the exhibition itself
The LOTR exhibition (Boston, 7th of August 2003)
This will probably be my longuest post ever.... LOL!
To write this description of our tour of the exhibition, I took the report of a guy (or girl) on TORn and adapted it with my experience. I really hope its not a problem and I here and now appoligize to him/her if it is. For a stupid reason, I dont remember the name, but will add in next post. Some is of his writing, some of mine. His report was factual and I added my commentary, leaving his expressions of awe when it reflected mines. This guy’s english is far better than mine, he has more expressions and vocabulary: it helped! This is a long read, and full of LOTR references, easier to read for persons knowing the books/films… but it will serve for me too to remember that fabulous visit!
Before one enters the Museum, one can see the New Zealand flag is flying between the U.S. flag and the one for the Museum itself. There are several large posters on the outside walls. There is a huge window netting with the FotR theatrical poster on, on the window bank over the entrance, of the sort that is only visible from the outside. Inside the main lobby, there are long, paired banners hanging from the ceiling: Aragorn and Arwen; Frodo and Gandalf; Saruman and A Random Orc/Uruk-hai; and Gimli and...Elrond .
Before the entrance to the 'Red Wing' are the Argonath, in "simili" stone, quite impressive and at least 12-15 feet high. Of that we could take pictures, I will show you later this week, when they are downloaded off my camera. But back to the exhibit itself! The anteroom was a partial mock-up of Dwarrowdelf Hall, complete with pillar bases. Very nice set-up to make you want to see more!
No camera or cell phone where allowed inside: you are asked to leave it outside or leave oneself. The security guards are being very fair about this, I didn’t even see one person trying it. Sketchbooks are perfectly acceptable, on the other hand, so I decided to write all that I see inside, with short commentaries. Once in the exhibit, you are not allowed to leave and then come back, so we knew we would take out time going through it.
The exhibit was made of "islands" on different themes (hobbits, men, The one ring, armours…) of each you had a panel with blurbs about the film or subject, each pertaining to whatever props and/or costumes there displayed. There was also little TV’s where you could select videos on the subject. At first I would listen to all of them, but finally I skipped a lot of them, looking only the ones where the subject really mattered to me. Most of that material is on the EE-DVD’s anyway. Also all around the hall were framed paintings and pencil drawings by Alan Lee, John Howe, and other concept artists--simply beautiful. The artist in me was totally compelled by those. Some of those sketches where quite big. We see most of them in the EE DVD supplements, but to see and examine them from 4 inches away was a treat!
Just after entering through the doors was an absolutely huge sculpture of the Cave Troll and a Moria Orc. It had a rather startling effect, to say the least. Music from the multiple video features around the hall was played almost constantly everywhere in the exhibition; Howard Shore's gorgeous score was an excellent complement to the physical features displayed (as it was to the film), and made the exhibit even more wonderful.
To the left of the entrance was a whole wall of glass cases featuring various and sundry Elven items, including a sceptre, jewelry and an 'Elven telescope' with a few characters of Tengwar worked into the design (first case). The second case held Haldir's complete weapons kit from Helm's Deep, including a gorgeous double-recurve bow, a quiver full of swan-fletched (of course) arrows, and his sword and scabbard. The last cases contained Gil-galad's shield, as well as a regular Prologue Elven shield, with sword.
A Gondorian saddle, -cloth, and -horse was on display near these cases. The leather was beautifully tooled, worn and scratched with real wear. The cloth was a royal blue velvet, with white piping about the edges and the Tree on two of the corners. This, too, was worn, but stained instead with dried mud. Its obvious that they kept all those things fresh from the shooting.
There was a forced-perspective interactive exhibit, where 2 persons could be made hobbit and human size, explaining the special effect used in the movie. I didn’t go, there was a line, but watched, it was fun.
There were many 'islands' in the centre of the hall, displaying character costumes and related props. Aragorn and Arwen were on one, with his Ranger outfit, the shards of Narsil, and the reforged Anduril, and her riding (grey suede, when she saves Frodon) and Requiem dresses (lilac, when she begins to leave middle earth and see the vision of her son to be) with fabric swatches of the same. Also their respective jewellery (the Evenstar, the rings). Lets just say that the Ranger costume made quite an effect on me and my friend. We stared at it for very very long! LOL! You can see up close that its not black but a very very dark shade of green. Its the simplest costume of all the exhibit. Nothing flashy, but you see that it was worn and repaired (by Viggo… <>>). Quite a treat for us! And it hinted to nice shoulders, let me say! J Arwens robes were amasing, with so many subtle details and rich fabrics.
Also on this island was Theoden, with his battle armour and weaponry, as well as an assortment of Rohirric drinking and decorative horns, a 'Royal Rohan Shield,' Theoden's royal seal with carved box and red wax sticks, and a plentiful amount of Rohirric belt buckles and aglets. All were heavily detailed and very beautiful. It was one of my favourite. A lot of that stuff you don’t even see in the movies, or a flash second. The colours are amazing. I love all the horse design all over the place on those items.
