|synaptic disunion|

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

tolkien geek, me...

This week we started watching The Return of the King extended version. We've finished the first two extended versions already, and I have to say that if you are a Tolkien fan in the least, these extended versions are absolutely worth their weight in gold (not that I even know what anything is worth in gold bullion, but it's an idiom, so I used it anyway).

There's so much more. The story and pace isn't as relentless as the theatrical releases (at least I thought they felt rushed. You can't rush Tolkien, really, you just can't.). The extended and added scenes add so much more depth and so much more explanation for the interested layperson as to be invaluable for the person unwilling to dive into the books. They add so many more lines of dialog and events from the books that it will please people like me, who know these books and this story as well as, and in some cases better, than they know the Bible and it's stories. The alterations from the text is more acceptable, it seems, in these versions, because we are given so much more directly from the source. We are even given things that come from extraneous writings like the multiple appendices that Tolkien wrote for the books, showing us that Jackson and his team did their research well. The landscapes and the buildings, extensively described by Tolkien, are as close as possible to those descriptions in the movie. It makes my heart leap for quiet joy when I hear a line spoken by Sir Ian McKellan that I can actually look up and find in the book. Sam's monologue (played very well by Sean Austin, occasional resident of North Idaho, I'm told) at the end of The Two Towers, wondering if they would be remembered in the stories of the future, directly from Tolkien's words, brings me to the brink of tears.

Anyway, I am a massive Tolkien geek, and pretty ok with that. I try not to flaunt it, wear funny costumes (very often), or speak in Tolkien code, but deep inside me beats the heart of a Ranger of the north, but I don't think I'll be blessed with long life as Aragorn was (played very well by Viggo Mortensen, occasional resident of Sandpoint, ID., I'm told.).

: toadman : at Wednesday, August 16, 2006 |