Lord of the Rings, Going Home
Dec. 20, 2001
Last night, Kim and I went to see LotR. I thought it was great, both as a film in its own right and as a translation of Tolkien's creation. Of course they had to cut things, and having cut things, change other things to make the story consistent again. For example, they cut Radagast. He was another Wizard like Gandalf, but he could talk to animals. He was the one who knew to send the Eagle to save Gandalf from Saruman. However, since he wasn't in the movie, they had to make Gandalf talk to this moth instead, which implies that he has all these extra powers which he doesn't have in the book. That of course leads to plot inconsistencies. That didn't really bother me though. I was entranced. I was pleased with the way Peter Jackson would hint at things from the book even though they weren't shown explicitly in the movie. After visiting Lothlorien, the Fellowship is wearing Elven cloaks, even though you never see them explicitly given them.
I'm heading home in two days for a nice two week vacation. I'm glad. I need to sleep in. 7 am every morning starts to wear on me after a while. In fact, I think its about time for bed now.