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LotR Takes Top Spot on IMDB
Dwarf_Sibling writes "Hard to believe but with over 11,000 votes tallied LoTR:FoTR has displaced "The Godfather" as the highest rated movie at IMDB. Over time I'd guess this will fall lower, but this is an amazing accomplishment for a fantasy movie."
Votes can only be made by registered users, who are emailed a random password on registration. Also the 'Top 250' only includes voters that regulary vote.
So one not so mediocre kid with a not so mediocre script.
Saruman did join forces with Sauron in the book. Quote:
"A great power is arising. Against it the old policies and allies will not avail us at all...We may join with that power. It would be wise, Gandalf".
which gets the reply
"Saruman, I have heard such policies before, but only from the mouths of emmiseries sent by Mordor. I cannot think you have brought me so far to weary my ears."
Saruman did look into forging his own ring, yes, but the book clearly states he joins forces with Saruman.
Cheers,
Ian
I have to reluctantly join the 'disappointed with the film' ranks, since although there is much to like there, I think so many detail-related cuts were made that the plot becomes hard to follow. Certainly this was the case with the people I went with who hadn't read the book. Without the detail, I felt it degenerated a bit into glorified chase film.
Loved the first hour though - all of the Shire scenes were done briliantly.
Cheers,
Ian
Hu? it states very clearly "note: for this top 250, only votes from regular voters are considered." So its not the newbie factor, but I'm sure the oh wow factor does come into play. Anyways for this to happen has generally been a rarity, so it is newsworthy.
It's interesting how Jackson did the script - a friend and I argued about how many scenes were shifted around. I said that very few were (we're not counting skipped or combined scenes [1]), whereas he said that they were all switched around.
Eventually we came to realize that I was referring to the actual timeline of events as they occured in Middle-Earth, whereas he was referring to how the events were portrayed in flashbacks. Some of the things in this movie are revealed in flashbacks (generally one character telling another where they were) in Two Towers, but they chronologically were set during the Fellowship story. I think this makes more sense.
[1] (Spoiler alert) The scene with the Black Riders at Weathertop with Aragorn coming to the rescue *was* one of my three unforgivable sins of the movie. After thinking about it, I'll accept it as the Barrow-Wight scene reworked with the available characters rather than introducing the Barrow Downs and Bombadil (which would have extended the movie even more, while adding little to the story - a colorful side story, yes, but very much a side story).
I can't remember what slid *into* the three unforgivable sins to replace it, but the other two were Aragorn not carrying the sword, and Galadriel not explaining that, by not accepting the ring, she was ending the Elves stay in Middle Earth - either the ring would be destroyed or go to Sauron, and her taking the ring would be the only way that they could stay - that was a big part of the temptation, and part of what made the moment powerful for me.
I liked the little details - I could recite along with Bilbo the leaving speech (with the "Proudfeets" bit), and the things like the leaf shaped carven paddles, the cloaks and broaches, etc... they were correct.
Most minor pet peeve? Showing Sauron in the flesh. But it visually and firmly set in everyone's mind that Sauron was a seriously demonic supernatural being who weilded the ring in war. I'll let it go.... and with an evil grin, I'll say this to end the post - Peter Jackson is doing a good enough job with the War of the Rings, I want to see what he can do with Arda, Akallabêth, the fall of Númenor, and the forging of the rings. With a special Fantasia like art house release of the creation story (either CG or by Studio Gainax, a la End of Evangelion). Now *that* would be a friggin prequel trilogy... and no damn Jar Jar.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
How many mob films were there before "The Godfather"? "The Godfather" created the genre of mob films.
LOTR was a great movie. But does it stand against "The Godfather" ten years from now in terms of great cinema? My bets would be on "The Godfather".
29 years after "The Godfather" was made, people still revere it highly, its "new-car smell" long past. Will we be throwing in the same level of praises for LOTR? I predict its stature will diminish considerably to a level perhaps above "Star Wars", where many of us feel "Star Wars" was a nice film, but you gotta admit the acting was a little campy. Right now, I think LOTR is leagues above "Star Wars" in terms of its acting, but when Star Wars came out I thought it was the greatest movie ever made.
