The Invisible Counterpoint

I was thinking of writing a short essay on Lord of the Rings -- the book. Not sure, but probably. I'll mention now though that comparing the book with the film, one notes how much more democratic Jackson is compared to Tolkien. Jackson's impetus with the hobbits is to make each one of them leaders in the sense that with their decisions, abide the fate of the world... so leaders in the most flattering and worthy sense. Frodo decides to set off alone into Gondor, and the future King -- Aragorn -- has to react to this decision, and decides in fact to change course, which is what happens in the film. So all good both ways there: Frodo sheds himself the impetus of the great council of Elrond, which willed they go as much as possible as a team. But in the film it is Merry and Pippen who are responsible for destroying Saruman, they sway the ent-leader to his decision to participate and fight, when he had at first decided to play it the Tom Bombadil way and let the whole ranc...

One of the arduous things about watching Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was experiencing the intense parent-child tumult. Arwen gains independence from her father and pledges fidelity to her love for Aragorn above all else, but it involves her devolving into a frail state, becoming as fragile as all the rest of Middle Earth before Sauron's ascension and the elves' retreat. Faramir gains recognition from his impossibly stubborn father, the steward of Gondor, but not even after essentially throwing his life away in a hopeless battle and only after being mid-part cooked in a bonfire of his father's own contrivance. This is an older generation's sturm und dang; a break-through occurs — stern authority is breached — but it's so exhausting you have to hope that once it's been successfully had out that none of the parties involved ever re-acquire the stamina to re-stage it. "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies" threatened a...

The Hobbit (Tolkien) 
I think the thing that must seem most curious about this adventure to slay a dragon and reclaim a homeland and its treasure, is how the hell could adding a burglar to this motley crew be adding the decisive factor? What's the trick? For there must be one, since the dragon has only gotten larger and more deadly as the years have gone by. Peter Jackson changes things so that a burglar is needed because someone small and stealthy needs to enter Smaug’s lair to perhaps snatch one especially bright, brilliant—ostensibly readily noticeable even given its being shrouded by a hoard of lesser delights—jewel, the Arkenstone. With that stone, Thorin will earn control over seven kingdoms of dwarves, and with their might the dragon would finally look to be overmatched. In the book, it develops into a situation where regarding the fighting and killing the dragon, they decide that a full frontal attack of just themselves is their best bet, even as they agree th...

But wait, that’s not all! There’s also the ass-kicking, name-taking Elvish girl-power warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), the Lara Croft or Katniss Everdeen of Mirkwood, and her tempestuous love triangle involving Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner), who is the tallest, least bearded and undeniably smokin’-est of Bilbo’s dwarf companions. Nope, I’m not kidding even a little bit, and I say without fear of contradiction that all of that is 110 percent made up, that J.R.R. Tolkien would be outraged beyond belief and that even now his son and heir Christopher Tolkien is crafting dire rune-spells in the Black Speech and ruing the day he ever took money from these infernal servants of Morgoth. But you know what? I’m kind of OK with it. I mean, introducing a love affair between a rebel Elf chick and a hot dwarf dude is so far beyond anything Tolkien would ever have countenanced that it amounts to a declaration of independence. This trilogy has become its own thing, which is more like a freewheel...

We know these myths, we encounter them every day embedded in in our language, our culture and our psyches. No matter how beautiful and heartfelt the LOTR trilogy was, nothing new is revealed by them. (ThisMorningofJune, response to post, Dude, where’s my LOTR?,” Salon, 6 January 2010) Exposure to the truly beautiful and heartfelt can very much mean being exposed to something new, something we haven't really known before. There is a lot of heart in LOTR -- a lot of impetus to imagine the preferred psychological state as open, accepting, giving. I think the goodness in this is why we must try for a decade-end push to ensure the memory of this movie isn't stamped over by those who HAD been shut-down but have re-emerged -- now that the film's protectors have flown -- who complain of plot deviations from the book. The feeling now is of the scurried, pissing on the fallen giant. Ever see "Can't buy me love"? -- it's the geek gone star, possibly in position to b...