beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2010-06-17 10:46 am
beccaelizabeth) wrote2010-06-17 10:46 am
Entry tags:
+me
I decided to rewatch The Lord of the Rings. All three extended edition films. Preferably in a row, if I can stay awake long enough.
Thus far it is not going so very well. I got all twitchy and was eagerly anticipating the disc break and not just because I wanted eatings. I was, much to my giant surprise, getting a bit bored.
This is Lord of the Rings. This is epic huge awesome. I remember. I wanted to get all the shiny things and a proper staff like Gandalf and a dress like an elf, or, more realistically, a hobbit waistcoat, and chairs like elves and patterns like on dwarf things and and and SHINY! I liked it very much.
This time? Not so very.
It doesn't help that I have since last watching noticed the orcs are basically black people with funny contacts and bad teeth. It makes the battle scenes rather anti fun. It makes me really notice I'm sitting there watching nine white blokes being all epic together in what seems a very white world until attention is paid to the bad guys. When watching Boromir's last stand I want to be thinking about Boromir and not how it's kind of creepy how they painted the bad guys. So the film could have done better in that department.
Mostly though I have noticed that when my attention wanders it goes off to put me in the story. Not actual me, who wouldn't have made it as far as Bree, and would probably have hid under the bed and not got started and got squished by black riders anyway. One of the story versions of me, who can actually do the things I've only attempted or planned out. And I am wandering off in my head to plan some fairly elaborate things. Because nobody is doing precisely the things I would do, and there's nobody there that really feels like a me. It's not just that they're all blokes, they're all blokes working from a fairly uniform model of what that means. Even the hobbits 'grow up' into using swords and doing fighting and stuff.
Nobody is pursuing diplomatic relations, or indeed able to talk to most of the people in a battle scene. I know it's fantasy so 'people' is probably not meant to be applicable, but really, it's a great big fight scene with some meal breaks. I'm kind of bored. Some things need fighting, yeah, but, it's all fighters all the time. And they're mostly fighting with single purpose weapons like swords. An axe has some peace time use, and a bow does if you eat meat I guess, but a sword is a pointy bit of metal for killing people with and it has no other function. As a statement of intent carrying a sword is really limiting. I'm with the Doctor on this one, a multi purpose tool is much better, or you reduce your thinking down to stab now or stab later. Once the world is drawn like that the kinds of heroism available are drastically reduced. It makes moments like Sam using the saucepan to fight with or going after Frodo come what may a great relief from all the surrounding stabbing.
I know I sat down to watch an epic fight scene of a movie trilogy. I know I liked it last time I watched. But I find myself missing all the wide possibilities like treaties and talking and doing good things with building and trade and possibly cookery. Once you're down to seeing the enemy as monsters with no possibility of communication everything is really thoroughly screwed already on levels that great big battles aren't really going to fix.
The kind of story I'm looking for has shifted beyond the scope of much of my DVD collection.
The Doctor's ability to talk to absolutely anybody is the most precious part of his skill set.
Thus far it is not going so very well. I got all twitchy and was eagerly anticipating the disc break and not just because I wanted eatings. I was, much to my giant surprise, getting a bit bored.
This is Lord of the Rings. This is epic huge awesome. I remember. I wanted to get all the shiny things and a proper staff like Gandalf and a dress like an elf, or, more realistically, a hobbit waistcoat, and chairs like elves and patterns like on dwarf things and and and SHINY! I liked it very much.
This time? Not so very.
It doesn't help that I have since last watching noticed the orcs are basically black people with funny contacts and bad teeth. It makes the battle scenes rather anti fun. It makes me really notice I'm sitting there watching nine white blokes being all epic together in what seems a very white world until attention is paid to the bad guys. When watching Boromir's last stand I want to be thinking about Boromir and not how it's kind of creepy how they painted the bad guys. So the film could have done better in that department.
Mostly though I have noticed that when my attention wanders it goes off to put me in the story. Not actual me, who wouldn't have made it as far as Bree, and would probably have hid under the bed and not got started and got squished by black riders anyway. One of the story versions of me, who can actually do the things I've only attempted or planned out. And I am wandering off in my head to plan some fairly elaborate things. Because nobody is doing precisely the things I would do, and there's nobody there that really feels like a me. It's not just that they're all blokes, they're all blokes working from a fairly uniform model of what that means. Even the hobbits 'grow up' into using swords and doing fighting and stuff.
Nobody is pursuing diplomatic relations, or indeed able to talk to most of the people in a battle scene. I know it's fantasy so 'people' is probably not meant to be applicable, but really, it's a great big fight scene with some meal breaks. I'm kind of bored. Some things need fighting, yeah, but, it's all fighters all the time. And they're mostly fighting with single purpose weapons like swords. An axe has some peace time use, and a bow does if you eat meat I guess, but a sword is a pointy bit of metal for killing people with and it has no other function. As a statement of intent carrying a sword is really limiting. I'm with the Doctor on this one, a multi purpose tool is much better, or you reduce your thinking down to stab now or stab later. Once the world is drawn like that the kinds of heroism available are drastically reduced. It makes moments like Sam using the saucepan to fight with or going after Frodo come what may a great relief from all the surrounding stabbing.
I know I sat down to watch an epic fight scene of a movie trilogy. I know I liked it last time I watched. But I find myself missing all the wide possibilities like treaties and talking and doing good things with building and trade and possibly cookery. Once you're down to seeing the enemy as monsters with no possibility of communication everything is really thoroughly screwed already on levels that great big battles aren't really going to fix.
The kind of story I'm looking for has shifted beyond the scope of much of my DVD collection.
The Doctor's ability to talk to absolutely anybody is the most precious part of his skill set.