rewatching The Fellowship of the Ring...

[richardthinks]

...with my son, I realise what it is that most bothers me about Jackson's interpretation: it's all around too concrete. That's a strange criticism for me to make, since I generally like it when films do what they must - put a visual on things that a novelist can elide or dress up in phraseology. And I really appreciate what Jackson does to

Comments

[nancylebov]

I'm hoping to live to see a six-movie version, so that more of the plot can be included. I'm not counting on music I like, though I'd love to get that.

And a non-angsty Aragorn and a Gimli who isn't comic relief.

I think you've got a point about the excessive concreteness.

[richardthinks]

non-angsty Aragorn and a Gimli who isn't comic relief

Ditto. Although The Hobbit does rather set up comic dwarves, and Aragorn's a bit of a cipher, IIRC, in the book, so I can understand the desire to play up his inner conflicts. He's not the viewpoint character so he doesn't get to just Doc Savage all over the world, and at the same time he's not all that transparent to the hobbits, so we don't get to see him struggle much with the incipient responsibilities of kingship. If I were rewriting it all I'd want to give him some Henry V type moments, where he has to change his companions and behaviour as the heavy mantle of political power is thrust upon him. But thankfully for everyone, rewriting LoTR is not on my list.

[mindstalk]

The Hobbit has a rather different mood to it. The dwarves are comic in a sense, though they're deliberately so on their part; one laughs with them, not at them. Different from "nobody tosses a dwarf" which was just out of place. Then there's the elves of Rivendell, ooh-la-la-lally, joy in the valley. For real whiplash, consider Glorfindel as part of Bilbo's chorus.

Going by the material, Aragorn is 88 out of a 200+ year life expectancy, and has spent a whole mortal career serving already as an incognito captain in Gondor. He's had a lot of time to think things through already.

Gandalf power: having a telekinetic battle makes his fights against goblins and wargs via flaming pinecones seem kind of stupid.

If the real Sauron swept 10 people aside with a blow, it wouldn't have been because of the Ring, but because of his manifesting a great big body as a Maia. Sigh.

[richardthinks]

Is Glorfindel in The Hobbit? I must reread it. Of course, for Jackson that won't be a problem, since his part was taken by Arwen.

manifesting a great big body as a Maia
Bingo. The battle with the Balrog and ensuing footnotage/Silmarillion stuff about wizards was one of the biggest wrenches I felt when reading LoTR. Suddenly I realised Gandalf wasn't human - that wasn't such a big deal, because aspects of humanity also weren't human, they were elves and dwarves and hobbits and goblins. Fine. But as a Maia spirit he was made of fundamentally the same stuff as the Balrogs and Sauron and so on. And there's that bit about how way back in the 1st age Sauron could assume a pleasing form, and suddenly it occurred to me that Gandalf did that. He looked like a kindly old wizard but only contingently. If you asked what he really was you might be quite surprised.

[pleinweb]

I agree with everything you've noted here. (about the 1st film, the other two leave me with a lot more vitriol.) In addition, it always bugs me that retellings (the BBC version does the same thing) are chronological in the first book. The question of where Gandalf is, the mystery of his absence, and if his passage, before them on Weathertop, is never left as a mystery. As to Gandalf's power, whenever I have read this book to others, when Gandalf faces the Balrog, I have always made his voice more quiet, as if he is not making a declaration, but stating a simple fact... That, to me, is part of the subtlety of Gandalf's ancient power.

As for me, I'd like to see the books given a miniseries treatment over 3-6 years. It may not have the highest ratings on air, but it would certainly have a dedicated following.