Monday, December 22, 2003
A singaporean recently wrote online that The Return of the King is very good, but its a pity they chose the hobbits as leads, they should have chosen taller, less ugly characters.
Whoever that was, was to my mind, completely missing the point. It's almost like the upcoming "Troy" movie - doesn't fit the world today? Then why bother retelling the story, just create a new story. You can't replace the hobbits, stupid. You'll be rewriting Tolkien, not rewriting LOTR. And more importantly, LOTR is about hope and courage, at the darkest hour, the bleakest of moments. I suspect he chose the smallest and weakest characters as the carriers of hope, for a reason. Hope and courage belong to everyone, not just the tall and beautiful people; LOTR was a refreshing change from the usual hollywood tall and beautiful = good, tall and deformed = bad, short = background scenary routine. Even tall and beautiful people can be craven and cowardly.
I think LOTR, the movie comunicates the lessons that Tolkein sougt to teach us in his trilogy extremely well. That might does not always equal right (humans making last stand when badly outnumbered), and sometimes fighting well, and remaining true and courageous to the end is more right than being "rational" in the face of hopelessness (insane king setting funeral pyre for son and himself).
That we are all weak, and corruptible at heart - frodo, the ring, and gollum.
And also that it's not how big you are, but how you use it that counts.
Whoever that was, was to my mind, completely missing the point. It's almost like the upcoming "Troy" movie - doesn't fit the world today? Then why bother retelling the story, just create a new story. You can't replace the hobbits, stupid. You'll be rewriting Tolkien, not rewriting LOTR. And more importantly, LOTR is about hope and courage, at the darkest hour, the bleakest of moments. I suspect he chose the smallest and weakest characters as the carriers of hope, for a reason. Hope and courage belong to everyone, not just the tall and beautiful people; LOTR was a refreshing change from the usual hollywood tall and beautiful = good, tall and deformed = bad, short = background scenary routine. Even tall and beautiful people can be craven and cowardly.
I think LOTR, the movie comunicates the lessons that Tolkein sougt to teach us in his trilogy extremely well. That might does not always equal right (humans making last stand when badly outnumbered), and sometimes fighting well, and remaining true and courageous to the end is more right than being "rational" in the face of hopelessness (insane king setting funeral pyre for son and himself).
That we are all weak, and corruptible at heart - frodo, the ring, and gollum.
And also that it's not how big you are, but how you use it that counts.
