It’s all your fault Miller. I’m off to read the books again. I got tears in my eyes reading your quote.
For the OP: I agree. there are one or two little things I would change (i.e. Flaming Ball of Denethor) but otherwise the trilogy is the best you probably could ever hope for in a rendering of Middle Earth. I went to the midnight showing of Fellowship of the Ring, and I was so worried I would be disappointed. I was in happy tears throughout the movie.
It’s funny, for me, I was only there for Peter Jackson. Standing in line, waiting to enter the theater, if you had asked me the plot of Lord of the Rings, I wouldn’t have had a clue (“I don’t know, someone has to go get a ring for some reason or other?”). If you’d asked me to name some of the characters, I might have been able to name Gandalf and maybe Bilbo and maybe Frodo. Maybe. If I had named them, it would have only been through cultural osmosis, but I didn’t know who or what any of those people were.
I had obviously never read the books. I had obviously never seen the Bakshi. More than that though, prior to getting in line to see the movie, I had not watched a trailer for the movie. I had not watched a clip. I had not read a synopsis. I had not read an article. I had not read a review. I had not read or seen ANYTHING about the movie. I knew enough to know that it was based on an old-timey but well-loved book, that there were 3 of them and so there were going to be 3 movies, but that’s about it. All I’d really heard was that some of the movie showed at Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year and went over well.
But oh boy, I was a Peter Jackson fan! I was there because it was a new Peter Jackson movie. I didn’t need to know anything about it or see any trailers. We’d just done a marathon of all of his movies (my favorite at that time: Meet The Feebles) and I was pumped for a new one.
Settled in. The lights go down, black screen. Whispering in an unknown language. Intrigued. A voice: “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.” Mesmerized. The logo comes on screen. Cool! A violin plays. That was it, they had my heart and soul at that violin. The rest of the movie kept it. I was enthralled, on the edge of my seat, not knowing what was coming next. When it was over I sat there in a daze, knowing that I had not only just seen a great movie, but that I had seen one of my ALL TIME favorite films. If the next showing hadn’t been sold out, I would have gone right back in to see it again.
Much of it was very confusing, a jumble in my brain the next day, because I’d been in a spell, watching and feeling it unfold. The next day I couldn’t remember most character names, place names, the order of everything that happened, what exactly happened most of the time. Unlike some who would criticize the movie I knew the problem was mine, and that it would all become clear if I worked at it. I wanted to know as much as possible about this world. I crawled through message boards like this one, and Home Theater Forum, and a couple of others to read threads. After a brief but traumatic foray, I stayed away from Tolkien sites because they were too full of snarky, sarcastic, hateful assholes. They felt toxic. I didn’t want to be told how crappy and horrible the movie I’d just seen and fell in love with was.
I settled on here and HTF. I read and read and learned. The Tolkien fans who were patient and kind toward even the dumbest questions were a lifeline to me. For example, someone patiently explaining the difference between Saruman and Sauron was a revelation. When I saw the movie again a few days later, it was all so much clearer in my mind and I could follow along and retain what was going on. It was a much deeper experience than the first time. It engaged my mind too, whereas the first viewing had engaged my heart.
Then I read The Hobbit, figuring I should start at the beginning, and then I read The Fellowship of the Ring. I was going to stop there, not wanting the next two movies to be “spoiled” for me, but I couldn’t help myself. I devoured them, and when I’d finished The Return of the King I went back to The Hobbit and read them all again, much slower, savoring them. Then I tried to forget them, so I wouldn’t be a nitpicky nerd while watching The Two Towers.
The books are great. The movies are great. I don’t mind the changes. The movies don’t negate the books, and the books give the movies an even richer resonance. I’m glad I can experience both. I love all 3 movies, theatrical and extended versions, but The Fellowship of the Ring theatrical version will always have a special place in my life.
Awesome! One of us! One of us!
We just rewatched “Fellowship” – The Shire is just a total nerdgasm for me. Like PJ ripped my own personal mental image and made it be the movie. Same for Rohan. Also, since so many of the big/small effect are physically created optical illusions, they still hold up perfectly.
I had followed “Fellowship” production closely, and TTT less so, but when ROTK was set to come out I decided to isolate myself from any screen shorts, interviews, previews, etc. Home for thanksgiving, I was crossing Canal St. in Manahattan, and they had a HUGE ROTK billboard up. I was so unable to tear my eyes away, I walked into a lamppost.
We’re all Freaks on this bus. 
Just curious, I like the second movie the best. It seems to have the tightest story. Anyone agree? Most seem to like RotK best.
Waaaaaay too much slow-mo.
And lots and lots of crying hobbits.
A terrible wizard duel.
My wife and I recently re-watched Fellowship, and we were like, “We liked this crap? WTF?”
