LOTR Film Trilogy: Future Historical Perspective

Cafe Society
21

And here I had a different take on this thread.

I was picturing something like the “Historical Perspective” episode at the end of Babylon 5. You know, 2000 years later a bunch of “Academic” nutjobs smear the Fellowship with made up assumptions and politically motivated bullshit.

The Elves didn’t exist.

Gollum/Smeagol was nothing more than a scapegoat. There is no factual historical evidence for any of the claims made about him.

A giant flaming eye. Yeah, right.

Orcs were never as bad as the legends claim.

Sauron was a legitimate ruler defending his realm against the expansionist West.

There is no evidence that Aragorn was descended from Isildur.

and so forth.

22

I have no clue as to whether ROTK will beat Titanic.

The entire trilogy? Sure. Easily. Especially if you count merchandising.

As to Star Wars and Indiana Jones… y’know, Star Wars changed the face of American filmmaking. Before Star Wars, the number of really quality science fiction-type films ever made could be counted on both hands, and that’s if you were generous.

This is not because there were not people willing and able to make the films. This is because the Powers That Be in Hollywood simply didn’t think it was feasible. “Come on, that old Flash Gordon stuff? Pfffft…” Naturally, these were the same people who couldn’t envision a Batman movie that didn’t have the same flavor as the old Adam West TV series.

The coming of George Lucas’ brainchild changed that. I can forgive him a lot of wretched crap he’s done since then, just for that one act.

Y’know what? There aren’t many very good fantasy films. Excalibur was pretty good. I liked Ladyhawke. And for each film like them, there must be a dozen horrible Italian knockoffs, or cheesy dollar-ninety-eight flicks shot out in Bronson Canyon, featuring a bodybuilder who works cheap, and the Playmate Of The Month.

Or, ghod help us, that horrible Dungeons and Dragons thing, where the cheese got so thick, even Jeremy Irons temporarily turned to the Dark Side of Method Acting and ate all the scenery.

At least, I hope it was a temporary thing. Anyone seen Irons in anything lately?

Y’know what? Peter Jackson has changed all that, and he didn’t even have to put Keebler Elves at Helm’s Deep. :slight_smile: He gave up seven years of his life, true, but he sank as much skill and quality as he had – and as he could find in others – into making something that I think will last. Star Wars is remembered today as a classic, and I think that the LOTR trilogy will be remembered likewise.

And – more importantly – I’d like to think it will do that much more to convince the Powers That Be that skill, dedication, and passion for a project (not to mention a good script) are more important than computer-generated special effects, explosions, bombast, full frontal nudity, and a Big Name whose face can go on the poster…

23

Not likely. This was a one time event. The Powers That Be realize that a large portion of the success of this trilogy was from Tolkien’s work. They aren’t going to have that for future films (except maybe a ‘Hobbit’ movie).

24

Uh. Yeah. I know the books have sold tremendously well over the years, but I also know my grandfather. You see, I got my first copy of LotR from him when I was twelve. He’d read them when they first came out — before there was a “fantasy” section in the bookstore and it was all lumped as “science fiction” — before you could actually admit that you were a fan of Big Boys In Chain Mail — before you had anybody to talk to about this reinvention of ancient mythic story-telling.

Did I ever talk with my grandpa about Gandalf and Gollum and big epic battle scenes? No. Did he ever hint to me that he’d read them? No, I had to pry it out of him years later. Did we ever discuss other fantasy books as a result of LotR? No. How many girls did you meet by saying, “So, isn’t Gandalf the MAN?”

So while there may be one hundred million readers of LotR, it hasn’t been until these (widely-seen and widely-praised) movies came out that it was really popular to admit that you read epic fantasy. And given worldwide ticket sales ($900M for TTT), one hundred million “Tolkien elite” is a drop in the pail compared to the world audience for the films. These films will make epic fantasy acceptable in the mainstream, and if that ain’t a legacy, I dunno what is.

FISH