Steve Dulson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have to disagree with Victor and Kate's opinions about the lack of character development in the movie. Just one example - the was a collective gasp of anguish from the audience that I was in when Boromir was shot. Obviously, *that* audience had found a way to relate to the characters.
I did not mean that people could not make any emotional connection to the characters or not relate to them at all. I was really able to connect with Frodo and with Gandalf, especially throughout the whole beginning in the Shire. But after that, I was unable to really fall under the spell of the movie. When you have read something around a dozen times and the characters are so vivid in your imagination, I think most any attempt to portray them on a live screen is going to seem lacking. I know these characters too well...every little piece of dialogue that illuminates some facet of their personality. In the book, Pippin drops a small pebble down the well that makes the tiniest noise but a noise that can be heard throughout the caverns. Gandalf is angry and makes Pippin take the first watch, and then feels sorry for him and relieves the young lad. In the movie, instead of pebble, he drops a skull and a whole coat of armour down, that makes an obvious noise that draws the orcs and the attack ensues. It is these little differences that made it so hard to be drawn into the movie version. Another major thing was Saruman commanding the mountain to attack the party which I thought was completely absurd. You might expect that in a typical "good against evil" movie but Tolkien is so much more subtle and unique. In the book, it is the mountain itself that wants them to turn around and not let them continue. These differences may not seem that important but they are a big part of the fabric of Tolkien's writing. And throughout the movie, he had a tendency to oversimplify things and over exaggerate parts, I guess, so they would be more easily understood by people who had never read the original. This may be all well and good for the movie but in many ways, so much of the magic and subtleness is lost. Each time I reread LoTR I notice more and more of these things and experience a different journey every time. To be thrust into a movie version was just too difficult for me I think. I agree that he did a remarkable job and I am glad that so many people have been able to really enjoy it. Victor in snowy Athens It must have been a terrifically hard film to make, and I think some of the action sequences went on too long - how much screen time did the cave troll get? - and one or two of the casting choices seem odd, but overall I think Jackson did an excellent job. -- ################################################## ###### Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The Tinker's Own" http://www.tinkersown.com "The Living Tradition Concert Series" http://www.thelivingtradition.org/
