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ladyoflorien) wrote2003-12-20 09:26 pm
ladyoflorien) wrote2003-12-20 09:26 pm
Important update.
Oh. Okay, so I just found out I don't even GET the Biography channel. Uhh... oh well? Crap, I guess no LOTR behind the scenes for me. :(
All right, now I've gotten a lot of flack from a bunch of people who will remain nameless recently about my opinions on RotK. While I don't see why I need to explain myself, I'm going to because I want you all to know where I'm coming from and what I feel. If you don't want to read this entry, fine, don't. I'm only posting it for those of you who have been curious and outspoken and a little rude when it comes to my personal thoughts and opinions. I want everything to be as clear as possible before you go on making assumptions and passing judgments when you do not have the full story. I no longer want you to keep looking at me like I'm forcing my lesser opinions on you when I'm NOT, because I would NEVER do that. So if you want to know the facts, then click below. But if you do not, I want it to be known that I will NOT tolerate any more backlashing or venomous speech about me and my personal opinions. If we're clear on that, then let's move ahead.
First of all let me give you a little back story. For a good majority of you, you're relatively new to the whole LOTR fandom. Most of you got hooked in with the theatrical release of Fellowship, some of you were brought in by friends that were big Tolkien fans, and yes SOME of you even started watching for few very simple reasons. Orlando Bloom. Elijah Wood. Liv Tyler. Whatever sort of manner brought you to this point it doesn't really matter, because the fact of the matter is we're all fans of the same thing, though some of us are clearly more devoted than othersand some are more shallow than others.
For me Tolkien was an obsession that started when I first learned to read. I have ALWAYS had the books in my possession, going back to time before I can even remember, because my siblings always had the books and subsequently passed them down to me. I grew up reading Tolkien. And I admit by now I know quite a bit about the story that other people may not ever find out until they scour all the supplemental articles they can find. I grew up inside Middle Earth. Through a lot of hard times it was my haven, my port in the storm, the world I escaped to and played in because most of the time this real world seemed determined to spat me out and turn me away. I cannot count how many times I've read the trilogy, but the pages are yellow and worn and cracking away in places, the spines are bent and curled, some of the covers are even torn loose. When other people were climbing on the monkey bars or running on the football field or immersing themselves in math class or science, I was under the boughs of Lothlorien, listening to the soft elven voices singing no higher than a breath of wind. I was hiding away in my hobbit hole, with my breads and cheese and pipe weed and good, though regrettably imaginable, jovial friends who shared my same love for life. You see, I made it a point to know every corner, every crevasse, every inch of Middle Earth inside and out because it was my home. It was one thing I really truly loved and believed in. You see, for me it wasn't fantasy, it was real. Everything about it was blissfully real. It was my chance to feel something true and deep, and as an ignorant child I fervently believed it had been a real place back in the ancient days of time. Even now I still cling to that thought in many ways, wanting to believe that the things Tolkien knew existed really did exist. That it was a history book, not a fictional novel. I wanted to believe everything Tolkien wanted his readers to believe when he wrote it. So you see, the story is very precious to me.
That being said, I'll now move on to the fullness of my reasons. A few nights back I was asked by one of you to give my reasons why I felt the way I did about the movie, and I did. The words may be clumsy or a bit heavy handed, but they're the best way I know how to explain my thoughts at this moment.
friend: I know you're disappointed, I am too. But don't you think you're taking it a little too hard? We knew it wasn't going to be perfect.
me: not disappointed
me: I WISH I were disappointed
friend: The book is the book, the original. The movie is a carbon copy, it could never be as good or the same
friend: then what are you?
me: no frelling kidding.
me: I'm NOTHING
me: did you not hear me before? Or read my LJ?
friend: I've read it
me: I'm not mad or disappointed or anything... there's this big void there, this emptiness, this nothingness like nothing ever happened. Except something did, and I feel horribly aghast at that thought because it passed and I did not feel it. If it had just been the fact that he changed the book, that he added unnecessary scenes or took away others, I could have dealt with it. But he KILLED the characters for me.
friend: I know how you feel. In part I feel the same way. But somehow my mind has divided it between the book and the movie. Granted you're more of a fan than I am, and my favorite fandom (SW) is based off a movie. I don't exactly know how you feel. But I'll do what I can to help you
friend: how did he kill them?
me: *sigh* Can you spare me a moment to gather my thoughts?
friend: sure
me: thank you.
