LotR - Nostalgia

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Gabriel's Avatar
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How many people here remember that sense of magic and wonder you felt as you watched Gandalf battle the Balrog? The Battle of Helm's Deep? The Siege of Minas Tirith, the Ride of the Rohirrim, the Battle Before the Gate, the Passing of Sauron? How many people here have the special extended DVD's and have watched all the special features?

Seriously, I still get goosebumps when I watch the charge of the Rohirrim upon the Fields of the Pelennor. And that moment at the Black Gate where Aragorn takes off... then the Hobbits... and then the Men of the West follow suit... pure magic. *wipes tears from eyes*

So basically this is a nostalgia thread... if you didn't like LOTR thats cool too, just post it here. (though I've yet to meet anybody with a worse complaint than "long")
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Thursday Next's Avatar
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Actually I saw a bit of The Two Towers on tv the other week and I was distinctly undewhelmed. It just looked a bit, well, silly. I think these are films that need to be seen on the big screen.



How many people here remember that sense of magic and wonder you felt as you watched Gandalf battle the Balrog? The Battle of Helm's Deep? The Siege of Minas Tirith, the Ride of the Rohirrim, the Battle Before the Gate, the Passing of Sauron? How many people here have the special extended DVD's and have watched all the special features?

Seriously, I still get goosebumps when I watch the charge of the Rohirrim upon the Fields of the Pelennor. And that moment at the Black Gate where Aragorn takes off... then the Hobbits... and then the Men of the West follow suit... pure magic. *wipes tears from eyes*

So basically this is a nostalgia thread... if you didn't like LOTR thats cool too, just post it here. (though I've yet to meet anybody with a worse complaint than "long")
Well, I liked the three film, especially that they were all shot at once rather than dragged out like Star Wars or Harry Potter. But I guess I didn't get the program that spelled out all of those names. Balrog? Minas Tirith? Rohirrim? Sauron? Just don't ring a bell with me.
Interesting story. Great special effects. Wonderful computer imagery. Delightful musical backgrounds. But it didn't leave me teary-eyed.



A system of cells interlinked
I really enjoyed the entire LotR experience. I was whisked into the magical world and went along for the adventure. I own all three special edition DVDs and have watched a large amount of the special features. I agree with Ruf on the tight execution of all three films at once, allowing us three consecutive years of enjoyment and then it was put to bed. Bravo to Jackson for that!
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Lost in never never land
I can't say that I get goosebumps thinking or seeing them anymore. The first few times I saw them on the big screen I definitely did, but they are some movies which while I like them a lot, I feel like they need a big screen (even a large TV will do), and a very good sound system, otherwise some of their magic is lost.
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Gabriel's Avatar
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Yeah, well actually for me its been quite a few months since I've watched such stirring moments as the ones listed above... or any of the films for that matter. Just yesterday was the first time I've watched the destruction of the Dark Tower in like a year... and lets face it, I'm a total sucker for really dramatic scenes.

I love that part where the Rohirrim are charging down towards the orcs at Pelennor Fields, both the pre-battle speech by Theoden (Ride now! Ride now! Ride for ruin, and the world's ending!) and its so great seeing this John Wayne-ish character (Gothmog, aka orc commander) being so confident and just ordering his orcs to fire... back to the Rohirrim charging... Gothmog, a little more frantic, orders them to fire at will... cut to shot of Theoden shouting a battle cry... Gothmog's mouth gapes open and his eyes widen in fear as the horse-masters from Rohan charge the field.... absolutely awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a total Tolkienite / Jacksonite. I love the books and I adore the movies.

Just some trivia here - I don't know how many will remember this, but in the battle at the Black Gate, Aragorn ends up fighting a Troll in hand-to-hand combat. A worthy foe, no doubt, but does anyone know who Aragorn was originally fighting in that shot?

Sauron.

They originally had Sauron himself come to the field of battle and confront Aragorn... man, that woulda been AWESOME, Aragorn vs. Sauron can you imagine?

Well, I'll stop boring you... any more comments?



Back when I was a teenager (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), I read LotR once a year for about five years. I've always loved the books, but thought they were unfilmable. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Peter Jackson for proving me wrong.

I would love it if he gave the same treatment to The Hobbit (a much tighter novel).

If I had to choose one scene that was my favorite in all three films it would probably be the mirror of Galadriel. Man, when Frodo offers her The Ring....



"theres only one return and it aint 'of the king' its 'of the jedi!'"

ha no i did enjoy the LOTR and i own just the regular version on DVD. never really had a "goosebumps" connection with them either but still all amazing films.
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Yeah i remember watching the first one and i was completely overwhelmed afterwards. It was some sort of magical experience I never saw before. Also a lot of things happened in that film but it was all perfect. I remember being a bit more dissapointed after seeing The two towers and The return... because it was more about the battles. But still all three are extraoridnairy pieces of film magic. Although I still like the Godfather trilogy better the Lord of the rings films are real close.



Every scene was wonderful in it's own way(still love the firework dragon) but my teary-eyed moment is when Sam brogues "Maybe I can't carry it...... but I can carry you!"

Most thrilling for me was The Two Towers opening with Gandalf fighting the Balrog the whole way down , and rising again.
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LotR proved that adaptations don't have to be crap if the director has passion for the project and the studio stays out of the way. King already has his benchmark film and everything he does from here on out will be compared to it.

The question remains if he will be able to set the bar again (like Spielberg has continually done, commercially if not critically) or whether he's going to skate on this project for the next twenty years (like Lucas with "Star Wars" and Singleton with "Boyz In The Hood"--and maybe the Wachowskis off the first "Matrix").