Have you seen it? What do you think? Have you read the books? If not, will you now?

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Answers

I saw it. It must have impressed me because I had bad dreams the night after I saw it. I swear!

I agree with the reviewers who said it helps to read the books. The story is just so much richer than the movie was able to depict and I really missed that. I'd still recommend it to anyone, although the ending is abrupt. But it follows the book!

I've read the trilogy four or five times. I'm reading it again - almost done with The Fellowship of the Ring. I've read The Hobbit twice and part of the Silmilirion book. Yeah, you could say I'm a fan.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Saw it without having read the books but knowing the main characters and plot. Loved it.

Saw it again with all of my family including my father, the man who has all the books memorized. And who hasn't been in a theater since Return of the Jedi so obviously a big event. He loved it (but he thought the effects in Rivendale were really bad and too glowy).

My mother? Who can't follow the plot on Friends and knows nothing about the books? Liked it but was lost. So she asked my Dad. Through the whole movie. And he answered. In a normal conversational tone. Through the whole movie.

I was MORTIFIED. I am the person who shushes people all through the movie. But I'm glad they enjoyed it.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

I'm not sure what I thought of it. I didn't read the books, btw. I thought it was beautiful. The little hobbit village was so pretty and I kind of wished the movie could have stayed there. (Obviously, the whole "based on a book" thing made that impossible). However, to me, three hours seemed excessive. I saw Ali the day before and, I swear, I was so not ready to sit for three hours again.

Didn't like the battle scenes. Thought there wasn't enough character development.

My dad read all the books and he loved it. My mother didn't read them and hated it. I'm somewhere in the middle. Oh, also, I felt like I was getting smacked in the face with the Christianity allegory.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Not to go off on a tangent but. . .

Tolkein always denied there was any allegory to Christianity. Or to WWII, another big theory of scholars. In fact, in the edition I'm reading right now in the prologue he says he generally dislikes allegory and flat out denies the story is an allegory to either of those things or anything else.

I think the Christianity allegory people tend to see is because, like the story of Christ, or Star Wars, or Harry Potter, or any epic, mythic story, LoR touches on some major mythic themes, plots and characters that have existed in myth and story-telling basically since recorded history. Just your basic Everyday Hero Circle Plot - average Joe finds/receives a special power/item, must use it to save person/world, descends to the underworld/evil place, defeats leader of underworld, goes back home - retold and retold.

If you read any of Joseph Campbell's amazing works on myth and culture you'll start seeing these major characters and themes in most every epic story that has stood the test of time. Some, like LoR, are original works that hit upon these themes. Others, such as Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, hit up these themes through deliberate allegory to the story of Christ.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

And it's funny because I was actually looking for allusions to Christ but other than one or two instances I didn't see it. I got too swept up in the story.

I loved it. Want to see it again and read the book before I do, but I still loved it.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

See, I understand that Tolkein always insisted that there were no allegories to be found in LoTR. BUT. The man lost all but two of his closest childhood friends in WW1, and he was horrified by WW2. While writing the later volumes, he sent chapters to his son Christopher, who was fighting for England in WW2, for approval. Surely these experiences somehow affected his thoughts while writing the novel. So, here's my analysis, courtesy Anthony Lane (who says these things, of course, much better than I ever could in a recent issue of the New Yorker):

A lot of hippy-types interpreted LoTR as a call for wprld peace and understanding. They missed the mark. Think of a young man from the midwestern United States or rural England. This young man is duty- bound to travel far away from his home, the things he is familiar with, and his family. He might have some friends who find themselves in a similar situation - they may even be going to the same place, and with a similar purpose. He doesn't go fight fascism, or terrorists, or whoever because he WANTS to - he does it because he HAS to, because sometimes we're obliged to leave what we love in order to ensure its vitality - kind of like the Frodo.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

I think I'm reading the same edition Slickery is because it has the same prologue. T, I think you wrote it quite well.

One more thing, I mangled the spelling of 'Silmarillion.' Whew, that was really bugging me. Thank God for Google, I found the correct spelling on the "hypertextualized Tolkien FAQ" webpage.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

And it's funny because I was actually looking for allusions to Christ but other than one or two instances I didn't see it.

And I didn't see any. I was just sitting there with my mouth open. I can't wait to see it again.

I agree with T. It's not world peace Tolkien was after, I don't think.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Maybe I spent too many years using the Christ allegory for last- minute English papers. :) It probably didn't hurt that I also watched that Abundance show on EWTN (why do I find that channel fascinating?) and they were all talking about the Christian values/themes/etc. in the movie and books. Tolkein was way, way Catholic and way, way anti-WWII, so doesn't that have to come through? Like Poe and drug addiction.

I'm not seeing the WWII allegory. I mean, I see with the whole rise of evil thing, but not overall.

I'm starting to think I'm not a fantasy movie person. I loved the HP books, but not the movie. Same reason - lack of character development. I'm gonna get lynched, aren't I?

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

But isn't that the main flaw between movies and books in general?

At one point Al and I looked at each other, both of us thinking the same thing like, isn't Gandalf a wizard? Can't he magic-alate some stairs or something? Or stop the crazy mountain from falling on their heads?

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Hannah, I think you might be right about the main flaw between movies and books. I'm thinking, though, of the version of Jane Eyre with Timothy Dalton or the Paltrow version of Emma. I really felt the characters. I think in fantasy books, they want to make you see it, so they concentrate all this energy on making you see it.

And then you come off, for example, with HP, in which HP annoys me because he has the air of entitlement that the "real" HP wouldn't have had. I do think that LOTR did a little better than that because I think all the actors did their parts in a manner that suited the plot...but then again, I didn't read the books.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Ah but the mountain was falling on their head because Saraman the White (yes, I know it's spelled wrong) was using magic to make it happen and Gandalf tries to stop. But in the hierarchy of wizards white is more powerful than gray so he couldn't. But you don't get that in the movie because there isn't time for that level of detail. So, yeah, lack of character development in adaptations of books is generally going to happen.

However, I think the DVD "director's cut" version might address all that. I've heard there are hours of footage filmed but not used from the first book and if they include it you'll end up with something mini-series in length but much more in depth plot wise.

Re: the WWII allegory. I don't know much but my father said the main theory is that Sauron the Big Bad is Hitler and Saraman the White is Mussolini, joining up due to the inevitablity and power rather than a belief that what he is doing is right.

I do think some of his feelings re: war and away from home obviously have to come through to an extent, yeah. But the books were written over decades before and after the war so I buy it when he says it wasn't what he was trying to do.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002