The Slashing of the Shire
We all went out to see Return of the King yesterday afternoon. For the most part, I found it immensely entertaining, visually stunning, emotionally moving, and with the exception of deleting the entire Scouring of the Shire sequence, the total absence of Saruman and Wormtongue, along with the greatly expanded role of Arwen the Horsefaced Elf, fairly faithful to Tolkien. I expect that some of the more egregious cuts will return in the extended DVD version.
It also quite accurately depicted the devoted relationship between Frodo and Sam, although the dewy looks exchanged between them, gauzy photography, and swelling score made it seem quite maudlin...almost romantic. As my friend Jonathan remarked, "the slash possibilities do more than suggest themselves." It put me in mind of this hilarious parody.
And speaking of parodies, anyone who's read Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings will probably find themselves unable to watch this film without mentally renaming the major characters Sorhed, Goodgulf, Arrowroot, and Frito Bugger.
Comments
I'm glad you enjoyed LotR:RotK, and that your sense of wonder was not blunted by certain less-than-complimentary reports about the film. I felt that the infidelity to Tolkien was rather sweeping, but that would be the subject of an article rather than a comment.
Posted by: jkcohen | December 30, 2003 4:37 PM
I didn't mean to suggest that there weren't serious deletions, major lapses in continuity, and a lot of reshuffling of various events in the film, as well as some very ponderous dialogue (just like the books). However, I fully expect that a lot of this will be fixed in the extended DVD version, just as it was in the previous two.
Also, having suffered through the utter travesty that was Matrix Revolutions, this film shined like a diamond compared to that cinematic turd.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 30, 2003 7:02 PM
And don't forget Legolamb!
(I see Amazon's got Bored for less than four bucks; I'm severely tempted, even though my original copy is in my dad's garage somewhere under 30 years' worth of debris...)
Posted by: language hat | December 31, 2003 12:34 AM
Nice of you to stop by, Mr. Hat. I bought my first copy of Bored many moons ago when I was in high school. My memory is vague, but I think I reread it a couple of years ago.
I'd love to see a film version of it, preferably without Chevy Chase though.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 31, 2003 12:28 PM
The Scouring of the Shire was not even filmed. What they deleted was the final Saruman scene, which supposedly will show up in the Extended Edition.
Posted by: rone | January 7, 2004 8:04 PM
You are of course correct, sir. I can sort of understand Jackson not wanting to film the Tom Bombadil portion of FotR as it totally killed the forward momentum of the plot, but the Scouring took up a considerable amount of the third book and should have been included in the film or DVD somehow.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 7, 2004 8:47 PM
Agreed. Everyone i know is bummed about it.
Posted by: rone | January 8, 2004 12:38 AM