Re: Movie Talk. . . | White Council Forum Archive - msg 9154

White Council: The Tolkien Forum archive_45 on this day of

Re: Movie Talk. . . | White Council Forum Archive - msg 9154

White Council: The Tolkien Forum archive_45

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Topic: Re: Movie Talk. . .
Reply to: Message 9135
Posted: February 17, 2000 at 11:12:06: by RobRoy
:
: : So what say thee? Dost thou thinketh it meet that the language be thus? hahaha

: Jackson needs to scrap all of that stuff, and I'm sure he will. It's not enough to say you enjoyed it in the books. We all did, but its not the same thing. One reads a book at his or her own pace, and thus can take the time to digest one line before reading the next. That's not the case in a movie. The dialogue keeps coming at you whether you're ready for it or not. Two straight hours of inscrutable dialogue would spell doom for the movie. Shakespeare adaptations are really the one and only exception to this rule, and that's because the audience wants to hear the peot's actual words. With Tolkien, its more about the stories, characters, races, and world.

There are other examples (Elizabeth, Excalibur) where arachic usage has been very well received, and Tolkein is not exactly that hard to understand. He doesn't use the double and triple entendres that are resplendent in Shakespeare (read Shakespeare's Bawdy and you will just start to scratch the surface). Nor does he carry his metaphors on for five of six lines. What lines would you suggest that need adapting? I'm sure some line editing will be required, but not much more then the time constraints will allow. Overall, most of the spoken lines can be used verbatim.

In addition, I personally would rather they didn't adopt what some have called a dumbing down of the language. Could you imagine a Bill & Ted attitude toward this.

Gandalf: Dudes, it was a wicked fight. The Balrog had major damage issues, but using my most excellent and phat blade, I gave him the bum-rush!

It just lacks something! ;)

-RobRoy

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