Posted on 12/19/2001 1:16:53 PM PST by NYS_Eric
Please no flames for starting another LOTR thread, but I don't see an active one right now for Freepers who just came back from viewing the picture today. I just got back and am very interested in everyone else's impressions.
My first thought while seeing it was just how perfect the casting was. Dang, could there have been a better Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, or Saruman?
Merry and Pippen might have been portrayed as a touch too oafish just to get a couple of cheap laughs, but guess what-- it worked. They had me laughing quite a bit. They worked very well together.
And the balrog? The CGI special effects techie who came up with that should get bonus pay. I still can't wind down yet from this movie. Never felt I got more for my money in a very long time.
He gave Harry Potter 4 stars. Wonder what Rog didn't like about it? Maybe it isn't liberal enough.
I don't have time to organize the troops for a three hour movie before Christmas, but the week after Christmas, I'll see it.
This whole hype has inspired me to re-read the books (after 20+ years). (one-third of way through the first one)
I'm pretty sure you will still enjoy it-- perhaps even more than a Tolkien geek in some respects, because you won't be nitpicking at how the movie differs from the book on some minor point. Also, PJ did a really good job in the first 8 minutes of the movie bringing the audience up to speed on the history of the ring. Guess I'm the wrong guy to ask, though, as I've read LOTR and The Silmarillion 4 or 5 times.
Any non-readers of the book out there who saw the movie want to field this?
I don't know, as I've read the whole thing too many times to be able to imagine what it would be like seeing the movie without an intimate knowledge of the books. I'm very interested in what you think after you see it; I came away wondering how the movie would be to those who hadn't read it. They did try to give a fair amount of background, but there's a LOT of background not given. Tolkien had created quite a detailed little world, and everything tied into everything else really completely and neatly.
But what about the many secularists who might ride the cultural conveyor belt from watching the movie, to reading the book, to reading CS Lewis's fiction, to reading CS Lewis's nonfiction, to becoming a Christian?
In this light, it is actually to our benefit that one of the actors is gay. It causes them (the unsaved) to be more receptive to the Lord's message. By graciously allowing a homosexual to have a place in this movie, we show that we are not the intolerant monsters the left wingers claim we are.
(NOTE: I still believe homosexuality is a serious sin, but as the saying goes, it is hate the sin but love the sinner.)
It bothers me far more that unrepentant adultresses Amy Grant and Sandi Patti still get airplay for their songs on Christian radio. That kind of hypocrisy is far more damaging to our cultural witness than inviting a homosexual skeptic to briefly sit at our table.
There are a lot of little things that, if you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't pick up. For instance, when the remaining Fellowship is leaving Lothlorien, you see Galadriel's Elven Ring. Most wouldn't realize that is one of the Three Elven Rings, and that Elrond Halfelven has another. If you hadn't read the book, you probably wouldn't have noticed her ring.
If I follow my usual pattern, I'll start reading it as soon as I get out of the movie, and then go see the movie again as soon as I finish the book.
I do not approve of what they did regarding their marriage vows, but I do not presume to judge whether or not they are unrepentant.
That's what my sister said about The Ten Commandments.
Yeah, yeah, I'm biased, but I can't think of a better flick I've ever seen. GWTW, StarWars, none of 'em come close.
A huge thanks to all those who were involved.
I can't wait to go again!
A female narrator got me hooked 30 seconds in, told me everything I needed to know about the plot, and I was off and running. How they got those short people so perfect, I'll never know, and I was tickled about that house that's just like Tinky Winky's :) We screamed in fright, laughed out loud, and were totally amazed by the really magnificent special effects.
Folks who love the book tell me this movie is true to it.
My daughter was thrilled and surprised that I enjoyed it so much. (We got the large popcorn with the free refill and shared with strangers sitting in front of us.) I didn't realize it lasted so long.
Loved the casting. (My daughter didnt' even know "Sam" was played by Patty Duke's son, who starred as "Rudy", by the way, and she didn't even know who Christopher Lee was.)
Some beautiful, really awesome scenery that betters Crouching Tiger. A genuine WOW of a movie experience, and we went in the middle of the day at a theater that was showing it on 3 other screens, so it wasn't even crowded. (Go before school holidays, so rowdy kids won't spoil it for you.)
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