As for the Hobbits, there was only Frodo's costume shown. Props for that island included Thorin's map, the mithril vest, Sting and its scabbard, the Red Book, the Phial, and a mallorn-leaf brooch--all Hobbit-sized. I would have loved to see Pippin’s gondorian armor and Merry’s rohan one. But alas… nope they are touring with Comic con…
Legolas and Gimli had their own island, with the Legolas weapons, as well as his regular, travelling green outfit (tall and lean, very nice), and the Gimli’s full armour and all five axes. The tooling and braidwork on Gimli’s was incredible, its one of the costumes that surprised me the most by its beauty, as I was not really expecting it . There were also other Dwarven axes on display, as well as a curiously shaped Dwarven shield.
Gandalf shared an island with Saruman (opposites attract) and Galadriel. Gandalf the Grey's robes were magnificent--aged, worn, and definitely used. The Hat was, of course, the Hat. Quite a few scrolls from the Gondorian archives were shown: looked like real manuscripts. Narya (Gandalf’s ring) was there, too, as was Gandalf's pipe, a bottle (?), a shoulder satchel, and the now-infamous toffee bag. His sword Glamdring was present, with its scabbard and belt.
Saruman's robes were a much darker white than had been expected. The many different textures used were evident, and told even further of Ngila Dickson and Co.'s talents. And his staff! The Orthanc palantir was there as well, and looked as if it were made of a sort of piebald crystal agate; in reality, it was glass, smaller than a bowling ball. Many sundries were cased here, among them bits and bobs of skeletons and preserved specimens, bones, teeth, a mortar and pestle, quills and ink, eggs: the lot. His book was opened to the page on the Balrog.
Galadriel's beaded Mirror dress was next, the one in white…. and oh, my goodness, was it beautiful. Her mother-of-pearl brooch was in place, which just topped it all off. The beading and sequined designs are especially exquisite here, with a sort of snowflake-flower blossom design all over the cloth. My goodness. Celeborn's neckpiece and belt were in a nearby case, as were Galadriel's circlet and Nenya (her ring). Also in the case was a 'Lothorien heraldic horn': a beautiful piece of work, with gold and silver chasing, and a small banner. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Not on an island, but against the wall, was a gigantic bust of Treebeard, accompanied by a miniature maquette. I was in awe. It was more amazing than words may say. Again, my goodness. Next to it was the 'Ring Room'--a not-that-impressive display of the One Ring in a suspended liquid column. You could hear the voices of the characters when talking about the ring. Also all around the rooms, there where "flames" on the wall, and a projected light that showed the elvish inscription "floated" around the room. I was not very impressed.
Hanging from the ceiling above all of these islands were a multitude of banners: Gondorian, Rohirric, and Elven.
Near the exit to the exhibit was the full-body dummy of Boromir in his Elven boat: it looked as the guy was really there and asleep/dead…. It was just like in Faramir’s vision. The horn that had been broken, holes of the arrows that killed him. Since it was a wax sculpture, and very very resembling, and dead people do tend to have a waxy complexion, it was breathtaking. One of my favourite in the exhibit.
To greet us in the second room of the exhibit was a full set of Sauron's armour and a bigature of Barad-dur (the tower of Sauron, where the eye is) for sure 12-15 feet high. Incredible detail. On yet another island was displayed a full set of Helm's Deep Elven armour, with weapons. Similar to the fashion in which the Gondorian saddle had been shown, a maquette of a painted Mummakil (the big elephants) with war pavilion was cased.
Now here was another interactive exhibit, where one could put on a special smock, take up some foam 'weapons,' and be motion-captured into the body of (alternately) a Third-Age Gondorian soldier, a Helm's Deep Elf, or a Helm's Deep Uruk-hai. Near this were 'touchable' displays of PVC chainmail and (blunted) swords, that were of particular interest to hubby, that does himself a chainmail every year. He would love to have a plastic one like the ones they had, as his are in metal/aluminium, so very heavy. I had to write down every detail available on the display!. Also here was an actual Rohirric chainmail corselet; fantastic. There was also an interactive facial-scan 'Be an Argonath' feature. Next to this was a truly fantastic Orthanc bigature (the tower of Sarumane, in Isengard).
There was a very large island devoted to the 'monsters' of the film: sundry Orcs and Uruk-hai were featured, as well as Lurtz's (the one who kills Boromir) and a Moria Orc's complete kits. Many different maquettes were here as well, including two pairs of Orc contact lenses (!) in red and yellow. There was also prosthetics (ears, hobbit foots, prosthetics for the orc’s faces) and even some spoons and forks for the orcs. We all said that we didn’t knew an orc would use a spoon….
