It saddens me that the Lord of The Rings was commercialised.
It was one of the happiest parts of life - to be able to read the books and venture into that world.
It's been spoiled for me by the ridiculous movies like The Hobbit (holy god, Peter Jackson turned Dwarves into ridiculous comedy clowns, covered Radagast with birdshit) , the endless licensed garbage and whilst The Lord of The Rings movie was quite good it hacked the story instead of treating it with reverence. The movie should have changed nothing, regardless of what "modern audiences" expect.
The Harry Potter movies were fabulous in my opinion because the stories were not hacked by directors who felt they knew better than the original author. I may be wrong on that but that's my understanding - that largely the Harry Potter movies are true to the script.
Thank goodness there's a single example in this world of a great work not being commercialised - Calvin and Hobbes.
UPDATE:
A counterpoint to my grumble about the hacking of Tolkien's work:
Anyone who would like to listen to the most fabulous audiobook of The Hobbit that was ever made:
https://www.discogs.com/release/4205817-JRR-Tolkien-Nicol-Wi...
It was made in 1974 narrated by Nicol Williamson. You can find pirated versions of it popping up on the web from time to time.
It's truly beautiful.
Email me if you want a copy - I might know a link. [email protected]
It was one of the happiest parts of life - to be able to read the books and venture into that world.
It's been spoiled for me by the ridiculous movies like The Hobbit (holy god, Peter Jackson turned Dwarves into ridiculous comedy clowns, covered Radagast with birdshit) , the endless licensed garbage and whilst The Lord of The Rings movie was quite good it hacked the story instead of treating it with reverence. The movie should have changed nothing, regardless of what "modern audiences" expect.
The Harry Potter movies were fabulous in my opinion because the stories were not hacked by directors who felt they knew better than the original author. I may be wrong on that but that's my understanding - that largely the Harry Potter movies are true to the script.
Thank goodness there's a single example in this world of a great work not being commercialised - Calvin and Hobbes.
UPDATE:
A counterpoint to my grumble about the hacking of Tolkien's work:
Anyone who would like to listen to the most fabulous audiobook of The Hobbit that was ever made:
https://www.discogs.com/release/4205817-JRR-Tolkien-Nicol-Wi...
It was made in 1974 narrated by Nicol Williamson. You can find pirated versions of it popping up on the web from time to time.
It's truly beautiful.
Email me if you want a copy - I might know a link. [email protected]