friend: no problem
me: Tolkien's vision had substance and... feeling, deep thought and reflection. He gave each thing he wrote about a voice, whether it was flesh or stone or tree or animal, and he wrapped you in the back-story of these things. That is why we scour appendices and supplemental articles to learn more about the character's background, because Tolkien has managed to weave us into the story, make us a part of it, and make the things he writes about real to us. To the extent that we want to know that Aragorn grew up in Rivendell and we want to know how many ages of and before man Trees actually walked the hills with grass under their roots. There is a trueness in each word, as if you want to believe it's real because in some distant time you walked there and felt the stone of Gondor beneath your fingers and tasted the sweetness of the Entwash in your mouth and all about you there were strange whisperings and sighings of wind and water and many ancient things. Tolkien gave life to everything, because in his mind everything breathed and spoke and deserved our attention and admiration and awe and compassion. You grew to love and cherish the fellowship because you journeyed with them on the way to Mordor. You cared for and had real feeling for each person, each beast, each twig and fern because Tolkien made it a point to describe to you every singular reason why they were all so precious to him.
I went to RotK expecting to feel something, as I did for FotR and TTT, all editations and additions aside, because the things I had spent so long trying to picture and cherished deeply were suddenly walking and talking and there was a great deal of emotion in each figure. I wept when Gandalf fell, much as I did when reading the books, regardless of the fact I knew it wasn't his end, because the fellowship wept and collapsed and cried aloud in pained voices. I teared up when Merry and Pippin were thought dead, when Grima looked out on the vastness of Saurumon's army, when Aragorn fell in the Warg battle, because there was emotion on film that spread to the old compassions of my heart, and it moved me. That is what this has all been about, from beginning to end, all these long years, because the story is moving and desperate and all-together enrapturing.
Therefore, you can imagine my disappointment when I saw RotK, and not a tear was shed, not a shudder was mustered, not a chill was felt. There was nothing but emptiness, and it was the most horrifying, empty, devastating thing I have felt in a very long count of years. I felt... robbed. I felt cheated. I felt slighted. Because for many, many long years I've sobbed on page and ink because of the sweeping words and written emotion that Tolkien captured so well, and yet here it was, one of my favorite stories before me in life and screen and picture, and I felt nothing of my old thoughts and feelings and emotions. It was as if a black rider were present, and a chill had crept upon my heart, and he carried away all my love in his icy metal grip. I was horrified and aghast that my heart did not even once skip a beat. It felt like there was something terribly wrong with me, like I wasn't seeing something, like I had been blindfolded and my ears stopped up, and all I could think for the whole 3 1/2 was "this is wrong, this is all wrong. Something has gone horribly amiss. What's happening? Why does this all feel so horribly wrong?"
Peter Jackson is a visionary and a good director, I'll give him that. But what he didn't do as opposed to what he did do, is what I'll never forget. He didn't give the characters any substance. He didn't give them any growth or heart or feeling. There was nothing there, and it left this empty gnawing at my heart, because I knew that I was missing something, like the greatest and most cared for theme of RotK had been ripped from the story altogether. The battles were sweeping. The horses and their bearers valiant. The armor was perfect, and the walls of Gondor a perfect tapestry. But why was Pippin's speech so shortened by Gandalf's quick hand? Why was Merry's despair and valor and wish to be beside his friends so grossly unnoticed? Why did not Aragorn lay his hands upon Faramir and Eowyn and Merry, and bring life back to their dying lips? Why did it make Pippin's wish to be in Denethor's service seem so unwilling and forced? There are number upon number of why's, and none of them have an answer. There was the glitter of sword and the clash of armor and many valiant faces, but the people underneath seemed so... dead. Unreal. Fake. Fictional. There were many shed tears, but no one knew why they were being shed. No one understood the stirrings in the hearts of the characters, and what moved them to cry so openly and fiercely. No one understood what was happening, because it seemed as though the characters themselves didn't even understand what was happening. And that is why I just want to forget the entire experience, because I don't want to look on the hobbits as fictional and removed. I don't want to look on Aragorn as stern and empty. I don't want to look on the peoples of middle earth as dead and unreal. And I'm sad and sorrowful that Peter Jackson left all the character development up to FotR and TTT, because he didn't realize that all the growth, all the feeling, all the characters FIRST appeared in RotK. And that makes me incredibly sad.
