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An Interview with JRR Tolkien and Other Tomfoolery
Lord of the Links writes: "These wackjobs pretend to interview JRR Tolkien with a ouija board as well as slapping together other nonsense, like photoshopped Ringwraiths from the movie doing bizarre things. I laughed once or twice, especially the diary by Gollum. The girls side left something to be desired, but the script revisions were kinda funny. If you feel like feeding into the Lord of the Rings hype, check it out."
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JRR: Crazy Web folk...
I wonder how they're going to deal with the transition between the first two books (at the end of the first movie.)
I had a mild feeling of resolution at the end of the first book, but it felt a little more like a pause in the tension, not an end of it.
When it comes to a movie, however, we'll have to see if they gimmick it up to make it more bite-sized.
It all goes downhill from first post
Why bother faking an inteview with JRR?
....
Plenty of people claim to know what he thinks about the file.
Peter Jackson reckons he'd like it.
JRR's biographer reckons he'd have ignored it.
His son, Christopher Tolkien reckons he'd have hated it.
So there you have it
Mmmmmmm
Mod me down for being OT if you must, but...
...other nonsense, like photoshopped Ringwraiths...
Is "photoshop" falling into common usage as a word meaning "to digitally modify [an image]" similar to the way "xerox" is now synonymous with "photocopy"? (Even if you're using, say, a Canon copier.)
Personally I'd rather hear them referred to as "gimped Ringwraiths".
TheFrood
If you say "I'll probably get modded down for this..." then I will mod you down.
Peter Jackson does NOT reckon Tolkien would like the movie adaptations of his works. In an interview he gave to the BBC, Jackson said that he thought that Tolkien would be 'upset with the liberties he'd taken with the script' but that Tolkien 'would probably be glad Jackson had interpreted the major themes correctly.' A two-year old could interpret the major themes correctly. I personally think that Tolkien would come after Jackson with a spoon and a white-hot hazelnut for cutting out important characters and inserting clichéd catchphrases into the greatest fantasy epic ever written.
Speaking of which, you have to wonder what Tolkien would have said about the recent criticism of the LoTR movie that it is a way for Americans to act out racist tendencies in a politically correct way. Given current events, this might be a very satisfying and even cathartic outlet for such feelings, but it is no replacement for introspection.
All in all the whole "Tolkien as a web-saavy ghost" schtick was pretty funny, and definitely worth the link.
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
This makes me wonder, what do The Britians (Monty Python accenting) call African Americans?
It depends on what their names are.
...Tolkien probably wouldn't be a very happy man, apparently the notion of movies didn't appeal to him at all. He was disgusted by the idea that people would see the scenes and not develop them in their own imaginations, a far better idea he believed! I believe the film rights were sold to his son? or someone... does anyone know more about that...? Joe xxx
A long time ago, the Orcish race was minding its own business in the mountains, playing with rocks and peacefully eating grubs and scorpions as is our wont. Without even the pretense of giving us beads or a piece of paper called a treaty, first the Dwarves, then the Elves and Men, invaded our caves and forced us out by swordpoint, all for the pretty little rocks they called gold and silver and mithril, none of which we ever cared about. Ever since then, our legitimate claims on our birthright have been ignored, while our people have been forced to stay in the reservations of Moria and Mordor, when once they claimed all of the Misty Mountains as their home. We are branded terrorists and evil by the Wise and their scrolls of wisdom while our true story goes untold. Tolkien, master propagandist for our oppressors, has told several blatant lies about our kind, leading the average LOTR reader to conclude that we were spontaneously generated out of Sauron's refuse heap somehow, and never have such things as women, children and families. He accuses us of senselss massacres and cannabilism, all the while ignoring the genocide and oppression our folk have suffered. The movie compounds the error by making us look green and slimy with mummified eyes, a gross racial stereotyping that would have the NAACP up in arms were it applied to people of color. Don't fall for the Elvish propaganda of Peter Jackson and J.R.R. Tolkien, but discover the truth for yourselves. We, like other 3rd Middle Earth peoples like the Trolls, the Balrogs, the Werewolves (Wargs, indeed - not once do you find in LOTR our Warg comrades being described as anything but howling animals), and the Great Spiders have been maligned by a baseless libel and demand that the record of history be set straight.
Sincerely,
Gorbag,
The Orc Liberation Front
There's a "Goatsex Giver" joke in there somewhere, but for the life of me I just can't think of one at the moment.
You may not get to find out what Tolkein would have thought about any film version of his works, but two good books for getting a feel of Tolkein are:
The Inklings
and
The Personal Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein
both by Humphrey Carpenter. I read Inklings this summer and found it fascinating (includes stuff about C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, too). Letters is a bit harder to plow through, but good sampling reading.
Incidentally, anyone know when those animated "Hobbit" and LOTR films were made? (late 70's? Early 80's?) I'll bet people had some bad things to say about those. I remember orcs singing cheesy songs like "Where there's a whip ! There's a way !"
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
The "interview" with Tolkien and the other Ring-related stories on that site were dreadfully boring. The funniest thing I saw was a smallish picture of Gary Coleman as "Merry".
Lord of the Rings is just about hype but Star Wars is nowhere near being hype? IMO talking about "hype" for LotR is tantamount to saying this is a flash in the pan bereft of any aesthetic merit.
George Lucas promised to film the prequels back to back and release one each year for three years. What's fat minivan dad up to now? Five years until he does another prequel? What? Lucas doesn't want to produce a piece of shit and needs to take his time creating special effects and developing plot which still falls far short? Effects in TPM were no better than what was seen in Harry Potter, the plot was non-existent despite Lucas' PR making spoof posters of "Plot Does Matter". Peter Jackson has created an awe inspiring movie with a richly textured plot which effectively conveys themes of friendship and sacrifice incorporating fantastic visuals and effects which enhance the movie without taking center stage or obviously being computer generated.
Lord of the Rings is news for nerds, whether on film or paper, and it still doesn't have a topic devoted entirely to this phenomenon. Lord of the Rings is highly deserving of this, and in light of 1999, moreso than Star Wars.
(after you see this movie. Oh, and star wars episode 2. and terminator 3. thanks.)
I knew a guy of Indian decent who'd been born in Kenya. When he heard of the African-American group on campus, he went to join up. He was surprised to find that he was the only one there from Africa.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Someone mentioned in a reply to an earlier article that the casting for Boromir was poorly done, because the actor really wanted the role of Aragorn.
:)
Well, having just finished reading Two Towers, I'd like to point out that Boromir himself was jealous of Aragorn's status.
The casting seems appropriate then, doesn't it?
Yuck, I suddenly had the image of Micheal Jackson in mind.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
"Black", usually.
Trouble with adding "token blacks" is that LotR is set in a medieval-type world. So there's not going to be a multi-ethnic Shire, any more than Britain in the Middle Ages was. The only way to cover this would be to make one of the major tribes black - elves, Riders of Rohan, whatever. But then note that black skin serves the single purpose of protection against sun, and the whole of LotR takes place in a cold-temperate area. For the sequel "Sauron does Africa", blacks certainly would feature. But for LotR, the only place they appear is amongst Sauron's crew (the Haradrim, IIRC).
Grab.
I couldn't get passed the first part, the damn pop-ups kept, well, popping up even after I closed them.
How many time do I need to tell them I don't want to go to tas vegas.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on