From: (No Email available)

Date: 2003-12-27 13:23:49

Comment:

PJ and his writing cronies don't understand the books.  Or, rather, they do understand them, but at the level a 16-year-old boy does.  Not that there is anything wrong with adolescent boys...I just don't want their limited tastes limiting my movies (and they too often do).

There is no rational reason for the screenplay to ruin Faramir as it did.  There was a POINT to the difference between Boromir and Faramir in the books, and if Boyens, et alia are too dense to understand that, perhaps they could have hung on to a modicum of humility about their lack of understanding and kept intact the point that Tolkien was trying to make.

Similarly, in ROTK, having Frodo reject Sam is just stupid.  It's contratextual.  It undercuts the point.

"Oh, we were just trying to make it more dramatic" says PJ.  Bah, humbug, to that.  They already poured deafending sound on us to make it more dramatic.  They extended the war scenes to the harm of the characterization scenes.  How much catering to the adolescent male needs to be done?

Apparently, enough to ruin the heart of the books.  They may as well have spit on JRRT's grave as made these movies.

I pray this thing does not win awards.  When there are movies with depth and soul, directed to adults, that contain grown up themes, this just looks silly in comparison.

The book is not silly.  (Though the Hobbit was, certainly.)  LOTR, the book, is profound, thought-provoking, creative, brilliant...and while the art direction in the PJ films was, and while many of the actors did credible work, these movies seem to me, an artistic crime.