The trouble with Tolkein

The trouble with Tolkein

No matter how well made, a film of Tolkein's epic novel is always going
to have inherent and unavoidable problems when it comes down to how it
is received. The most obvious problem will always be the comparison
with the book; particularly as it is a fantasy, the film version will
be competing with the imagination of everyone who has read the novel
and is likely to disappoint somewhere along the way. The other major
factors are the length and complexity of the tale which perhaps doesn't
make it ideal material for a modern audience; the commonly held belief
seems to be that the current generation can't concentrate for more than
ten minutes or cope with a plot more demanding than that of a soap. How
will they handle what will eventually be about 81/2 hours of story
spread over three parts and two years?
The power of 'cool' seems to have so much influence over things these
days. I must admit to being very surprised that reading a book is
suddenly back in vogue with kids
as long as it's Harry Potter. Most teachers will tell you that prior to
J.K. Rowling, the chances of getting your pupils to read a 500 page
story (never mind a series of them) were rather less than winning the
lottery twice in a row. It's possible that the success of Harry Potter
might just help J.R.R. Tolkein's cool factor. Not that I'm expecting a
sudden rash of kids with Lord of the Rings tucked under their arms, but
I think the film will gain a lot of attention from competing with that
of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Whether it will manage to
maintain that attention over the next two years is another
matter.
There's no doubt that there's a ready made audience for the film, but
this is more likely to reside in the generation for whom progressive
rock was the ultimate form of music and whose exponents used Tolkein's
'fairy folk' as a source of lyrical and ambient inspiration. Today's
kids are much more likely to latch onto the battles and the undoubted
nastiness of the baddies as a way into the world of middle earth. The
film can certainly compete with any of the fantasy movies on that level
- Lord of the Rings is the daddy of the genre. But I hope it has the
staying power of the Star Wars trilogy, that people will want to come
back and see the second and third parts after gaps of a year, their
interest maintained, perhaps, with the aid of related merchandise (or
even reading the book, you never know). Some people at the screening I
attended had obviously not realised that 'Fellowship of the Ring' was
not a self-contained story and were patently not amused that they had
sat there for nearly three hours without a result, as it were. Most,
however, seemed reasonably satisfied by the experience, apart from a
baby who had refused to be placated throughout most of the evening -
please do not take your babies to see this film, it's very loud and
will give them indigestion.
Ralph Bakshi's failed attempt at an animated version in the late 70's
proved what a daunting task faced director Peter Jackson this time
round. He has undoubtedly been helped by the computer technology now
available which can handle the towering and cavernous backdrops
demanded by the novel as well as the scale of the landscapes where much
of the action takes place. He has stayed faithful to the text as much
as possible and has largely succeeded with very credible portrayals of
the main characters using an accomplished cast. It would be impossible
to please everyone with such a project, but I think it has to be said
that Jackson has made a very laudable effort at filming this epic
story. I just hope that the queues form in the same numbers one and two
years down the line.