.
Well I've done a Play and Music, but this not Film per se or Book, they may crop up later.
I can count the number of book to film transfers that I've seen that actually do justice to the book and the images it invoked in my head on the fingers of one hand ( To Kill A Mocking Bird is one, so you get the standard from that)
I've been a fan of the LOTR books from a young age, I could not count the times I reread them before the movies came out, when young you tend to identify with Frodo or Sam ( or even Merry and Pippin) as you get older Strider /Aragon and the Men of the West. All the time building images in your head of characters and battles.
I thought at the time that nobody could put those images on screen having been disappointed so many times before by adaptations of beloved books ( Judge Dredd anyone).
But (Here's where the Culture comes in) I was wrong, Fellowship of the Ring was great, The Two Towers with the battle at Helms Deep was awesome. So I took the day off to see Return of the King at Odeon Leicester Square.
It is not often that all components of a culture come together to produce something stunning , learning from all that has gone before, from the fantastic books and the literary tradition to adapting for the screen, but it did, Peter Jackson: Director , Andrew Lesnie: Cinematography and everybody else; actors, design, CGI (building on ILM ground breaking work) and so on
To me it all came together in one perfect moment, The Charge of the Rohirrim ,the vision in my head and the image on the screen were in sync. In my wildest dreams I never thought something like that would ever be captured on screen, my jaw actually dropped and I sat stunned and breathless by the magnificence of what had been wrought, when the film finished and after I'd dried my tears ("You my friends, bow to no one") I went out and bought a ticket for the next show because I knew if I didn't, I'd probably never see it again on a screen that size.
So if you have the DVD go put it on now and watch it again, if you don't, watch the below and then go buy the DVD and watch it on the biggest screen you can. I go round to my brothers' with his 50" plasma (when he's away on holiday and I'm 'watching the house' )with the complete set, plus Zulu, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Blade Runner, Henry V (Branagh) The Blues Brothers and the Matrix trilogy
"Now is the hour, Riders of Rohan, oaths you have taken, pledges you have made. Now fulfill them all to Lord and Land!"
Well I've done a Play and Music, but this not Film per se or Book, they may crop up later.
I can count the number of book to film transfers that I've seen that actually do justice to the book and the images it invoked in my head on the fingers of one hand ( To Kill A Mocking Bird is one, so you get the standard from that)
I've been a fan of the LOTR books from a young age, I could not count the times I reread them before the movies came out, when young you tend to identify with Frodo or Sam ( or even Merry and Pippin) as you get older Strider /Aragon and the Men of the West. All the time building images in your head of characters and battles.
I thought at the time that nobody could put those images on screen having been disappointed so many times before by adaptations of beloved books ( Judge Dredd anyone).
But (Here's where the Culture comes in) I was wrong, Fellowship of the Ring was great, The Two Towers with the battle at Helms Deep was awesome. So I took the day off to see Return of the King at Odeon Leicester Square.
It is not often that all components of a culture come together to produce something stunning , learning from all that has gone before, from the fantastic books and the literary tradition to adapting for the screen, but it did, Peter Jackson: Director , Andrew Lesnie: Cinematography and everybody else; actors, design, CGI (building on ILM ground breaking work) and so on
To me it all came together in one perfect moment, The Charge of the Rohirrim ,the vision in my head and the image on the screen were in sync. In my wildest dreams I never thought something like that would ever be captured on screen, my jaw actually dropped and I sat stunned and breathless by the magnificence of what had been wrought, when the film finished and after I'd dried my tears ("You my friends, bow to no one") I went out and bought a ticket for the next show because I knew if I didn't, I'd probably never see it again on a screen that size.
So if you have the DVD go put it on now and watch it again, if you don't, watch the below and then go buy the DVD and watch it on the biggest screen you can. I go round to my brothers' with his 50" plasma (when he's away on holiday and I'm 'watching the house' )with the complete set, plus Zulu, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Blade Runner, Henry V (Branagh) The Blues Brothers and the Matrix trilogy
"Now is the hour, Riders of Rohan, oaths you have taken, pledges you have made. Now fulfill them all to Lord and Land!"
"To Kill A Mockingbird is one..."
ReplyDeleteYes! And the 1992 version of 'Of Mice and Men' with Gary Sinese and John Malkovich.
LotR Trilogy is definitely one to have seen on the big screen. No matter how good your home cinema setup, you can't beat the bigscreen experience...
Yes indeedy! This is awesome. I'm so delighted that they did the book justice and made it the spectacle it should be
ReplyDeleteI have to say that in a quieter way when Wormtongue is exposed not merely as a spineless appeaser of tyranny but also a conscious and willing agent of the Evil Saruman, I cheered in the local Arts-Council picture house. Bliss.
And what about Aragorn's stirring words before Mordor?
The speech before Mordor is indeed stirring and worthy of it's own post.
ReplyDeleteBut I was trying to convey the sense of grandeur and scale that the series brought back to the cinema. I thought for a long time we had seen the end of the epic, cost and other factors meant we would not see filims like Zulu , Spartacus, Ben Hur, Waterloo, with thier thousand of extras, epic sets and massive battle scenes again. All recent movies all seem very tightly focused, even during the battles it focused on the main protagonist and those around him, there was no pulling back to show the scale of the action.
But with advances in CGI and a director who has the vision like Peter Jackson to use it, we may see it again. I personally can't wait for The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies should be awesome.
( Ridley Scott is another who can do this Gladiator was great and I have fingers crossed for 'Nottingham')