Lord of the Rings - Yearly Ritual

12/26/11 | dagogo redux

[dagogo redux]

Every year now for a number of years my wife and I watch the entire six disc extended version of the Lord of the Rings during the gloomy Northwest winter around the Thanksgiving-to New-Years time. It helps us through the winter gloom, but since Obama's election it also helps us maintain hope and courage.

I grew up on Tolkien before he was well known, and it probably shaped me in ways I can scarcely appreciate. My wife on the other hand, from the Third World, had no inkling of Tolkien until this movie cycle came out. We are both very deeply devoted to our faiths, but we both also find a special sort of inspiration from these movies that speak to us powerfully in these times. So that they won't grow stale, we limit them to a once a year viewing. We're not sure how they will fit in with events next year.

Just posting to stimulate discussion from others for whom these tales and movies might have left an influence in these dark times.

[Charles Henrickson]

I checked on our county library website, and they have the audiobooks of Rob Inglis reading the Hobbit and LOTR, unabridged. This sounds like what I’m looking for, so I plan to embark on this project probably starting in mid-April (busy with other things till then).

[TigersEye]

I don't know how many audio-book versions there are out there but this guy has done a pretty nice job and it's all free on Youtube or you can download an MP3 version, which he says is better, from his website. He hasn't finished the project yet but he's well into the third book and it looks like he will get it done.

Audiobook Read by Phil Dragash and edited, and mixed, sound-effected, and designed. Music by Howard Shore for the Films by New Line Cinema.

[Chipper]

Thank you for this. Looks good and the mp3 would be perfect to have on the phone. I've wanted to read Tolkien and Lewis again but have other books I have not read in the queue. Could he nice for times I have to shut out the surroundings around work.

I have not watched my extended BD yet and this week may be the best time to do it.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I like the LOTR but every so often I want to watch the 1967 Russian version of WAR AND PEACE, followed by Dino de Laurentus’ WATERLOO on those cold winter nights.

But then I also like to watch EL CID smash the moslem moors in Spain.

[dagogo redux]

The musical score by Mr. Shore is another huge plus for the film format, and another somewhat unnoticed area in which the full flow of the extended version shines. The inspiring leitmotifs create indelible felt experiences that weave throughout and bind together the various elements of the story. It couldn’t have been done better.

[TigersEye]

You’re welcome. I have enjoyed listening to it.

[yankeegohome]

Firefly!!!! A show that should have never been cancelled!!

[Explorer89]

The first movie came out less than six months after the late Freeper MrConfettiMan found out he had cancer. This was his favorite line:

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.

[exDemMom]

The extended edition also contains wonderful behind-the-scenes stuff about the creation of the film. That sort of stuff usually bores the heck out of me, but having seen it once - the first year we watched it - has really helped me appreciate the artistry and vision that went into recreating Tolkien’s story in this film version.

I don't know where I saw it, but there was a feature about one scene in particular in the movies. Frodo and Sam were supposed to push a boat in the water, so divers had gone in to scour the river floor to make sure there was no debris because the actors were barefoot. However, when they started filming, Sean Astin walked a few feet into the water and got a look on his face that alerted everyone that something was wrong. The divers had missed a piece of glass, and it had impaled Sean's foot. He had to be flown to a medical center.

I can't watch that scene without picturing--feeling--the glass piercing Sean's foot. Oh, well. I liked the books better anyway. It's about time to read them again.

[Nepeta]

I also watch the movies again in the darkest part of the year. The extended versions improve what is already wonderful material.

[Lakeshark]

I loved the books, and the movies were done almost as well as one could have, considering how good the books were.

That being said, I had a hard time reconciling some of the awful liberties and made up scenes that Jackson put in the movies. An example of perhaps the worst made up scene is where one of the hobbits (Pippin perhaps?) rides on a reluctant to go to battle Treebeard and convinces him through an emotional tirade to join the war.

Almost unforgivable (and there were others)

[urtax$@work]

Make a yearly pilgrimage to The Hobbit Cafe on Richmond Ave. -Houston. Since 1972 - Serving Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Tea Break, Supper, and Merry Drinks. Donated artwork - a must to see inside.

Being not to far from Rice U, would be frequented by certain garmet-clad patrons living the "Goode Life" . Feel free to wear your pointy ears and hairy feets.

http://www.myhobbitcafe.com/