Lord of the Rings movies

Hi TheoryofForms,
I've never read the books and yes the actual movie does seem a little dark and sinister. I can't really get away from the whole LOTRs hype due to living in middle earth and not that far from Hobbitville

TheoryofForms said:

I'm curious - do people consider the books to be more virtuous than the movies on account that the movies are pretty dark and violent? Is it something we should watch despite the violence, much like that Passion of the Christ movie?

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I've read the books many times and watched the movies many times and I also play the LOTRO game online. With the book there is so much history, poetry, conversations, thoughts of the characters and additional material that it makes the war story less intense. The movie had to streamline for cinematic reasons which makes what is still in the book seem darker. In my imagination while reading the book before seeing the movies, I did not see everything so dirty. Bree was cleaner in my mind. But this brings more detail that others saw so I found the movie enriching.

I never cared for the movies. The book is a great work, I think.

To be fair, the books are pretty grim. You've got the fact that orcs are created by physically and magically torturing elves. There's the giant spiders, the barrow-wrights, the fate of the Dwarves of Moria, the general battles too.

Remember that Tolkien fought in the First World War, and nearly every reference to conflict in his writing is a reflection of his time on the Western Front. Tolkien gives everything a bit of a nice veneer because of his use of language, but he doesn't really shy away from letting his own experiences slip through.

TheoryofForms said:

I'm curious - do people consider the books to be more virtuous than the movies on account that the movies are pretty dark and violent? Is it something we should watch despite the violence, much like that Passion of the Christ movie?

Click to expand...

..Yeah, I'm sure everyone was just hankering to see Tom Bombadil in action on the Silver-Screen... (Although, I actually like Tom Bombadil's character in the "Fellowship of the Ring" book, I just can't seeing him as being very marketable...).

I enjoyed watching the movies more than reading the book, there are more poetry and singing in the book.

Thing is like any medium, making a movie out of a book, game....etc means things may be changed or drastically cut out because you can only cram so much in without having the movie be ultra long and split into a million movies.

I own the LOTR extended editions and watching all movies back to back it takes 12 hours and 26 minutes. So its pretty amazing for a movie series. There is alot cut out still of course but it makes the movie enjoyable to people. While there is alot to love in the books, many people wouldn't want to sit through endless amounts of stuff that could be boring to a movie goer. I love the movies. And I love the Hobbit movies. Though LOTR reminds me more of God vs Devil. Which really is the case of any real good vs evil movie. But Sauron really feels like the devil in his lands and his actions/appearance at times. Not sure who "God" would be per say. Maybe a mix of Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn?

I tell people if you want a good movie see LOTR. But if you want a more "godly" type of movie but less scary see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe series.

I like watching as well!

TailsFox said:

I'm curious - do people consider the books to be more virtuous than the movies on account that the movies are pretty dark and violent? Is it something we should watch despite the violence, much like that Passion of the Christ movie?

Click to expand...

I read the books when I was a teenager back in the '70's.....

but I did like the movies and did think that they are well done.

The character Smeagol is a pretty good artistic idea on the idea of the
"goat for Azazel" of Leviticus 16:10 in the RSV.

But..... Barabbas or Bar Abbas probably soon repented and probably became a
Christian, (Messianic Jew).

TailsFox said:

I'm curious - do people consider the books to be more virtuous than the movies on account that the movies are pretty dark and violent? Is it something we should watch despite the violence, much like that Passion of the Christ movie?

Click to expand...

I don't like the movies, I started to read the book once, but stopped cos I just was too busy and had other things to do. I preferred the books to the movies by far.

I think if you wanna watch it, go ahead. They're only movies, they're not gonna possess you and make you do stuff.

TailsFox said:

I'm curious - do people consider the books to be more virtuous than the movies on account that the movies are pretty dark and violent? Is it something we should watch despite the violence, much like that Passion of the Christ movie?

Click to expand...

I'd argue that the books are far darker then the films. The world of the books is far richer than any film could ever be. A not so mini series something like 24 true 2 hour (e.g 2 hours net of commercials not 2 hours of tv scheduled time) might cover the richness.

How does one convey teh stench of Shelob's lair?

How does one set the stage adequately for The Cracks of Doom where the Phial of Galadriel, a light that shines where all other lights fail, goes dark?

No the dark elements of the films is not a problem. It is that other things are lost. Perhaps most of all the idea that heroism involves a lot of muddy depressing slogs rather then occasional pitched battles is the most obvious and important.

The films reduced a story with strong moral points to just another adventure.