There is what I said. And now let me go a bit further. I know everyone had different audiences and different theater experiences than I did, so I do not need to be told that so-and-so wept or this person got this feeling though they haven't read the books. You visited a different theater than I did. Needless to say, some of the murmurings I heard during the movie broke my heart. That's where I'm coming from on the audience experience part. No one in my theater cried. No one gasped. No one made any other positive comment aside from laughter and clapping, and even that was sparse. When the characters cried on screen, it was noticeable to people that the reasons why had not fully been explained. A lot of people made gay jokes or just generally asked "why the ____ is [person] crying AGAIN!?" I am very sad to admit that at times I was one of them.
There is too much depth and detail to the books to be able to catch everything perfectly, to put every emotion into every scene, but in my experience every emotion was terribly undernourished. I loved how PJ handled Theoden's speech before battle, I think it did a great job capturing his emotion at that part. I also liked almost all of Ian McKellen's facial expressions, as well as Faramir's hurt in the halls of Denethor. I thought those were executed as properly as one could hope. But the stars of the book were desperately cut short to make room for the other main characters who had very bit roles in the actual book. And because of that struggle, it lessened the emotion of all the other characters involved. I've heard people refer to Merry's wish to join in battle as "war-mongering" and "blood-thirst." I've yet to hear someone mention how they caught the fact that he was desperately lonely. That he did not want to be the only one out of his friends not fighting, though he was scared. That he offered his sword to Theoden, and told the man that he was now to be a father to him. Where was all that? This is just one experience so I wont be here describing the fare of all the characters all night. But the fact of the matter is there were a couple very prominent main characters. Frodo and Sam, obviously. Pippin and Gandalf. Theoden and Merry. Denethor and Aragorn. There was little to be said about Legolas and Gimli. Gollum's part was even reduced. But instead of lessening other more trivial things and giving just a little more attention to the ones we were to hear about the most in the books, he lessened the plight of them all.
As I said, the battles were sweeping. They were also PJ's main focus, and that was excruciatingly noticeable. But for the few mentioned scenes that had real emotion, everything else was left horribly unattended to. And my audience and the few other reviews I've heard noticed that right away. There were so many loose ties. So many unresolved plots. So many unexplored emotions. And it kills me that I left the theater almost wholly unmoved. It's funny to think that I once took pride in the fact that I never cried at a movie, and now I measure a movie's strength by it. I wish, I wish I felt for this movie as I did for the first two. There were gross errors in canon, yes, but in the end it had the same sweeping effect. In the end it brandished the same amount of love. In this movie, everything felt horridly detached for me. And that is the worst possible thing that could ever happen in a movie, in my opinion.
If you are wanting to tell me to "Separate the book from the film," then I really must think you've missed the entire point of this post. I did not expect much in the way of canon. If you expected my disappointment was in the fact that the movie was almost nothing like the book whatsoever, there you're wrong. I KNEW there would be gross errors, I expected that, I can even learn to live with it. But I at least expected consistence. I felt for the first two movies, I expected I would feel the same for the final. I don't think that's too much to ask, personally. I know there's no way on earth I can get you to understand the depth of what I'm saying, I don't know in what other ways I could explain it to get you to understand, but it's not about separating the two. I did that a long time ago. It's about the emotion of what I'm seeing. It's not about reading a book, or watching a movie for me, it's about feeling all that I'm taking in swirl around in rich warmth in the stream of my blood. I know I can't get you to understand that, because I think and feel in a way that's different from you, we ALL do. That is why we all have different opinions, different likes, different dislikes, different attitudes and emotions. No two people have shared the same experiences and thus cannot share the same depth of emotion in any one thing. This is my part, it's my piece, it's my opinions and thoughts. If they're different from yours, then really what else could you expect? You are not wrong for feeling differently than I, but that also means I am not wrong for feeling differently from you. It's freedom of expression, it's all governed by personal emotion, and no amount of bickering or convincing or long drawn out conversations can change that. Because in the end I might not understand why you feel a certain way about something, and vice versa. If you can't deal with that, then don't bother to ask my opinion in the first place. I respect and honor everyone's thoughts and feelings and I would NEVER seek to change them, I can only hope that I'd be granted the same favor in return. It is as Pippin said in the text of RotK, "this is my tale."
