Torn...Torn...Torn...

Oh well...

The Lord of the Rings movies made me a huge fan of Viggo Mortensen. I was never much of a fan of his until late in the movie Fellowship of the Ring (when he tells Frodo he would have followed him to the depths of Mordor), when I realized that, with the right director and right material, the man is a magnificent actor. I even enjoyed him throughout The Two Towers, despite the focus on the battle of Helm's Deep (in the book The Two Towers, the battle of Helm's Deep lasts about 12 pages). And he's just great in Return of the King - it is his movie, after all.

So I've been debating for months - will I bother to go to Hidalgo (which is about horses, something I really don't care about) or will I not bother (though I'm now a Viggo fan)?

Ultimately, I love history. I was pissed off by the movie Elizabeth, despite the great performance by Cate Blanchett, because the history was just so wrong. At an amazing number of points in the movie, the historical facts do not correspond to the movie. So Elizabeth should never have been marketed as "a true story."

So I've decided to bypass Hidalgo. Movie studios should never promote a movie as "based on a true story" when it simply is fiction. I'd probably have gone to see the movie Hidalgo if it wasn't being promoted as "based on a true story." Oh, and the sand storm special effect looks so damned lame. Maybe I'll catch it on cable.

As a coda to this - my friend Laura may have seen the actors/production crew at the Hidalgo premiere:

Finally, Return of the King

We went to see Trilogy Tuesday last week, seeing two extended edition LOTR movies followed by the premiere of ROTK.



Line for Trilogy Tuesday in Pittsburgh

There were already about 200 people in line before we got there, so we wound up on the floor but in the center. While, at first we hated the seats, they turned out to be fortuitous. Before the movie started, we realized the folks sitting in front of us were people we'd known back in college, from the old Western Pennsylvania Science Fiction Association (WPSFA)



Lori and Tom Lane

It was neat to catch up with them after all this time.

Back to the movies, the extended editions both looked phenomenal on the big screen.



The Audience Just Before The Return of the King (remember, just about everyone in there had been in the theater for over 10 hours...)

But, after a long day of movie watching, my brain was completely fried by the time ROTK finally started at just after 10. While the movie looked absolutely phenomenal, I was having a terrible time related to the characters. And the movie seemed structurally very off. So I got a little snarky in my online comments on the movie.

However...

I did go see the movie again at a time when I'd had a little more sleep and hadn't been watching movies all day. That made an enormous difference. Instead of focusing on the problems (which exist but are fairly small by comparison), I got even more caught up by the sheer audaciousness of the undertaking. Minis Tirith is one of the most remarkable combinations of set/bigature/special effect that I have ever seen. The Nazgul attacking Minis Tirith have a huge "gosh wow" factor, reminiscent of the asteroid sequence from The Empire Strikes Back or the scene of the Mother Ship flying over Devil's Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We have been watching a classic unfold over the last two years.

Despite the spectacle, the human story is rarely overshadowed. The whole cast (except for John Noble as Denethor, but the problems with Denethor weren't all his fault) give one of the finest ensemble performances ever. Ian McKellan, Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortenson, Sean Astin and Elijah Wood deserve special commendation as "first among equals," but no one really steals the show. The movies would not have worked had the casting not been as perfect as the special effects.
It's instructive to go back into the casting archives in TheOneRing.Net and the casting discussions in AintItCoolNews to read some of the jaw-dropping rumors that went around. Keanu Reeves as Aragorn? Uma Thurman as Eowyn? The mind boggles.

There are a few continuity and editing problems in the movie. The whole Pyre of Denethor sequence is just badly handled, and the cuts between Eowyn and the Witch King confrontation and the arrival of Aragorn and company are very distracting. And the endings could have been shortened slightly. Still, the movies are just a phenomenal achievement, and I'm delighted that Peter Jackson et. al. have pulled it off.

I'm Going to the Oscars!....Well, Almost...

Before I became a Hugo or Nebula fan, I was (and am) an Oscar fan. Despite the fact I have wildly mixed feelings about popular awards (don't get me started on Oscar failures, like Titanic or The Last Emporer), I have been a devoted follower of Oscar politics and the awards for many years. I can't completely blame my Dad on this, but he bought a copy of a book that had photos from Oscar winners when it was first published in the mid-'60s. I almost memorized that book; whenever I saw that an Oscar-winner was to be on TV, I made a point of watching it.