A model of Shelob's head was present, next to a (thankfully) dead tunnel web spider specimen, and a huge maquette of the Cave Troll (this time without the loincloth)., 'in the "Leonardo" pose (arms extended) that was used for scanning to become the computerised Troll On the opposite side of the island were many Nazgul props, including a full set of black robes, crowns and rings for the Men and Ringwraiths, and a mock-up Wraith horsehead with reins and tack. Several swords were present, too, all looked old and used.
We had saved the Armour Wall for last. There was a case of six Uruk-hai helmets, a different one for every purpose as explained in the DVD;
Also costumes/armors
- an Uruk-hai swordsman with a nasty bladed bow and feather-duster arrows (also a curiously 'T'-ended brutish-looking weapon);
- a Moria Orc;
- a regular Orc (as if any Orc were ever regular) with an odd hooked blade;
- a Warg rider which was, alas, minus its Warg;
- a Prologue Elven foot-soldier with gorgeous, gorgeous kit (especially the glaive!);
- a Prologue Gondorian with full White Tree and a long spear with the seven-ringed Minas Tirith design ;
- a Rohirric spearsman (with bow and brown-red -fletched arrows);
- a Rohirric swordsman;
- a Gondorian Ranger (Faramir? It looked a lot like it and I was just imagining it was his!), again with the ringed design all over his weapons and leatherwork;
- a Rohirric royal guard, with a larger round shield than the other Rohirric soldiers, and with the regal sun motif everywhere;
- a Third Age Gondorian with brilliant chasing and embossing;
- and, at last, a Haradric warrior (those from the south, oriental like, that we see at the black gate when Frodo/Sam/Gollum look at it) with ragged clothing and small skulls worked into his belts. Nasty looking things, those were.
The final item in the row was a case with more heroic helms: those of Elendil, Isildur, Eomer (two for him; the one with the horse's tail is 'regular'; his 'guard's helmet' is much less ornate); a citadel guard, and two everyday Rohan soldiers. I would like to declare my undying love for Richard Taylor and the rest of Weta Workshop just now. My goodness me.
There was a wall with pictures of the different races of middle earth (hobbit, human, dwarf, elf…) and you would go stand on a mark and a voice would tell you what you would be depending on your height (to a kid: "you are a small hobbit" heard also "you must be human" (nooooo!!! Everyone laughed!), "you are a tall dwarf" or things like that). We didn’t try it (with my height, they would have said I am an orc, and I didn’t want that!!!).
As I have said, the gift shop was a big disappointment, as there was not a lot of interesting things. There where
- a couple of jewels (not the most beautiful, and one very expensive one ring);
- standee of Aragorn, Legolas and 4 hobbits;
- some books (some books made after the movie, some I had, the novels, one with a special red leather cover very very nice, but 75$ and I already have those books);
- a few keychains (only orcs left and some other non-interesting ones);
- only 3 types of bookmarks (got one with Frodo that unfolds to show the different races of Middle Earth);
- 2 little journals: one with Frodo on the cover, one with Arwen (got the Frodo one);
- small replicas of orcs helmets or Gandalf’s grey hat (like 70$);
- the game LOTR trivial pursuit and a LOTR checkers game;
- some of the soundtracks;
- a small plastic sword for kids;
- some books on Gollum;
- some magnets, but all that was left was Gollum;
- some other no-interesting crap that I don’t even remember….
Pretty sad, we were ready to spend and spend! I am the only one that bought something of us 3 and it was a mere 12$ total! The seller told us that the merchandise sells faster than they can stock it and that they would have more next week or afterwards… the problem being that I will not be able to come back! Hubby would have certainly look at weapons, even if expensive… I would have loved to see more books, or bookmarks or anything. Some jewels I had hoped would be there… ah well…. It was the only downside of the exhibition, with not being able to take pics.
Hubby had parted with us as soon as we entered the exhibition (me and G. straight to Strider’s costume, him to the armours). I was looking around, pointing things to G! we were oooohhhh and ahhhhhh all the time! After a couple of hours, hubby had finished and came back with us as we where only ½ of it done. He didn’t complain or anything, he loved it too. He then followed us around, and we would exchange commentaries. At the end of our tour, G told " I have to go see Strider’s costume one last time" me: "me too…" Hubby followed not saying a single word… he is an angel when he wants!!!! In total we where there for 3:30 hours, including the gift shop.
In the car I counted the pages of notes that I took (and this 4 pages by computer is only a resume, because I have the name of every single item, drawing and all.. a lot was not described here!)… your guess? Okay, its little pages 6" x 8" maybe, but I had 12 pages of it, and I write small…. My wrist was hurt of writing non-stop for 3 ½ hours… but I think it was worthwhile, because when I look at those pages, it all comes back… and I hope it will do that for several years!
I ADORED this visit, was worth all the money spent and fatigue afterwards!