So, let's see in ten years or so whether LOTR will stand the test of time. Maybe then, it will be considered, deservedly, the greatest fantasy movie ever made. And then someone will challenge that with:
You have got to be kidding. Firstly, how many supposedly excellent "fantasy" movies have there been? COUNTLESS. How many TV series "fantasy" shows have been praised and given accolades because of their authentic portrayal of their original books? Dozens.
I am sure he was referring to the source for the Perl interpreter. It has scattered through it various appropriately chosen Tolkien quotations for each section.
For a random instance taint.c, which implements
Perl's taint mode (read perlsec and the -T option in perlrun for details on what that is), starts off with:
/*
* "...we will have peace, when you and all your works have perished--and
* the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a
* liar, Saruman, and a corrupter of men's hearts." --Theoden
*/
No.
I'm being unusually definite here, as normally I would preface it with things like 'in my opinion', 'maybe' or 'perhaps'. However, this time I can draw upon Tolkien's own opinion.
In an interview (shown recently on BBC Knowledge, I believe) he stated that put Tom Bombadil in purely because he liked the character, and that he had difficulty working him in to the plot.
Given that, I would imagine that poor old Tom is an entirely valid target for the chop. Even my favourite (non-book) version, the BBC Radio series, cuts him out.
Cheers,
Ian
Reports on The One Ring indicate that several scenes that are known to have been filmed have not appeared in the final movie cut.
Examples include some of the way from Bree to Rivendell, the scene where Aragorn and Elrond talk about Narsil, and the scene where the Fellowship parts from Galadriel. All of these appear on some of the merchandise (cards, stickers - I don't remember exactly which), but they're not in the movie. A particular favorite of my is the lake they see when they depart from Moria. Just as I managed to think "Kheled-Zaram" - the Fellowship entered Lothlorien.
Obviously, these scenes have been filmed (there are stills from them), so they must have been cut out because of time constraints as some of the less important detail. It occurs to me that they could integrate well with the plot as it is. So I just hope they will come as a part of the DVD (and not just as "director's trash", but rather as a part of an alternative viewing sequence.
The major missing character development is between Gimli and Legolas. Their relationship is a major part of the novels as it shows a growing friendship despice racial tension. The Lothlorien scenes were incomplete. The blindfolds and the racist dialog from the elves in the book should have been in the movie. It shows how Legolas and Gimli end up as friends in the end.
Probably because he didn't. He killed his (friend? brother?) to get it, justifying that it was his birthday present (which is interesting, considering that, at least for "modern day" hobbits, they *gave* presents on their birthdays). That would have stretched the scene for quite a long bit, though, and I've already heard from two people that the history of the ring was hard to follow if you didn't read the book, so another kink in the story would have been even more confusing. I would have liked to see the "historical hobbits" and how they lived, distrusting and finally expelling Smeagol from the area.... but that's another "it was over three hours long, anyway" bits that I have no problem losing (but why wasn't the sword carried by Aragorn? Ah, well...)
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Strider is a Ranger. Rangers roam the north fighting bad stuff. (insert 4000 words of lineages, history, the rise and fall of kingdoms, self imposed exile, etc.) Most villagers are ignorant of this and frown on them as vagabonds. He just popped up in the book also. Later we learn that he had been working with Gandalf pretty closely. The reader, and the hobbits, find out he is Isildur's heir through much reading - dropped hints, foreshadowing, a cryptic poem, etc. The fact of an heir had to be kept secret from the enemy. Jackson couldn't really do that.
Legolas represents the Elves, he is there on behalf of Elrond. All races are represented in the fellowship, as the fate of all races rest on it's outcome. Also he very much wanted to see Lothlorien/ Galadriel.. although that was left out of the movie.
For Galadriel's temptation, I refer you back to the rhyme of the rings, and remind you that the story isn't over yet.
Yes (for the movie)you mostly answered that one for yourself, but in the book he also decides that it's a suicide mission, and there is no need to drag his friends along for the suicide. He has a long complex debate with himself. At this point the orcs (and wolves) attack and essentially make his choice for him. He runs from orcs (and wolves) with the ring on his finger and gets in the boat. Sam sees an "empty" boat and swims out to him. They are long gone before the battle is over. So in the book he ran from the orc battle, never talking to Aragorn. In the movie, he had to talk to Aragorn, or do a cheesy soliloquy, somehow he had to let the audience hear his thoughts. I prefer small liberties being taken with the plot over voiced narration or lame "inner monologues".
All in all it was the best 170 pages per hour I could have hoped for.
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