I thought going to Hollywood at Oscar time would be a way cool thing. But I'm just a movie fan - would it be worth it?

About two years ago, I heard that Lord of the Rings fans threw themselves an Oscar party. In Hollywood. What a way cool idea. So, being an ardent Tolkein and Jackson fan, I started hanging out more frequently on The One Ring.Net, where I adopted the pseudo-Tolkeinish name of "JRandomRohirrim." Due to being both early and persistent, I got tickets to Trilogy Tuesday (just two days away now!) and to the TORN Oscar Party! The TORN Oscar Party sold out about 15 minutes after the tickets went on sale, so I know how lucky I was to buy tickets for my co-worker Laura and me.

So over the next ten weeks, I'll get to do two very movie fannish and geeky things with Lord of the Rings fans. I already have a fabulous dress for the Oscar party (I wore it last year to the Nebulas and will probably bring it to Worldcon next year) and plan to take loads of photos while I'm there. Even if Return of the King doesn't win every Oscar it deserves (it already has a clear lock on Best Special Effects), it'll be really neat to share Oscar night with 700 psyched LOTR fen. And the site of this Oscar party is about two blocks from the Kodak Theater, where the Oscars will be held - close enough for an early Sunday morning stroll and some more pictures.

Who knows, maybe I'll even meet Sean Astin and Sala Baker again!

Movies...

Around getting caught up with some Noreascon 4 stuff this weekend, we went to the movies twice. We saw Under the Tuscan Sun (a mostly charming movie for adults!) and Secondhand Lions (a mostly fun flick). With Tuscan Sun, we saw a bunch of previews for adult comedies, including Mike Newell's ensemble piece Love, Actually and the new Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson movie. And, of course, with Secondhand Lions, we saw the trailer for Return of the King

Wow.

I knew what to expect. We'd already bought the first DVD of The Two Towers even though we'll buy the extended edition the day it comes out. So I'd seen the little "pre-trailer" for ROTK on that last month. I'd downloaded online video people had captured of the trailer on Japanese TV the other day, and even that looked impressive.

But seeing it all on the big screen was just terrific.

I've been hanging out some at theonering.net over the last year, the place where LOTR fans hang out. Today, they linked to a brilliant TTT review-parody - the DVD as reviewed by Gollum and Smeagol. Go read it - amazingly enough, it seems to have been written by just your average journalist for a newspaper down in Chattanooga.

Walk to Rivendell - Eowyn's Challenge

I may not have noted it here, but I had a check-up in March that included the report that I have really high cholesterol. How high? Don't ask - really bad all the way around, especially the triglycerides. So my doctor said I could go right on a cholesterol-lowering drug, or I could try the diet and exercise route for a while. I thought I'd go the diet and exercise route.

During the first six weeks, I ate extremely well (lots more fruit than usual), went to the gym pretty regularly and walked about 1.5 miles per day (I'm walking to the trolley now rather than take the bus that stops down the block). I lost about 12 pounds.

In mid-late April, I developed a nasty sinus infection and started to slack off. I walked every day, and avoided things like candy and cheese (these are some of my favorite foods and they can really add to your triglycerides).

In May, assorted stressful things happened and I started showing signs of yet another episode of gastritis/irritable bowel. I started eating ginger snaps and mint chocolate ice cream, both of which are very soothing during periods of stress, but not good for dieting. Also, we had company, ate out a lot and went to many family parties. Despite all these things, I managed to loose about 2 pounds, and the stomach problems pretty much went away.

This week, I found kind of a cute online support system for people trying to loose weight. It's called "Walk to Rivendell." Some folks have broken down the LOTR books and estimated that it's something like 485 miles from Hobbiton to Rivendell. We want to see if we can walk that many miles between March and mid-December (the opening of Return of the King). I estimate I've walked about 125 miles since mid-March, meaning I've walked the distance between Hobbiton and the Great East Road (near Bree).

So Friday I have another blood test, and I'll get the results next week. I'll find out if my triglycerides are headed in the right direction, or if I'll need to take a cholesterol-lowering drug. In any case, I'm working to keep my activity level up and my food intake down. [[(2015: Well, I did need to go on Lipitor. After a few years of walking here and there, I started walking pretty seriously in 2012 and have walked over 2,500 miles since then. Still fat though, but at least my back feels a whole lot better)]]

Thoughts on the Lord of the Rings Adaptation

I've been thinking about writing this for a couple of months, and finally finished it today.

