robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(1/6/03 4:13 pm) Reply
TFotR
I got the extended version for Christmas and got round to watching it a few days ago. Its also been over a year since I read the books, so I have a few questions/comments, hoping there's someone who is more LotR geeky than I am.
Firstly I still can't work out who ransacked BagEnd, just before Frodo left. If it was one of the Nazgul I would have imagined they'd have been able to ..umm... sense where the ring was, and yet the only other suspect I can see is Gandalf... and I can't see him doing that sort of thing... any ideas? did this happen in the book?
The barrows. okay we all know that without the knife Merry (or was it Pippin?) got from there he won't be able to slay the Nazgul in TRotK. In the film Aragorn gives the hobbits some weapons before they get to Weathertop, and even tho there as no mention of any enchantments, I thought these were going to have to do the trick. But this time of watching I noticed that Merry and Pippin were given knives by Galadriel.... maybe one of these elfen ones will do the slaying. Does anyone know whether the two hobbits recieved knives in either the book or the unextended film?
I'm sure there was something else, but it seems to have slipped my mind...
In the books, Bag End didn't get ransacked. Sure, the whole Shire gets buggered over by a fleeing Saruman, but the way I recall it, the worst thing to happen to Bag End is that it has one of the sackville-bagginses locked in it for not being nice to Saruman.
In the unextended film, the only gift given out by galadriel is the vial of light to Frodo. I was pretty shocked to see that, as I was confidently expecting to see Aragorn get his scabbard, Sam get his mallorn seed+soil, Legolas his bow, and Gimli his lock of hair. Without giving Sam his mallorn seed+soil, how on earth is the Restoration Of The Shire going to happen?
In the book, Merry and Pippin got their blades from the barrow-wight, after he was slain by Tom Bombadil (they really shouldn't have taken him out..) These *leaf-shaped blades* were forged by the Westernesse, so they were good blades, but as I recall, were unenchanted. Sam got his blade from the same place, and it was incapable of cutting Shelob's webs, remember? However, Sting was. Clear difference between magical vs. un-magical weaponry.
I'm a freak, an aggrivation. It seems I made the right decision.
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(1/7/03 5:52 pm) Reply
Re: TFotR
I suspect that the film will end shortly after the destruction of the ring. I don't think the scenes back in hobbiton are essential to the story, so are likely to be cut.
I've done a bit of flicking through the books and found this, around the point where merry stabs the leader of the Nazgul:
"No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will."
and from memory (although I can't find a quote) the blades were made by the men of westernesse (or is it Numenor.... or are they the same thing anyway) to fight the Witch King (I have a feeling his name was Angmar, or something) who later became the leader of the Nazgul.
So the blades may have power against their origonal foe, but not the web of Shelob.... anyway, from the quote I did find, it seems that the blades are pretty important, but I suppose that could be another issue that is glossed over simply by not mentioning it.
rob, still waiting to see TTT... two screens really isn't enough for a country of 80000 people.
Commandress of the City Watch
(1/8/03 5:32 pm) Reply
Re: TFotR
Wow--you haven't seen it yet? I guess that's one point for the Americans ^_^ One to...er--I don't want to think about it. That's the nice thing about an all-together crazed economy that seems to center around stufff like malls and movie theatres. Probably the only nice thing...
I would comment on the books, but I will admit that it has been too long since I have read them...I'm working on that, but I have a long list as it is!
Mrs Grim
Take me apart, take me apart,
You must be off your head,
And if you try to take me apart to get me there,
I'll stay right here in bed.
--The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
Re: TFotR
I was also quite dissapointed that the origins of the blades (even sting) were not included in the movie. I only saw it once (and that was a long time ago) but I saw the Two Towers recently and that departed severely from the plot!
I don't know how much of a stickler you are about movie accuracy, but I didn't think that it was too bad. (Smeagle has this whole multiple personality going on) I mean, you have to make it so that people who haven't read the book can understand and appreciate the movie, but also appease those who are obsessed!
Did you hear about the man from Milwauke who constructed the Elvish language from what's written in the book? And the producers flew him to the set to teach it to the cast. I thought that was neat.
Ceramicgorgon
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(1/9/03 2:28 pm) Reply
Re: TFotR
yes, i still haven't seen it, like I said, we've only got one cinema with a grand total of two screens on the island and TTT has been fully booked since before it was released... at the moment it looks like I won't get to see it till its released on video as they're about to put JB and startrek on... and possibly HP again (which ran for a week at the IoM's second, one screen cinema before it was put out of action by a flood and a landslide.)
i suppose i could pop over to liverpool to see it, but that'd cost a bit too much.... then again I do have a £5 token to spend in a shop that the Isle of Man doesn't posess.... it'd be killing two birds with one, expensive, boat ticket...
rob, considering opening a cinema and making a fortune
Re: TFotR
Wow, I really don't like gift certificates. Why put limitations on money? Unless you're really pushy. You'd think that some entrepreneur would decide to open another theater, but hey, maybe they're expensive to maintain. That stinks. I hope you do eventually get to see it.
I guess that's one point for the Americans ^_^ One to...er--I don't want to think about it. That's the nice thing about an all-together crazed economy that seems to center around stufff like malls and movie theatres. Probably the only nice thing...
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