Although the movie debut is not due until next Christmas, Tolkienites are buzzing with talk of “The Lord of the Rings.” The movie tells J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic tale of hobbits, elves, orcs, the Land of the Mordor and an evil ring that contains every power imaginable and dominates its owner – creating one of the most elaborate fantasy worlds envisioned by filmakers.
The trailer for the movie appears in “Thirteen Days,” starring Kevin Costner, but most J.R.R. Tolkien fans are more worried about Middle Earth than the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Although fans are excited about the movie trilogy, many remain skeptical about how director Peter Jackson will handle the sacred story.
Perhaps this cautious attitude comes with good reason. Tolkien (who died in 1973) turned down one animated version of his books that he felt destroyed the content of his story.
Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 film of the trilogy combined all three books into one movie to create a disastrous attempt at recreating the story.
But recreating Tolkien’s epic novels may not be as easy as it seems. The characters in the books achieve great depth and feeling, not always easy to capture on film.
The movie will have difficulty capturing in two hours what Tolkien spent hundreds of pages describing.
Incorporated into the basic story line of the trilogy is other languages, histories to explain the origins of the hobbits and maps that intricately describe the landscape.
Although Tolkien wrote the books between 1937 and 1949, the books did not establish their best-selling, cult-like following until the mid-’60s.
Some alterations have been made to the books to make the movie more appealing the modern-minded people in the audience.
Jackson corrects Tolkien’s fault of having women play a minimal part in the story by enhancing the few women roles into better-developed characters and getting high-profile actresses to play the parts.
The cute, but strong-willed elf queen Galadrie is played by Cate Blanchett and Arwen Evenstar, King Aragorn’s bride-to-be is played by Liv Tyler.
