December 20, 2001

• Well, my authentic self has been a sick puppy this week.  I haven't posted anything because I have literally not been able to look at the computer monitor without feeling ill.  Hopefully, the nasty bug has passed and I'll be able to enjoy Christmas with my family.  (Although there is the little fact that THEY gave me the bug to start with - so I may have to hurt them.)

  
  

  Yesterday was C-Day in my home.  I rose from my sick bed like some hero in a war movie to go forth and do battle.  I braved the elements and the smell of popcorn - and yes - I saw the Lord of the Rings.  If you love the books there will be parts of this movie that you recognize.  They did a beautiful job capturing the imagery of the Shire.  The costuming is wonderful.  And the acting couldn't be better.  There wasn't a single misspoken or wrongly inflected line. 

  
  

  As with all epic novels the filmakers had to make some hard choices about what to include and what to leave out.  All of us who love the books will differ in our opinion of how well they adapted the story to the screen.  I have a quarrel with them in that they spent a lot of time on fight scenes (Some of which weren't even in the book) and skipped over some crucial plot points. 

  
  

  I have wanted to grow up to be an elf since I first read the books when I was 12.  Now I REALLY want to be an elf.  I know that Aragorn is supposed to be the character that makes all our (feminine) hearts throb - but I already live with a dark complicated Aragorn type.  The character that really caught my attention was the elf - Legoras.  Oh my.  Not only was he transparent in the way that Zen Buddhist aspire to become, he was the only one of the Fellowship who traipsed through the mud and muck of Middle Earth and came out looking clean.  (After years of scrubbing up after muddy little boys, this strikes me as particularly appealing.)  His graceful movements and the subtle power of his archery leave every Robin Hood you've ever seen or imagined way back in the dust.

  
  

  Women tend to get short shrift in Tolkien novels - which is okay because the ones he includes are really cool.  But the film cut their small roles down to little more than walk-ons.  I especially regretted that they didn't give more time to Galadriel.  Unless you are watching very close at the beginning of the film you totally miss the fact that she wears one of the three elven rings of power.  So when Frodo offers her the One ring - her response seems a little overblown.  I think it is a powerful plot point that she must come to terms with the loss of tremendous power should Frodo succeed in his mission to destroy the One Ring.  The filmmakers turned a wonderfully complex and balanced character (and marriage) into scenery.  Just a little more exposition could have saved her from appearing arbitrary and cryptic. 

  
  

  I THINK that the music was wonderful.  I'm not sure though because the theater I attended had the sound turned so loud that my ears were numb well before Enya got to sing her piece.  Certainly the score worked well in setting the right mood of exotic and familiar, small and majestic.

  
  

  If you are going to see Lord of the Rings because you've heard that Tolkien was a Christian and you're going to see "good" literature as opposed to the "evil" of Harry Potter - you're going to be greatly disappointed.  Tolkien wrote honestly.  His characters (except where the film ironed them down) are not 2 dimensional charicatures.  They are real people with real feeling and failings, doubt and fears.  Sometimes you realize that the only reason they made the right choice was by accident.  Just like the characters in Harry Potter, there is a lot of internal wrestling and trying to do the right thing with realistically limited information on which to base decisions.  Life could maybe be black and white if we could all see perfectly into the thoughts, motives, past and future of ourself and those around us.  But, just like those of us in the real world, the citizens of Middle Earth (and Hogwarts) have to muddle through the best they can with their values to guide them. 

  
  

  Speaking of values.  You really can't get much better than hobbits as an example of the balanced moral life.  They are simple people with a love of hearth and home.  It is their very love of these things which compels them to stand great trials and undertake heroic quests.  Not to become heroes themselves, a heroic hobbit is most definitely not admired by his friends and family.  They do these things in order to preserve the opportunities for others, friends, neighbors, and children to have the hearth and home they so value.

  
  

  The Lord of the Rings is worth the price of the ticket to see it in a theater.  Go EARLY in the evening.  It's a 3 hour offering so the poor folks who line upfor the 8 o'clock show won't get out of the parking lot til almost midnight.

  
  

  And as for me - if any of you get the Legoras (elf) character in your Burger King Happy Meal - I would gladly trade you some lovely homemade potholders for him.  (Okay, I'm also missing Strider from my collection and I'd give just as much to have him.) 

  • 7:34 pm
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