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Ruminations

No, I was not among the faithful who plopped their butts into the local theater for a butt numbing eleven plus hours to watch all three installments of the “Lord of the Rings” on Tuesday. Nor did I brave the hordes of folks to be there for the midnight showing of “Return of the King.” And I did not make the first day of release either. The way it looks, likely it will be Saturday night for a big screen showing.

Considering some of the things I did in younger days, this is somewhat of a surprise. I can’t tell you why now, but way back when, I did sit through an all day showing of all five of the 20th Century Fox “Planet of the Apes” films. And I paid for the pleasure of doing so as well. If you recall that there were full-page newspaper ads with the headline, “Go Ape!” for that cultural fest, you win a cookie, if not a banana…

And back when the first Star Wars trilogy was completed, there was a special showing of episodes IV, V and VI at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco. That was somewhat civilized with at least 45 minute breaks between the films. (In an ironic note, the Coronet is showing “ROTK” but wasn’t one of the sites to do the trilogy event. It is one of the last of the City’s neighborhood theater palaces, with loge seating still in place. Sadly, it is slated to become a local senior center.)

As much as I have enjoyed the films in this series so far, there have been disappointments. I’m not a purist who thinks like Frank Darabont and the works of Steven King that every page should make it on to the screen. That said, I have read and re-read the three Tolkein books (that compromise the LOTR saga) many times over the years since high school. Like many of you, I was exposed to “The Hobbit” in an English class, and got sucked into the rest of his world. Like my parents and the days of radio, I imagined Middle Earth in my own way with various interpretations of locales and characters. I’ll give Peter Jackson credit for doing a fine job — not “fantastic” as some folks have — in bringing the tale to us. While I may have been able to take in the books over a longer period, that luxury was just not possible. Erich Von Stroheim and “Greed” come to mind as what might have been if Peter Jackson had attempted a literal translation from the printed page to the projected screen.

Some story points that we didn’t get to see were disappointing to me. As one example, in “The Fellowship of the Ring”, there is a scene where Galadriel gives each member of the Fellowship her gifts, including the elven cloaks and brooches we see the characters wear. Among those other gifts was one to Sam that is used to invigorate the Shire after the scouring in the final chapters of “ROTK”. A small moment none the less that has great consequences in later years, but we will never get to see it. Alas, we have to wait for another appearance by Christopher Lee as Saurman until the Special Edition of “ROTK” appears late next year. Toss in all the great verse that we found throughout the trilogy’s printed pages that has been all but ignored by the film, too. Some of those are classics in their own rights and deserved better telling than they got.

It’s that kind of thing that has on occasion given me more than a moment’s pause.

But, again there is no denial of how great a task Jackson faced in bringing the story to us. Give the man credit where credit is due, and you can count me as one of the folks who has him down as a solid candidate for Best Director for the Oscars. He wised up to a simple fact early on. He wasn’t going to be able to please everyone, so he didn’t try

Maybe you can understand why I’m not jumping up and down working myself into a frenzy over this, and maybe you can’t. The passion for the tale is there, but the telling of it isn’t quite what I imagined it would be.

That seems to have become the way of things in the last few years when it comes to movies, from my perspective. As an example, I loved “Titanic”, but not for reasons others did. Let’s face it, we all knew the boat would sink. Yet we went anyway. The moment in that film when the ship sets off for America is one in which my sense of belief is definitely suspended. I know it isn’t real, yet damn! It gets all of those emotional chords plucked.

Perhaps it’s the same with LOTR. I know that Frodo will lose the ring in the end as it falls into the fires of Mount Doom. Darkness is defeated and good prevails. (If only Mikey would see his little battles so clearly…) But I will hand over my nine bucks for the privilege of watching it happen. Talk about ones comfort zone. And I’ll be right there with the rest of you waiting for every moment of it to happen.

There’s something about watching a story unfold and learning a tale for the first time. Maybe those folks who haven’t read the Tolkein books have an advantage of sorts over those of us who have (one too many times). Call it a handicap of sorts in this case.

In a way, there’s always something we want to be surprised by. Take California Screamin’ at DCA. We watch the ride doing its thing from the boardwalk, and then there is all the great shock and surprise when systems kick in and launch us on our way along the track.

As Superchicken put it so well, “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.”

So now that we’ve seen what Jackson can do, what’s next for him? As much as I would enjoy seeing “The Hobbit”, I would hope that he might try and taken on another take first. And with his stock running so high right now, he likely has a choice of what projects he can and can not ignore. We can only hope for what we got this time on any future project he might have.

One needs look no further than Orson Welles or George Lucas to see that success is no guarantee of future successes.

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
>From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

And it doesn’t hurt if it can kick ass at the box office, either.

Next week, Roger’s got a tale in the works about a holiday favorite that saved the bacon of two companies. Don’t miss it.

As usual, there’s always room for more in Roger’s Paypal Donation Box. Throw a buck or two his way. It’s appreciated, honest!

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