I was lucky enough to see an advanced screening of "Return of the King" with theater owners and other movie theater employees....and it was fantastic!

No spoilers, PLEASE! I had no doubt, but I'm glad to hear that's the case. I can't wait.

-Zeke

And now we will have to kill you

no. really


PLEASE no spoilers!

Doesn't this movie follow the novel closely? How could there be any spoilers? Just go out and read the book! I have... a lot of detail towards the end that makes the reading slow. BTW, has anyone who has read the trilogy noted any discrepancies? I think he got some details mixed up toward the end of RotK.. 'course I'm probably just wrong about that though...

Tom

I heard that the Return of the King film is exactly like the book: For the last hour, the director stands up at a whiteboard and explains the backstory in Elvish.

LOL

Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week...

(Actually, that one was going around the SF con I went to a couple weeks ago...)

For the last hour, the director stands up at a whiteboard and explains the backstory in Elvish.

Ok, now that almost caused me to spew milk all over my monitor.

Re: Following the novel

Well, Faramir was tempted by the ring the 2nd one and he wasn't in the book. I'm psyched at least _one_ of them can follow the book. No Tom Bombadil & barrow wights, Hobbits convice the Ents to destroy Eisengard, trees (can't place their name) not destroying the Orc army at Helm's Deep...

...you get my drift!

That's not to say that I don't understand why such changes were made, but I'd like a 15 hour trilogy with everything _right_. Mind you I think the first two films were fantastic. Tolkein had such vivid writing that I want to see Jackson's take on all of it.

Glad to hear ROTK is faithful!

-Zeke

Tolkein had such vivid writing

Tolkein's writing was dull as ditchwater. I'm glad that someone's made a film of the story, so that I don't have to trawl through the singing, poetry, and the seventeen names for every little thing in the damn book.

The story: superb. The writing: utter shite.

I got the platinum mumble extreme edition of the Two Towers and listened to the director's commentary during the parts where the plot diverged radically from the book. A recurring phrase they'd use was "a slight deviation". And, placed in the context of the longer cut of movie, it all made much more sense. For example, once they had decided to move Shelob to the third movie, they had to create some sort of conflict for Frodo and Sam to work their way out of, thus the changes to Faromir. Likewise, the changes made to the battle at Helm's Deep were intended to fill in some backstory on the historical alliance between men and elves without dorking the main story line around too much. (In the extended movie, Fangorn forest has more of a role in the battle as well.)

...and Liv Tyler drinks in my pub, work that one out?

I got the platinum mumble extreme edition of the Two Towers and listened to the director's commentary during the parts where the plot diverged radically from the book. A recurring phrase they'd use was "a slight deviation".

Yes, and the way they used it made it sound more and more like a running joke among the scriptwriters, a bit like a film-maker's version of "just a quick pint". By the end of the commentary they were actually sounding pretty apologetic for the deviations ("the choices we made early in the filming meant that...").

It did make me laugh, in the first film, when the scriptwriters poked fun at Tolkien's long pieces-to-camera with the backstory: when Aragorn is singing the Lay of Leithan, and Sam asks him what happened to her, and he says "She died". In the book his answer to that question goes on for a page and a half.

Peter Jackson has essentially said all along that he ran The Lord Of The Rings as two projects in parallel: a film of the book, in the extended editions, plus a film of a palimpsest of the book, in the cinema editions. I think he's done that extremely well so far. He also says in one of the commentaries, that even where they've monkeyed with the plot, they've always striven to keep the visuals "authentic" -- from the two-trees-based decor of Rivendell to the flowers on the tombs of Edoras -- so that readers of the book always feel "at home" there. Basically I've got a huge amount of respect for the whole undertaking, and I cannot but imagine that the third film will live up to the first two.

Peter

In reply to:

---

Tolkein's writing was dull as ditchwater. I'm glad that someone's made a film of the story, so that I don't have to trawl through the singing, poetry, and the seventeen names for every little thing in the damn book.

---

Here here! I tried to make it through and failed ... I'm content with the movies.

Roger,

I couldn't disagree more, but since it's a matter of opinion there's not much more that can be said! (although I'm certain someone other than myself would try )

Over the course of my life I've read the books probably six or seven times. I get something different out of them each time. The last time around I read them twice in a row (two years ago). I've got a .pdf copy of all three and The Hobbit if anyone's interested (PM me).

-Zeke

Still better than Gormenghast though, eh?

Still better than Gormenghast though, eh?

Oh, the horror! I would have described Gormenghast in exactly opposite terms: negligible plot, fantastic baroque writing. (Titus Groan and Gormenghast, that is; Titus Alone I didn't enjoy).

Peter

I love the books and the films, personally I did find some segments of the books pretty darned long winded.
Reading the ventings of folks complaining of changes always seems to entirely miss the point, some parts of a book cannot translate into a film that people will watch.

I can't wait to see how everything pans out.

I think I am the only one who hasn't read the novels, so I can't really say how it compares to the book, but I can tell you what happens in the movie

trees (can't place their name)

Huorns

tanstaafl.

Huorns. -Thank you.

For anyone who wishes, there's a copy of the 13 MB .pdf of all three books plus The Hobbit at my ftp site: ftp: slash slash castlegreenwald.dyndns.org. Go easy it's only on my cable modem with about 35kB/sec u/l speed. I don't run a webserver, so you'll get an error if you click on the file link from within IE or the like. It'll be there for a few days.

-Zeke

man, don't you know the literature RIAA equivalent monitors this forum?

I found once I got into them I actually did enjoy them (I don't admit it to my brother with a literary degree - he would be very disparaging) and could read them very fast.

I think the best bits (might be in Titus alone) are the hundreds of pages of developing a character, and the sentence getting rid of them - like someone (can't remember who) getting fairly manic/depressive, going to commit suicide off a window ledge, deciding not to, but then slipping and falling to her death while climbing back in.

Made me laugh, but then I am a little bit sick.

Tolkein's writing was dull as ditchwater.

Of course I have to chime in and disagree here, but it really is just a matter of taste. I enjoy Tolkein’s style, but it is definitely different than most other books, especially these days. It is more the "sit down in a comfortable chair by the fire with something hot to drink and let the story envelop you" kind of reading, which isn't appreciated by everyone. I enjoy this style a great deal though, especially in the fantasy genre. Actually, LOTR is really the only fantasy I enjoy, and Tolkien’s ability to envelop the reader might be the reason why. But it's not a book I read fifteen minutes at a time whenever I get the chance to pick it up. It is very deliberate reading.

but have ya see this

I'm going to be taking LOTR/Hobbit .pdf off the FTP server tomorrow, so if you haven't grabbed it yet please do. To everyone who did grab it, enjoy!

-Zeke

I heard a rumor that Jackson may go back and shoot The Hobbit. Has anyone else seen or heard that somewhere?

There has been talk, and Jackson would like to after he has done a couple of other ones, but there are some legal issues to work out. They talk a bit about it at http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=16638