We decided to lay the other two films to rest, since I’d always thought Fellowship was the best one anyway. I recall the third one contains hobbits jumping for joy on a soft billowy elfenbed while crying for chrissakes!
ETA: And the original theatrical release was better than the extended versions. The stuff they added to the extended versions is in almost every case very poorly edited. The scene with the recollections of Galadriel’s gifts is especially egregious in this regard. And The Mouth, while cool in concept and imagery, is nevertheless pretty badly done as well.
Isn’t it wonderful how people who belong together find one another? I’m lucky too in that my husband likes/still likes LOTR as much as me. He had read the books and was happy that I could finally get his references (like “My precious” which before would have just caused me to stare at him blankly).
I wouldn’t say that sharing tastes is a very important ingredient in the soup that constitutes “belonging together” but then, my wife agrees, so…
Quoth Equipoise:
Of course, I can’t speak for any other Tolkien fans, so just speaking for myself and those like me: We like the books, and we like the movies. It’s just that nitpicking is part of how we appreciate a movie like this. The deeper we have to dig for those nits to pick, the more tribute it is to the adaptation, and by digging so very deeply, we establish our own nerd cred. We’re not actually upset that so-and-so was wearing a particular heirloom ring on the wrong finger or whatever; we’re excited that the movie actually even included that heirloom at all. Jackson and his team really did go to an incredible level of detail, and we really do appreciate that.
Someone asked which of the three is our favorite = I like Fellowship best of the 3 movies, but I enjoyed them all, in a very different way from how I enjoy the books. as someone upthread said they are amazing achievements.
couldn’t edit in time - but I’m posting again to say I just read Equipoise’s post - loved it! Love hearing about Tolkien virgins being turned by the movies! Hi Equipoise!
No, he’s right about that. I love the movies, but Jackson really overused the “slow motion reaction shots with swelling music, typically with crying hobbits”, IMO.
waves to well he’s back!
Oh I’m not talking about you (general you and people like you, who like both and appreciate Jackson’s details), I’m talking about truly horrible and hateful (toward Jackson and film-only newbies) people who seemed to be louder and more prolific than the reasonable nitpickers. I tried reading alt.fan.tolkien and there were several nasty assholes there that scared me away before I ever dared post. I can’t remember what other sites I visited, it’s been too long. I found what I needed here and Home Theater Forum (which I haven’t visited for years).
So no, I’m not directing that at you. I like your attitude.
I hope just because I dislike all these films that you don’t include me in your “horrible and hateful” list. But I think Jackson’s vision - which was basically to harp on all the scenes of battle and delete most of the character generation - was fundamentally misguided and a gross insult to the book.
Anybody that could consider deleting the Scouring of the Shire and consider he is being true to the book really has misread the whole thing.
The films basically were designed to appeal to 12 year old boys and wonderfully met that aim and were commercially successful as a result. But, to me at least, the films are just an awful mess of eye-wash.
The thing is, though, that books and movies really aren’t the same medium and have different limitations. People already complain about the length of the ending of ROTK; adding the Scouring would probably take at least another 30 min and derail the movie. Much like putting Tom Bombadil in the first one, or heck, most of the chapters of FOTR before they meet Aragorn. And I, for one, never really marveled at the character development, though it is there.
For comparison, I always take the first Harry Potter movie. It came out about the same time, had technology behind it, and was based on a popular book. But I tend to think it’s a bad movie. It’s one of my examples of why sticking closely to the book isn’t always better; it seems like the director was going “hit this plot point, now hit this plot point, and now hit this little scene” without any real narrative flow. I remember a couple scenes (I couldn’t tell you exactly which ones at this point) where it seemed like anyone who hadn’t read the books first would have been hopelessly lost as to why what was going on was going on.
I totally realise that books and films have very different dynamics. That is why somebody observed that most good films that are adaptions are adaptions of short stories or novellas (re:2001 I think).
I just really like the books and really dislike the films. I’m not kicking the dog for not being a cat but I really do not think LOTR can be filmed, unless perhaps it is Band of Brothers style as a 26 hour (number picked out of air) series.
I just think the films, standalone, are poor. The genre they operate in, basically crude war films, has no interest to me and any relation they have to the books is pretty superficial IMHO.
I still love all 3 movies and watch them all the time. I own the extended edition of the first two, I own the theatrical version of the third, which is how I like 'em.
Elindil’s Heir (appropriatley named) and I saw Fellowship and Return about a month ago at a movie theatre, great fun.
I still re-read the books about once a year, which I’ve been doing since my childhood of he 1960’s.
And I liked the Bakshi film, so sue me.
i would rather see a really good stage production of FOTR. at least they can retain some of the book’s literary slant, not the oafish lines from the movie.