I want you to know that I neither said I LIKED or DISLIKED RotK. I never said I was disappointed. I never gave any review other than the fact that my experience had been void of any emotion. You cannot wrought anger from nothingness, and that is all I felt by the experience. Nothing. But in case your eyes glazed over it, from the beginning I've been determined to give RotK a second shot. I just needed a moment to forget, to wash away the bad, to let go of the emptiness. I never mentioned likes or dislikes, and I have every intention to give RotK a second chance. Maybe my experience was altered by the horrible events of the evening/preceding day, as stated in my earlier journal entry. Maybe I was too distracted by the noise of my sisters. There are a bunch of maybes, but the point is when I came home I felt neither this way nor that about what I had just seen and that has not changed. The only differing emotion since then has been that of frustration, and that's only because of the fact that others felt something and I didn't, as well as the fact that I've been attacked because I'm not bouncing around and screaming "Ohmigod, it was the best movie ever! Legolas is so hot! Like, YEAH!" I apologize, but what would you have me do?
This is why I did not want to write a review of the movie. I wanted to give it a fresh, clean slate. This is why I have tried to avoid talking about the contents of the movie, and I know it's hard for those of you who feel differently about the trilogy than I do not to always want to revert to LOTR talk. And that's okay, just bear in mind that I'm still waiting to form opinions. I've washed everything away. I've forgotten as best I could. And that's what I want. I want to go back to that theater and hold my chin up and hope that Wednesday morning was just a horrible experience, an off day, and this time around I'll feel something different. But until then this is my reaction. These are my thoughts. And I know that regardless of all the long words spoken here you will probably still go away thinking what you want to think about me and my opinions. If that is true, then there's nothing else I can do to make you think any differently. I do not have the power to show you my mind and heart. I'm sorry. I just want you to bear in mind that this has been my story for a very, very long time, and the fact that I went away from the movie with nothing to bear in my heart was extremely unnerving, disheartening, and disorientating. Picture something you've treasured since your youth, and suddenly imagine that you feel nothing at all towards it, good or bad. If you can picture such a thing, then you know how weird and awful it was for me.
So there's my piece. I've said what I said. I've probably left out huge pieces, or repeated other things more than once, but it's a hard subject to breach for me. I hope you can understand, or at least try to understand where I'm coming from now, and if my thoughts and emotions still upset you or govern your experience in some way, then I'm sorry. I put this behind a cut tag for a reason. And I will not apologize for feeling the way I do or try to change my opinions to better serve your means. This is MY journal, MY outlet, for MY thoughts. You're only being allowed to roam around in it for a while. You are not allowed to dictate what I do and do not write about. If it bothers you, skip over it. There's no harm in that. But I want you to know that for all the respect, honor, love and compassion I assign to you, I at least expect a small measure in return. Because I would never invade your personal journal and tell you you're all wrong. That's yours, this is mine, and it should co-exist without so much friction. If you can contribute to that, then I know things will go much more smoothly from now on.
There. I've said it. I'm going to stop rambling now. I hope you take the time to read it and hopefully meditate on just what exactly I'm trying to say to you. In all the days following RotK there's been one phrase from RotK that keeps repeating itself in my head, and I think it sums up everything in a simple way.
But Imrahil said: 'So victory is shorn of gladness, and it is bitter bought...' (if this makes no sense to you, it's been too long since you last read the book)
All right, now I've gotten a lot of flack from a bunch of people who will remain nameless recently about my opinions on RotK. While I don't see why I need to explain myself, I'm going to because I want you all to know where I'm coming from and what I feel. If you don't want to read this entry, fine, don't. I'm only posting it for those of you who have been curious and outspoken and a little rude when it comes to my personal thoughts and opinions. I want everything to be as clear as possible before you go on making assumptions and passing judgments when you do not have the full story. I no longer want you to keep looking at me like I'm forcing my lesser opinions on you when I'm NOT, because I would NEVER do that. So if you want to know the facts, then click below. But if you do not, I want it to be known that I will NOT tolerate any more backlashing or venomous speech about me and my personal opinions. If we're clear on that, then let's move ahead.
