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First Review Of Return Of The King
dipfan writes "Newsweek has a first review of the third instalment of LOTR - and gives it two thumbs up: "Judging from a recent Newsweek screening in New Zealand, The Return Of The King is a sure contender for best picture. More than that, it could be the first franchise ever that didn't, at the end of the day, let audiences down--either because of laziness, pretension, greed or other phantom menaces. This is an especially poignant possibility at a time when we can all still smell the smoke from the wreckage of The Matrix." Fingers crossed. There's also an entertaining piece on LOTR gaffes with comments from Peter Jackson (such as 'Well, it's too late to fire anyone,' and 'We didn't think Elijah looked very good with pus')."
Also interesting is historical background for this chapter. LOTR was written after WWI and shire was meant to represent england which wasn't hit by war directly but war changed a whole generation of man.
Some of his published letters describe his feelings on the possibility of a movie. He didn't like the idea for the same reason that many of the die-hard fans don't -- it's impossible to translate everything onto the screen.
But he wasn't dead-set against the idea. He gave his reluctant permission. (Then got really disgusted at the screenplays.)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Yes, but they WILL have the Grey Havens, which, supposedly, should be shown with the proper degree of bittersweetness. Hopefully SOMETHING will have changed in the Shire, though.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's Razor
"Lord of the Rings" was the second best selling book in western literature (behind the Bible) for years.
Now I think it's averaging at #3 behind "Dianetics".
Too bad their movie ("Battlefield Earth") wasn't as good.
- learn to swim.
*shrug*
This is The Man Who Would Be King that Gandalf wrote and directed, yes?
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
try this
... hi bingo
It's the scouring of the shire, not the razing of it. It's not completely destroyed - really, only a few hobbits are actually killed - just messed up for a time while they're gone. And it doesn't change the "Good prevails over Evil" syndrome at all - by end of the story in the appendices, everything's better than it was before, Sam's the mayor, Merry the master of Buckland, and Pippin the head Took. (And Frodo gets to ride off into the sunset with Gandalf, Elrond, and the near-last of the elves.)
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
>> Newsweek has a first review of the third instalment of LOTR - and gives it two thumbs up
#1. That was not a review. It was a promotional
article for the movie. Although the person writing the article appears to have seen the movie, he does not present his opinion about its quality.
#2. No where is the phrase "two thumbs up" used, this being something only done by Ebert & The Other Guy, who are not newsweek columnists.
#3. The word 'installment' has two Ls.
Case and point
Just a nit: the phrase is "case in point".
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Sting is NOT a Hobbit blade... I guess the
reviewer didn't pay attention to the movie,
or bother to read the book. Oh well...
pecial thanks to fuckchop moderators for modding down a perfectly topical post when there are no others like it in the thread.
it's not fucking redundant, someone mod parent up please, thanks, he makes some good points.
The reason it was modded redundant might have been because we have had at least two dedicated Slashdot topics on this, and every time LOTR comes up someone mentions it.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Enough of the conjecture and hearsay already! Tolkien was adamantly anti-racist. He risked forgoing publication of the Hobbit in German to avoid giving credence to the "race-doctrine". The publisher wanted him to pledge that he had no Jewish ancestry. In Tolkien's words, "I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine."
"Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries!"
Actually, if you read the actual words from the illustration, it does NOT say Moria. Gandalf is translating.