eowyn coming to splendid life via Miranda Otto. And oh, Theoden. Bless PJ and co. for visualizing the loss of Theodred so the audience can see it instead of just being told. "No parent should have to bury their child." That still tears me up.
Aragorn I was more or less indifferent to in the book - I mean, I liked him, but he never interested me as much as the other characters - which completly changed through the movies. Partly through Viggo Mortensen's acting - I think Sean Bean, in the FotR cast commentary, put it best when calling it "soulful" - and partly through the script changes, which I thoroughly approve of. Aragorn having no doubt that it's his destiny to be king of Gondor, or that Arwen should give up her immortality for him, is not as compelling as Aragorn growing into his role as king, having to come to terms with doubts, and not taking Arwen's sacrifice as granted. Speaking of Arwen, who certainly was one of the biggest bones of contention pre-release of the movies and partly afterwards, too - she was a cypher to me pre-film, but the movies and Liv Tyler's performance made me get out my copy of RotK and look up the appendices for The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. The sequence in TT when Elrond predicts her fate is such a beautiful, haunting visualisation of what Tolkien describes there, and one of my favourite scenes.
To return to the hobbits: I can't think of Frodo and Sam now anymore without seeing Elijah Wood and Sean Astin in the parts. They're exquisite. One of the interesting differences between book and film is this: in the book, we get basically only Sam's pov from TT onwards. In the movie, we get both Sam's and Frodo's, which makes for a shift in perception of Gollum as well as for a greater awareness of just what the ring is doing to Frodo. Being slowly eaten up from the inside is, I would have thought, hard to convey in visual medium, but the script and the gifted Mr. Wood come through and score.
Of the featurettes, I have watched the Extended Edition preview, and yay for the Faramir & Boromir & Denethor flashbacks! (Though I never had a problem with Movie!Faramir, nor saw him as a villain. Faramir is the only character who comes into contact with the ring for the first time in this film. Frankly, if he had been given his "wouldn't touch it if you paid me too" reaction from the book - which comes after lengthy conversations and meals in a pretty relaxed atmosphere, something you can do in a novel but not at this point in a movie - it would have been anticlimactic. Extending his temptation period? Fine, no problem.) I also watched the RotK preview, and long for December stronger than ever. Do you know that it only hit me know that the music used during Boromir's conversation with Aragorn in Lothlorien, when he describes Minas Tirith, is going to be the Minas Tirith/Gondor theme? Yes, I am slow at times. As the beautiful Rohan theme, it fits perfectly.
Speaking of the music: the video for Gollum's Song, which uses different footage from the one making the rounds on the net last winter, makes me want to rant again about the injustice of the Academy not nominating it. It's more deserving and original than any of the songs which were nominated, but decidedly not feel-good, and so it didn't make the cut. Grrr. Argh.
Back to my DVD now.
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Date: 2003-08-28 02:34 am (UTC)I loved the first movie, but that may have been because I liked the Shire, Lothlorien, and Boromir. With all three out of the picture in part two, and with a badly done siege sequence (I'm nitpicky when it comes to things military), that infantile skateboard scene, and a Norse feel to Rohan that I can't relate to, I only really enjoyed the landscapes, Arwen, and Gollum (but those a lot). Oh, and the ents were dire.
I have no doubt that some of our friends will buy the DVDs, so I will be able to watch it again without having to cough up money for it. Maybe I'll like it better then.
Chacun á son gout.
Date: 2003-08-28 07:51 am (UTC)Norse feeling: having read Prince Valiant (aka Prinz Eisenherz) as a child, plus the Edda and the other Norse myths (along with the Greek ones, Roman ones, etc.), I loved the Rohirrim. Tolkien, of course was the guy who brought Beowulf back to English universities...
no subject
Date: 2003-08-28 06:24 am (UTC)*is stubbornly waiting for the extendeds*
But. Ah. My dad'll probably buy it. I hope.
Hoping with you.
Date: 2003-08-28 08:23 am (UTC)Is it just me...
Date: 2003-10-16 03:05 pm (UTC)No, you're right.
Date: 2003-10-16 09:49 pm (UTC)