First of all let me give you a little back story. For a good majority of you, you're relatively new to the whole LOTR fandom. Most of you got hooked in with the theatrical release of Fellowship, some of you were brought in by friends that were big Tolkien fans, and yes SOME of you even started watching for few very simple reasons. Orlando Bloom. Elijah Wood. Liv Tyler. Whatever sort of manner brought you to this point it doesn't really matter, because the fact of the matter is we're all fans of the same thing, though some of us are clearly more devoted than others
For me Tolkien was an obsession that started when I first learned to read. I have ALWAYS had the books in my possession, going back to time before I can even remember, because my siblings always had the books and subsequently passed them down to me. I grew up reading Tolkien. And I admit by now I know quite a bit about the story that other people may not ever find out until they scour all the supplemental articles they can find. I grew up inside Middle Earth. Through a lot of hard times it was my haven, my port in the storm, the world I escaped to and played in because most of the time this real world seemed determined to spat me out and turn me away. I cannot count how many times I've read the trilogy, but the pages are yellow and worn and cracking away in places, the spines are bent and curled, some of the covers are even torn loose. When other people were climbing on the monkey bars or running on the football field or immersing themselves in math class or science, I was under the boughs of Lothlorien, listening to the soft elven voices singing no higher than a breath of wind. I was hiding away in my hobbit hole, with my breads and cheese and pipe weed and good, though regrettably imaginable, jovial friends who shared my same love for life. You see, I made it a point to know every corner, every crevasse, every inch of Middle Earth inside and out because it was my home. It was one thing I really truly loved and believed in. You see, for me it wasn't fantasy, it was real. Everything about it was blissfully real. It was my chance to feel something true and deep, and as an ignorant child I fervently believed it had been a real place back in the ancient days of time. Even now I still cling to that thought in many ways, wanting to believe that the things Tolkien knew existed really did exist. That it was a history book, not a fictional novel. I wanted to believe everything Tolkien wanted his readers to believe when he wrote it. So you see, the story is very precious to me.
That being said, I'll now move on to the fullness of my reasons. A few nights back I was asked by one of you to give my reasons why I felt the way I did about the movie, and I did. The words may be clumsy or a bit heavy handed, but they're the best way I know how to explain my thoughts at this moment.
friend: I know you're disappointed, I am too. But don't you think you're taking it a little too hard? We knew it wasn't going to be perfect.
me: not disappointed
me: I WISH I were disappointed
friend: The book is the book, the original. The movie is a carbon copy, it could never be as good or the same
friend: then what are you?
me: no frelling kidding.
me: I'm NOTHING
me: did you not hear me before? Or read my LJ?
friend: I've read it
me: I'm not mad or disappointed or anything... there's this big void there, this emptiness, this nothingness like nothing ever happened. Except something did, and I feel horribly aghast at that thought because it passed and I did not feel it. If it had just been the fact that he changed the book, that he added unnecessary scenes or took away others, I could have dealt with it. But he KILLED the characters for me.
friend: I know how you feel. In part I feel the same way. But somehow my mind has divided it between the book and the movie. Granted you're more of a fan than I am, and my favorite fandom (SW) is based off a movie. I don't exactly know how you feel. But I'll do what I can to help you
friend: how did he kill them?
me: *sigh* Can you spare me a moment to gather my thoughts?
friend: sure
me: thank you.
friend: no problem
me: Tolkien's vision had substance and... feeling, deep thought and reflection. He gave each thing he wrote about a voice, whether it was flesh or stone or tree or animal, and he wrapped you in the back-story of these things. That is why we scour appendices and supplemental articles to learn more about the character's background, because Tolkien has managed to weave us into the story, make us a part of it, and make the things he writes about real to us. To the extent that we want to know that Aragorn grew up in Rivendell and we want to know how many ages of and before man Trees actually walked the hills with grass under their roots. There is a trueness in each word, as if you want to believe it's real because in some distant time you walked there and felt the stone of Gondor beneath your fingers and tasted the sweetness of the Entwash in your mouth and all about you there were strange whisperings and sighings of wind and water and many ancient things. Tolkien gave life to everything, because in his mind everything breathed and spoke and deserved our attention and admiration and awe and compassion. You grew to love and cherish the fellowship because you journeyed with them on the way to Mordor. You cared for and had real feeling for each person, each beast, each twig and fern because Tolkien made it a point to describe to you every singular reason why they were all so precious to him.
I went to RotK expecting to feel something, as I did for FotR and TTT, all editations and additions aside, because the things I had spent so long trying to picture and cherished deeply were suddenly walking and talking and there was a great deal of emotion in each figure. I wept when Gandalf fell, much as I did when reading the books, regardless of the fact I knew it wasn't his end, because the fellowship wept and collapsed and cried aloud in pained voices. I teared up when Merry and Pippin were thought dead, when Grima looked out on the vastness of Saurumon's army, when Aragorn fell in the Warg battle, because there was emotion on film that spread to the old compassions of my heart, and it moved me. That is what this has all been about, from beginning to end, all these long years, because the story is moving and desperate and all-together enrapturing.
