A great good
Jan. 4th, 2005 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerLast Tuesday we watched all the extended Lord of the Rings films consecutively.
I would like to think that this film (it is one film: the temptation to add “to rule them all” is well nigh overwhelming) will be regarded as one of the first truly great events of the twenty-first century. The magnitude of the achievement of Peter Jackson and his cast and crew staggers the imagination. There are those who do not like it: nothing pleases everybody. And some of these people do that peculiarly human trick of imagining that because they do not like a thing, it therefore should not have been done. I’ve seen ranting and railing to this effect on the web. I don’t understand these people. I don’t want to.
But it was done. It exists. It is a real thing. And I have lived to see it. That's a great good.
I don’t believe there will, or necessarily should, ever be another cinematic production of Lord of the Rings. We don’t need one. This is the definitive film version, and any attempt to do it again would either fall short, or be regarded as simply an imitation. This, flaws and all, is the best film that could be made of…well, how can one describe the book? I personally feel it is the greatest work of literature this century has produced, but if I said that I would be deluged with comments about Tolkien’s alleged lack of storytelling skills and stylistic polish, the book’s lack of plot(!) and strong female characters (or female characters at all), the reactionary tendencies, the simplistic view of good and evil, the talkiness, the this, the that and doubtless the other as well, and I’d end up getting into arguments with people who know more than I do about everything except my heart, which will not change its opinion. It has been said to be the most read book in the world after the Bible, which might be taken as an index of some kind of success. It was, I think, directly responsible for the success of fantasy as a genre, and thus for the publication of many other books I have loved (some more than LotR, if I’m honest), and some I have laughed at. Would there be a Discworld if not for Tolkien?
Maybe I should stick to personal opinions. This is the best film I have ever seen. Based on the greatest book I have ever read. I wish I could thank everyone involved, personally, face to face, one after the other, for the gift they have given all of us: a labour of love, a tour de force, for which, however much money they make from theatrical releases and DVDs and merchandise and so on, we will owe them for ever.
I would like to think that this film (it is one film: the temptation to add “to rule them all” is well nigh overwhelming) will be regarded as one of the first truly great events of the twenty-first century. The magnitude of the achievement of Peter Jackson and his cast and crew staggers the imagination. There are those who do not like it: nothing pleases everybody. And some of these people do that peculiarly human trick of imagining that because they do not like a thing, it therefore should not have been done. I’ve seen ranting and railing to this effect on the web. I don’t understand these people. I don’t want to.
But it was done. It exists. It is a real thing. And I have lived to see it. That's a great good.
I don’t believe there will, or necessarily should, ever be another cinematic production of Lord of the Rings. We don’t need one. This is the definitive film version, and any attempt to do it again would either fall short, or be regarded as simply an imitation. This, flaws and all, is the best film that could be made of…well, how can one describe the book? I personally feel it is the greatest work of literature this century has produced, but if I said that I would be deluged with comments about Tolkien’s alleged lack of storytelling skills and stylistic polish, the book’s lack of plot(!) and strong female characters (or female characters at all), the reactionary tendencies, the simplistic view of good and evil, the talkiness, the this, the that and doubtless the other as well, and I’d end up getting into arguments with people who know more than I do about everything except my heart, which will not change its opinion. It has been said to be the most read book in the world after the Bible, which might be taken as an index of some kind of success. It was, I think, directly responsible for the success of fantasy as a genre, and thus for the publication of many other books I have loved (some more than LotR, if I’m honest), and some I have laughed at. Would there be a Discworld if not for Tolkien?
Maybe I should stick to personal opinions. This is the best film I have ever seen. Based on the greatest book I have ever read. I wish I could thank everyone involved, personally, face to face, one after the other, for the gift they have given all of us: a labour of love, a tour de force, for which, however much money they make from theatrical releases and DVDs and merchandise and so on, we will owe them for ever.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-04 04:38 pm (UTC)Hee hee ...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-04 08:31 pm (UTC)There are (at least) two animated movies that are musicals. Well, not exactly musicals; the singing is done by the bard/narrator telling the story rather than by the characters themselves, but there are songs.
The Hobbit and The Return of the King, produced by Arthur Rankin, Jr., and Jules Bass. Jules Bass also "wrote and adapted" the lyrics. Music by Maury Laws, screenplay by Romeo Muller. Released on DVD by Warner Brothers. I've got them here.
I suppose that they didn't bother with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers because of the animated/rotoscoped Ralph Bakshi version of the first half of the trilogy, leaving a gap, but perhaps they were produced and I just haven't seen them, or they weren't released on DVD.
Producing a real musical, operetta or opera with live actors singing their character development and maybe plot would be another thing. Either it would be a series (a new Ring cycle) or there would be brutal compromises.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-04 09:17 pm (UTC)I think if the whole thing were done properly it would indeed be around the size of Wagner's Ring cycle. But in English and without as much repetition...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-05 11:30 am (UTC)Sounds like a job for the Reduced Tolkein Company... *grin*