pee break

[wendyzski]

I am seriously loving the extended 'Return of The King' dvd. They put back in a BUNCH of stuff that I was missing in the theatrical version - more on the madness of Denethor, and a nice Pippin/Faramir scene.

It is a good thing, though, to be able to press 'pause' for a bit and go pee. Am only 3/4 through the first disk. I am watching it on the laptop, with headphones, for maximum field of vision and sound.

Then of course, there is all the lovely "extra' geekage....and the commentaries....I may not come up for air till March!

And then there is the Original Star Wars Trilogy waiting for me.....(from my mommy for gift-mas)

UPDATE Found another use for that 'pause' button. Cry breaks. I had the 'puter balanced on my tummy, and was sobbing so hard the screen kept moving! Oh - this version made me blub even more than in the theatres. Am taking this break just after Sam & Rosie's wedding (and playing another round of "spot Pete Jackson's kids"), cuz when Frodo got to the "How do you pick up the threads of an old life..." part, I just dissolved. Have to get my balance again before finishing. Yeah, I'm a wuss.

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

D. and I watched The Two Towers and Return of the King extended versions yesterday - I know what you mean about the pause button!

And yeah - towards the end of ROTK it does get weepy, when Frodo realizes he can't stay.

D. is further convinced that this is the Greatest Movie Trilogy of All Time, and I'm finding no reason to disagree (I never read the books, so I can't claim Tolkien expertise). It looks fantastic, but the effects and visuals never get in the way of a good story :)

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

well, I'm a movie marshmallow, and I recall actually sobbing in the theatre during:
1) The beacon fires being lit across the mountains
2) Faramir's last ride
3) Theoden's death
4) Sam carries Frodo up Mount Doom
5) the crowning of the king
6) Frodo finishes the book
7) The last ship sails....and all through the closing credits

[cyohtee.livejournal.com]

The only scene they restored that I think should have stayed out of the extended version was the Saruman/Wormtongue scene. It was just horribly out of place where it was, and it should have been much later (in the Scouring Of The Shire, which should have been in there, as it's not being in there seriously lessens the meaning of the end of the story, since The Shire is never effected in any way by the war, and the whole meaning of the ending was about how war changes things, and how people cope and grow from the experience, but that is a whole nother argument).

I felt just about the same with the Saruman/Wormtongue as I did when Sam and Frodo were taken to Osgiliath(?) by Faramir and Sam said "We never should have come here, Mr. Frodo" and I wanted to shout out "Of course you shouldn't have! You didn't in the book!" :) The scene with Saruman and Wormtongue should not have happened there and then, it was badly out of place. I know concessions need to be made to transfer books to film, and I grumblingly accepted the changes to the Hobbits leaving the shire, the removal of Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Wights (where they get the ancient magical weapons that allows Merry to effect the Lord Of The Nazgul at all, allowing Eowyn to rally and strike him down,), um, sigh... Ok, I did love the movies, and I hate to sound like a fanboy purist, but there were just some changes that Hollywood insists on that really bugged me, and I will now stop wasting space in your journal and leave you to your enjoyment. Maybe I will waste some space in my own journal to list all my gripes about the changes.

Enjoy the films :)

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I am a realist - I realize that the books as written are unfilmable, and while I can quibble about choices that PJ made, all in all I think he made a wonderful series of films.

I am glad that the death of Saruman got put in, even if it was in the wrong place. Having made the decision to have the Scouring take place only in the mirror vision, Saruman was left as a loose end. I'm glad they showed a pitiful death for all his hubris.

(Have to quibble on the "ancient magical weapon" bit, but while it helped Merry, it was NOT what allowed Merry to hamstring the Witch-King - it was that he was "not a man" but a Hobbit.)

My issue with Faramir taking F&S to Osgiliath was not that it was "not that way in the books", but that it diminished the nobility of Faramir's choice to let the ring go. Rather than being wise enought to stand up to the Ring's power on his own, PJ had Sam rub the fate of Boromir in his face before he made the choice. I think it lessened a great character.

Filmmaking is a cooperative process, and I think that PJ did a great job of balancing Tolkein's themes against the limitation of a modern audience's attention span. I would have done things a little differently, but you have to look at how the films stand on their own. I think they do quite well.

[sisucore.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the National Geographics Life of Tolkien special at all? Rent it in your local video store or download it.

It talks about how much Tolkien admired the Finnish National Epic the Kalevala....(What? Me talk about something Finnish?!) The ending is virtually word for word of how the ending of the Kalevala is, Gandalf is mirrored from the Character and hero Vainamoinen.... about how Tolkien admired the Finnish culture. Damn my pride!

Pick up a copy of the Kalevala if you don't own it! It is an epic so a little dry through a good portion of it, but you can also find summaries online as well. It would make me happy. (Get the one translated by Eino Friberg) Or go to http://virtual.finland.fi/ for a summary.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Saw the special (from Netflix) and have the Kalevala (in translation, of course) on my "get to sometime" list.

Apparently Finnish is the main model for Quenya too!

luvs geekage. I used to pass notes in high school in the Angerthas Moria.