Therefore, you can imagine my disappointment when I saw RotK, and not a tear was shed, not a shudder was mustered, not a chill was felt. There was nothing but emptiness, and it was the most horrifying, empty, devastating thing I have felt in a very long count of years. I felt... robbed. I felt cheated. I felt slighted. Because for many, many long years I've sobbed on page and ink because of the sweeping words and written emotion that Tolkien captured so well, and yet here it was, one of my favorite stories before me in life and screen and picture, and I felt nothing of my old thoughts and feelings and emotions. It was as if a black rider were present, and a chill had crept upon my heart, and he carried away all my love in his icy metal grip. I was horrified and aghast that my heart did not even once skip a beat. It felt like there was something terribly wrong with me, like I wasn't seeing something, like I had been blindfolded and my ears stopped up, and all I could think for the whole 3 1/2 was "this is wrong, this is all wrong. Something has gone horribly amiss. What's happening? Why does this all feel so horribly wrong?"
Peter Jackson is a visionary and a good director, I'll give him that. But what he didn't do as opposed to what he did do, is what I'll never forget. He didn't give the characters any substance. He didn't give them any growth or heart or feeling. There was nothing there, and it left this empty gnawing at my heart, because I knew that I was missing something, like the greatest and most cared for theme of RotK had been ripped from the story altogether. The battles were sweeping. The horses and their bearers valiant. The armor was perfect, and the walls of Gondor a perfect tapestry. But why was Pippin's speech so shortened by Gandalf's quick hand? Why was Merry's despair and valor and wish to be beside his friends so grossly unnoticed? Why did not Aragorn lay his hands upon Faramir and Eowyn and Merry, and bring life back to their dying lips? Why did it make Pippin's wish to be in Denethor's service seem so unwilling and forced? There are number upon number of why's, and none of them have an answer. There was the glitter of sword and the clash of armor and many valiant faces, but the people underneath seemed so... dead. Unreal. Fake. Fictional. There were many shed tears, but no one knew why they were being shed. No one understood the stirrings in the hearts of the characters, and what moved them to cry so openly and fiercely. No one understood what was happening, because it seemed as though the characters themselves didn't even understand what was happening. And that is why I just want to forget the entire experience, because I don't want to look on the hobbits as fictional and removed. I don't want to look on Aragorn as stern and empty. I don't want to look on the peoples of middle earth as dead and unreal. And I'm sad and sorrowful that Peter Jackson left all the character development up to FotR and TTT, because he didn't realize that all the growth, all the feeling, all the characters FIRST appeared in RotK. And that makes me incredibly sad.
There is what I said. And now let me go a bit further. I know everyone had different audiences and different theater experiences than I did, so I do not need to be told that so-and-so wept or this person got this feeling though they haven't read the books. You visited a different theater than I did. Needless to say, some of the murmurings I heard during the movie broke my heart. That's where I'm coming from on the audience experience part. No one in my theater cried. No one gasped. No one made any other positive comment aside from laughter and clapping, and even that was sparse. When the characters cried on screen, it was noticeable to people that the reasons why had not fully been explained. A lot of people made gay jokes or just generally asked "why the ____ is [person] crying AGAIN!?" I am very sad to admit that at times I was one of them.
There is too much depth and detail to the books to be able to catch everything perfectly, to put every emotion into every scene, but in my experience every emotion was terribly undernourished. I loved how PJ handled Theoden's speech before battle, I think it did a great job capturing his emotion at that part. I also liked almost all of Ian McKellen's facial expressions, as well as Faramir's hurt in the halls of Denethor. I thought those were executed as properly as one could hope. But the stars of the book were desperately cut short to make room for the other main characters who had very bit roles in the actual book. And because of that struggle, it lessened the emotion of all the other characters involved. I've heard people refer to Merry's wish to join in battle as "war-mongering" and "blood-thirst." I've yet to hear someone mention how they caught the fact that he was desperately lonely. That he did not want to be the only one out of his friends not fighting, though he was scared. That he offered his sword to Theoden, and told the man that he was now to be a father to him. Where was all that? This is just one experience so I wont be here describing the fare of all the characters all night. But the fact of the matter is there were a couple very prominent main characters. Frodo and Sam, obviously. Pippin and Gandalf. Theoden and Merry. Denethor and Aragorn. There was little to be said about Legolas and Gimli. Gollum's part was even reduced. But instead of lessening other more trivial things and giving just a little more attention to the ones we were to hear about the most in the books, he lessened the plight of them all.
