Comments | gehayi: Unsure About The King

gehayi

Unsure About The King

Dec 18, 2003 03:32

::sigh::

My LJ friends and I are not on the same wavelength. Everyone is talking about how much Return of the King made them cry. This is not something that a depressive looks for in a movie, believe me. Strike one against the movie right there ( Read more... )

movies

Comments 15

apocalypsos December 18 2003, 05:21:10 UTC

I'm trying to figure out what there is to cry about, since everyone who has been talking about how much the movie made them weep has READ THE BOOKS ALREADY. THEY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN THEY WENT TO THE MOVIE. What the fuck is there to cry about?

I don't know about anyone else, but if there's a scene in a book that makes me blubbery, seeing it in a movie after the book is turned into a film makes me weep like a four-year-old, regardless of the fact that I know it's going to happen. Case in point: When Nick dies in "The Stand". Book or miniseries, I absolutely lose it every time.

Same thing counts with historical movies. I'm a huge disaster junkie, so I knew down to the tiniest detail what I was getting into when I went to see "Titanic". And I still bawl my eyes out the second they show the Strausses lying in bed with the sea swirling around them. (The fact that the historical stuff is what still gets me while the crappy love story leaves me cold is the only reason I don't feel quite so embarrassed to admit I like ( ... )

gehayi December 18 2003, 05:47:08 UTC

I very rarely cry while reading books, and have only cried once at a movie--Casablanca. And I can't imagine what there is to cry about during Return of the King.

I guess I'm not sentimental enough for this.

Crying... selenak December 18 2003, 05:40:48 UTC

...is independent from being surprised, I think. I still tear up over certain passages in my favourite novels, after reading them for about the 20th time. I got misty-eyed in The Gift even though I knew they were of course going to resurrect Buffy in the next season. So I'm really not surprised about the collective sobbing in RotK.

Re: Crying... gehayi December 18 2003, 05:56:42 UTC

I didn't cry during The Gift. I was sad, but I was sad because I thought that was the end of the series. That the series was continuing wasn't confirmed until October, when TV Guide's Fall Preview issue came out. Then it was confirmed that Buffy was returning.

I just don't understand what there is to cry about in Return of the King. Truthfully, I found it to be a semi-good book. The part about Frodo and Sam in Mordor was great. So was the Scouring of the Shire. But the part about the war--with the exception of Eowyn and the Witch-King--DULL. Dull, dull, dull, with five million characters who all had similar names. The book picks up once you get past all the war junk, but it takes forever to get there.

To cry... or not! inanimategrace December 18 2003, 06:12:08 UTC

This is absolutely true. The beginning of most of his books are... well, I wouldn't say dull, but I can see your point, and quite clearly might I add.

I've never cried during a movie, or a book. I'm really inexorably sad, and sometimes am close to tears, but if you ever see me in a movie theater with watery eyes it's because the screen is so dang big and bright and hard on the eyes.

YAY! Someone else who doesn't care for Orlando! YAY!!!
*Ahem* And I don't really care about the rest, either, really. I mean, not in way of actors. I think Aragorn looks good as his character, but thats just about it.

lidane December 18 2003, 06:34:43 UTC

I can't speak for anyone else, but I can tell you the reason that I cried at certain points in the film.

It wasn't that the scenes were *sad* so much as they were overwhelming for me. I read the books a long time ago, and even re-read them again in anticipation of the films, so I knew what was going to happen, bit it was the way it was done, and the way certain scenes played out that did it for me ( ... )

gehayi December 18 2003, 08:53:23 UTC

For example, there's a scene where Pippin sings for Denethor, and while he sings these beautiful, melancholy words, they show the men of Gondor, Faramir among them, making a suicide charge to try and reclaim Osgiliath when they're hopelessly outnumbered and have no chance.

How unbelievably stupid. If they know they are outnumbered and have no chance, why don't they try something that would actually work, like, maybe, destroying the enemy's siege weapons, assassinating leaders in key geographic positions or utilizing guerrilla warfare? Death and glory charges look dramatic and heroic, but they are a waste of manpower. If THAT'S the best that Faramir could come up with, no wonder his father would rather have Boromir back.

Tolkien fought in World War I. He saw enough suicide charges to know how wasteful they were and how little they accomplished.

I suspect that I would react to the scene, all right--by fuming at this sort of idiocy.

As for Shelob's lair, it's a dark scene (as in not a lot of light) and isn't all that explicit at ( ... )

lidane December 18 2003, 09:19:36 UTC

That's just it-- Denethor questions Faramir's loyalty to Gondor, and Faramir tries to tell his father that a direct attack would be foolish because Osgiliath is overrun, and with Minas Tirith under siege, it would be insane to go, but the way Denethor patronizes his son in that moment makes Faramir realize that the only way to prove himself to his father is to sacrifice himself, even though he knows it's futile.

It's hard to really explain, and I'm doing a crap job of it. You have to see the scene to get it all, but it's gorgeous and dramatic, and not stupid at all when seen in context of the film.

And yes, you as a viewer know that Sam and Frodo are going to survive, but they don't know that when they're lying on a large rock on Mount Doom as it erupts all around them after they've destroyed the ring. And they don't know it when they're desperately trying to make the final push, with Sam giving Frodo the last of his water before they get to the top ( ... )

debxena December 18 2003, 13:29:45 UTC

I hadn't read the book before I went to the see the movie last night. Thus, I had no idea what was going to happen (I'd been avoiding finding out at all) - and that made it all the better for me.

I didn't know if they were going to make it home. I didn't know if Frodo and Sam were going to die. I didn't know if Faramir would be successful trying to retake the river. And so for a watcher like me, it was excellently told.

I hate watching war scenes, but I trucked through these ones. I didn't cry during the movie, but I did enjoy it.

*can't stand Orlando*

Just thought I'd share a slighly different point of view.

sirenasolo December 18 2003, 18:45:12 UTC

"This is not something that a depressive looks for in a movie, believe me. Strike one against the movie right there ( ... )

gehayi December 18 2003, 18:56:59 UTC

"This is not something that a depressive looks for in a movie, believe me. Strike one against the movie right there."

A depressive? Why would you say that? Someone who cries at a movie isn't necessarily a depressive. And vice versa.

Because I'm a depressive. That's why. I don't really need to watch something that will make me sadder.

I don't usually cry at movies...I laughed through the death of Jack in Titanic and never really teared up through the actual sad parts.

I didn't see Titanic. Leonardo DiCaprio affects me much as Orlando Bloom does. And I already knew that the ship was going to go down.

Despite all this championing of the movie, I don't want to convince you to see it. If you don't want to see it, you really shouldn't.

See below. I'm not going to. I still regret wasting my money on The Two Towers. It cost me three meals' worth of that week's budget, and it just wasn't worth it.

And I liked the book The Two Towers considerably more than I did Return of the King.