I posted a link to this essay on TheOneRing's movie board, and it launched quite a vigorous discussion.

Speaking of flicks, we saw X2 today. It was pretty good, though the editing was a little loose and the screenplay could probably have benefitted from having fewer characters and a little more focus. The opening sequence in the White House is quite phenomenal.

Oops, They Got Me!

Ohhhh, the indignity of it all!

Just today at work, I complained to co-workers that no one has any good April Fools Day jokes anymore. The Pitt News had a so-so April Fools Day issue. There was nothing particularly funny on the Web. Mebbe it was the war - no one seemed to think anything was funny.

At the end of a long day, I popped over to The One Ring, the LOTR Movie fan Web, and my jaw just dropped when I read this.

I dashed into my friend Laura's office. "We have to postpone our trip out to California next year - Return of the King is being delayed until next May!"

We commiserated for a few minutes - we're both dying to see ROTK, and had decided to go to the annual Oscar party theonering.net throws. But not now - not if ROTK can't even be up for any Oscars.

"This movie's not out yet, and I'm already tired of hearing about it," grumbled my boss, as she passed by Laura's office. She's a very dear person in most respects, with this one little blind spot.

I forwarded this lamentable news to my husband and daughter, then looked at the press release again. Something about the date caught my eye...

I clicked on a link in the story and found that, yes, I'd been had!

New Line Cinema - What Were They Thinking?

I've been to see The Two Towers four times (so far). It's a glorious movie, but in order to see the movie, you have to see way too many bad trailers. This tendency to preload potentially popular movies with bad trailers is so bad that audiences have been known to start yelling at the screen after a few minutes (in fact, Jim reported a full half hour of commercials and trailers before the premiere showing of The Two Towers).

What were they thinking? How can the same company with the vision to bankroll Peter Jackson's dream to the tune of nearly 1/3rd of a billion dollars (and still make money at it), be the same company to make:

Final Destination 2

When Harry Met Lloyd (Dumb vs. Dumber II)

A Man Apart (the next Vin Diesel flick)

And I thought they were also responsible for the outrageously stupid concept movie, The Core (since I've been subjected to this preview every time I've gone to see The Two Towers), but it turns out that Paramount is to blame for what looks to be the most ludicrous waste of a studio's money since Battlefield Earth.

Now it turns out that New Line Cinema did produce one other recently-released and fairly well-reviewed movie, namely About Schmidt. But it seems like everything else New Line is at all involved with (except for The Lord of the Rings movies) are pointless concept movies aimed at 14-year-old boys. Yes, I know they buy the most tickets, but if the huge success of the LOTR movies shows anything it's that kids will pay to see films with a thoughtful story and good acting.

Weird Movie Connections

I've been sick since getting home. The cold I picked up over Christmas seems to have slid into being the flu (aches, exhaustion), so I stayed home from work on Friday. I'm actually starting to feel a little better today.

Anyway, when I get sick, I tend to watch movies, as my concentration isn't generally good enough to read books. I'm not sure if this makes any sense or not, but as I was watching Witness yesterday, I found some weird connections between it and the Lord of the Rings movies.

True, there's the obvious connection - Viggo is in both. He plays Moses Hochleitner, Daniel's (Alexander Gudonov) brother. He has few lines (except for part of the "horse with one ball" story after the funeral and "hello" at the beginning of the barn-raising), is always smiling and wears a very light blue shirt. If you want to spot him, you see him most of all in the barn-raising sequence - he's the first person Daniel introduces to John Book.

Now that's a tad tenuous, so there are more odd little connections. There's little Lukas Haas, a fine actor a few years older than Elijah Wood. The sensative little boy roles Lukas got in the early-mid '80s, Elijah got in the early '90s. They even look quite a bit alike. If you check out a current picture of him in IMDB, you'll see that Lukas still has a hobbit-like face.

If some visionary director had made LOTR in the '80s, you can see Harrison Ford would have been a natural for Strider. Luckily, this didn't happen; while I like Harrison, and while he's a pretty good actor, I'm not sure he would have been up to it.

Finally, there's the "stranger in a strange land" theme, which is pretty obvious in both films.