As I said, the battles were sweeping. They were also PJ's main focus, and that was excruciatingly noticeable. But for the few mentioned scenes that had real emotion, everything else was left horribly unattended to. And my audience and the few other reviews I've heard noticed that right away. There were so many loose ties. So many unresolved plots. So many unexplored emotions. And it kills me that I left the theater almost wholly unmoved. It's funny to think that I once took pride in the fact that I never cried at a movie, and now I measure a movie's strength by it. I wish, I wish I felt for this movie as I did for the first two. There were gross errors in canon, yes, but in the end it had the same sweeping effect. In the end it brandished the same amount of love. In this movie, everything felt horridly detached for me. And that is the worst possible thing that could ever happen in a movie, in my opinion.
If you are wanting to tell me to "Separate the book from the film," then I really must think you've missed the entire point of this post. I did not expect much in the way of canon. If you expected my disappointment was in the fact that the movie was almost nothing like the book whatsoever, there you're wrong. I KNEW there would be gross errors, I expected that, I can even learn to live with it. But I at least expected consistence. I felt for the first two movies, I expected I would feel the same for the final. I don't think that's too much to ask, personally. I know there's no way on earth I can get you to understand the depth of what I'm saying, I don't know in what other ways I could explain it to get you to understand, but it's not about separating the two. I did that a long time ago. It's about the emotion of what I'm seeing. It's not about reading a book, or watching a movie for me, it's about feeling all that I'm taking in swirl around in rich warmth in the stream of my blood. I know I can't get you to understand that, because I think and feel in a way that's different from you, we ALL do. That is why we all have different opinions, different likes, different dislikes, different attitudes and emotions. No two people have shared the same experiences and thus cannot share the same depth of emotion in any one thing. This is my part, it's my piece, it's my opinions and thoughts. If they're different from yours, then really what else could you expect? You are not wrong for feeling differently than I, but that also means I am not wrong for feeling differently from you. It's freedom of expression, it's all governed by personal emotion, and no amount of bickering or convincing or long drawn out conversations can change that. Because in the end I might not understand why you feel a certain way about something, and vice versa. If you can't deal with that, then don't bother to ask my opinion in the first place. I respect and honor everyone's thoughts and feelings and I would NEVER seek to change them, I can only hope that I'd be granted the same favor in return. It is as Pippin said in the text of RotK, "this is my tale."
I want you to know that I neither said I LIKED or DISLIKED RotK. I never said I was disappointed. I never gave any review other than the fact that my experience had been void of any emotion. You cannot wrought anger from nothingness, and that is all I felt by the experience. Nothing. But in case your eyes glazed over it, from the beginning I've been determined to give RotK a second shot. I just needed a moment to forget, to wash away the bad, to let go of the emptiness. I never mentioned likes or dislikes, and I have every intention to give RotK a second chance. Maybe my experience was altered by the horrible events of the evening/preceding day, as stated in my earlier journal entry. Maybe I was too distracted by the noise of my sisters. There are a bunch of maybes, but the point is when I came home I felt neither this way nor that about what I had just seen and that has not changed. The only differing emotion since then has been that of frustration, and that's only because of the fact that others felt something and I didn't, as well as the fact that I've been attacked because I'm not bouncing around and screaming "Ohmigod, it was the best movie ever! Legolas is so hot! Like, YEAH!" I apologize, but what would you have me do?
This is why I did not want to write a review of the movie. I wanted to give it a fresh, clean slate. This is why I have tried to avoid talking about the contents of the movie, and I know it's hard for those of you who feel differently about the trilogy than I do not to always want to revert to LOTR talk. And that's okay, just bear in mind that I'm still waiting to form opinions. I've washed everything away. I've forgotten as best I could. And that's what I want. I want to go back to that theater and hold my chin up and hope that Wednesday morning was just a horrible experience, an off day, and this time around I'll feel something different. But until then this is my reaction. These are my thoughts. And I know that regardless of all the long words spoken here you will probably still go away thinking what you want to think about me and my opinions. If that is true, then there's nothing else I can do to make you think any differently. I do not have the power to show you my mind and heart. I'm sorry. I just want you to bear in mind that this has been my story for a very, very long time, and the fact that I went away from the movie with nothing to bear in my heart was extremely unnerving, disheartening, and disorientating. Picture something you've treasured since your youth, and suddenly imagine that you feel nothing at all towards it, good or bad. If you can picture such a thing, then you know how weird and awful it was for me.
So there's my piece. I've said what I said. I've probably left out huge pieces, or repeated other things more than once, but it's a hard subject to breach for me. I hope you can understand, or at least try to understand where I'm coming from now, and if my thoughts and emotions still upset you or govern your experience in some way, then I'm sorry. I put this behind a cut tag for a reason. And I will not apologize for feeling the way I do or try to change my opinions to better serve your means. This is MY journal, MY outlet, for MY thoughts. You're only being allowed to roam around in it for a while. You are not allowed to dictate what I do and do not write about. If it bothers you, skip over it. There's no harm in that. But I want you to know that for all the respect, honor, love and compassion I assign to you, I at least expect a small measure in return. Because I would never invade your personal journal and tell you you're all wrong. That's yours, this is mine, and it should co-exist without so much friction. If you can contribute to that, then I know things will go much more smoothly from now on.
There. I've said it. I'm going to stop rambling now. I hope you take the time to read it and hopefully meditate on just what exactly I'm trying to say to you. In all the days following RotK there's been one phrase from RotK that keeps repeating itself in my head, and I think it sums up everything in a simple way.
But Imrahil said: 'So victory is shorn of gladness, and it is bitter bought...' (if this makes no sense to you, it's been too long since you last read the book)
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Girl, you belong in the Shire. Just pack up and move there. (As soon as I work out a way to actually GET THERE.) You move there and I'll go to Rivendell. (Note I said Rivendell, NOT Mirkwood.) Hey, since Elrond left, does that mean Elladan and Elrohir are in charge.... :D
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I would love to live in the shire, but I'm afraid I'm a tad more elf-like. All the hobbits would think me a giant. ;) Then again, I hear Sam finds elves rather... attractive... :D LOL.
(btw, I noted that you said rivendell, not mirkwood. Yet I'm still thinking what you probably think I would be thinking. er, if you catch my meanin'. *cheeky grin*)
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Maybe we can have Gandalf shrink you. Or we can put you in Lothlórien.
I'm not really sure what that last part means. However, although I like that elf, I'd be happier in Rivendell... he can visit.
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Indeed he can visit. And he can bring the dirty Gondorians with him, just for me =D
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Okay Lothlórien and the Shire's out. Where would you want to go?
*whispers* What time period are we going in? Before or after the War of the Ring. (I always thought sometime between the Hobbit and before Frodo leaves the Shire)
Sure. Works for me. *Whispers* Do I still get the elven prince?
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Where would you want to go?
*looks demurely southwards, towards the glimmering tower* *grins cheekily*
Well if we're going BEFORE the war of the ring, then I wouldn't mind spending some time in Rivendell. If we're going AFTER the war... well... yeah, you know. =D
*whispers* Only if I get everyone else. *LOL*
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Hmmm... Why don't we go Before and then we can stay until it's over. Mayebe we can even help out. We can get to Gondor while the siege of Helms Deep is occuring so we can be prepared. Or we can join at Helms Deep and ride in with the others of the Mark. We could pull an Éowyn and they'd never know. Or there's the possibility that we could stay in Rivendell, be present at the Council of Elrond, do a bit of traveling with the felowhip until we get to Lothlórien. Then we can either follow them or stay with the elves and if we stay we could join Elladan and Elrohir when they ride down to Gondor.
*whispers* You can have everyone else except the elves of Rivendell.
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*whispers* I suppose I can live with that. That still makes Haldir open game. =D
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*Whispers* Deal. *holds out hand for shake*
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But anyway, LOTR in general is still very much up for discussion. ;) Wee! :D
"Iggy-BOO!" "What was that?" "My happy noise."
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Personally, ive never read the books (with the exception of TTT) cause im one of those people who learns beter with visual things. Anywho, even when i read the two towers i looked at the movie as a totally separate thing. i didnt want it to be like the book cause this is PJ's creation with the help of tolkien, not to mention that its gotta squeeze into a 3 hour movie. i actually thought the movie was phenominal caue i put myself in their place, if i were frodo i would be crying every 5 seconds too. What a task he must do, and the whole world was literlly relying on him. anyway, i cant say i can relate but try seeing it again. My sister bawled her eyes out the second time and not the first. Idk, maybe your hopes were too high or you thought too much of the book instead of the movie. Im sorry it wasnt all that you expected :(
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sorry
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