The Hobbit (2012) Prelude
WARNING – Severe Nerd Alert for this post, and potential film spoilers, you have been warned. So, it may be ancient in terms of internet movie news but I did want to comment on Peter Jackson’s not in the slightest fiscally mandated decision to split The Hobbit into three movies, a 320 odd page text which of course deserves something in the region of 540 minutes of screen time to cover. Initially I was conflicted of course, as an enormous Tolkienophile the prospect of three more movies in Middle Earth was an enormous treat given the care, respect and lavish treatment lathered onto the LOTR trilogy, but it also smacked of a severe cash-grab, of expanding and warping the source text out of recognition, the worst source of franchise building which currently plagues Hollywood at the expense of original thought, fidelity to storytelling or respect for the audience. I’ve actually just finished reading The Hobbit again for the first time in probably twenty years, it’s quite episodic which will translate into an easy linear narrative but my initial thoughts were that three movies this is not, and then I finally got round to watching all the pre-production blogs and I’m a newly sanctified convert;
So what exactly is Jackson and crew gonna do to pad this out to three films, maybe treat us to a First or Second age montage or flashbacks from Galadriel, which could be just about be the most incredible strain of fanboy heroin since the legendary Holiday Special? I can imagine them stretching it out to two movies with the White Council, the unveiling of the Necromancer and some of the tie in material that would link the trilogies (Gollum’s quest to reclaim his precious and subsequent capture in Mordor must be in there, he was too popular a character to only have his only reprise with the ‘Riddles in The Dark’ scene) but three still really seems like a stretch, but in Jackson’s hands we trust. As someone weirding their way through the complete Tolkien oeuvre in historical sequence including the 12 volume sidebar books from Christopher Tolkien the timing of this treasure is quite remarkable, his first interview in four decades, which is a well written and quite fascinating tale beyond its Middle Earth beginnings, of children inheriting their fathers mantle and unsuccessfully protecting the legandarium in the face of market forces.
It’s kind of sad of how bitter he seems to be considering the films have brought Tolkien’s work to many more people, albeit in a somewhat butchered form, but to be fair the estate has been screwed around by the powers that be for many years so I can sympathise with the grievances. I always observe these spats with the opinion that the original texts remain, they will endure, and will find new audiences and appreciation as they are independently strong enough to endure one translation – ‘Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people 15 to 25,” Christopher says regretfully. “And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film.” Erm, wasn’t The Hobbit intended as a kids book? Oh well…..personally I regret the loss of the deep melancholy that’s in the books, as this was the work of a man who fought in the First World War and saw all his friends killed in that horrendous and avoidable massacre, and that background of loss and sacrifice, tempered by the absinthal taste of a victory is one of its strongest, occasionally overlooked traits that bleeds into the entirety of the legends as he built this immense fictional, allegorical universe throughout the 20th century – the catapulting of decapitated heads into Minas Tirith to destroy the defenders morale and the butchering of Fingolfin, slain, defeated then horrendously mattocked into the ground by the host of Melkor is deeply gruesome. You don’t get that refraction in C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll or dare I say it JK Rowling……
As something of a purist I grimace when I hear of the introduction of new characters to appeal to wider demographics – witness Tauriel – but Jackson and his team did a good job of amending the LOTR books to a widescreen format – I had no problem with the amendment of Arwen and her replacement of Glorfindel during the frantic chase to Rivendell for example, the introduction of Lurtz to provide some composite villain for Aragorn to surpass, or even overlooking Faramir’s passé rejection of the Ring in the book as almost an afterthought, an allusion to his brothers failures as the sigils of Numenor tempted by the enemy, the filmmakers realised that you can’t spend hours and hours building up this metaphor of an ultimate weapon of temptation that someone then rejects out of hand, as it would have been catastrophically anti-dramatic. Oh, and Tom Bombadil can fuck right off to the Undying Lands and take Goldberry with him.
It raises all sorts of curious questions vis-a-vis the complexities of adapting one media format to another whilst retaining the fidelity and spirit of a text – Boorman and Kubrick both flirted with adaptations back in the Sixties and Seventies before ultimately discarding LOTR as impossible to translate into one movie – bearing in mind that this was way before the concept of film trilogies really existed. Whilst I don’t speak fluent Quenya (yet) I’ve always had issues with the relegation of the Dwarves to comedic value via Gimli in the trilogy and turning Orlando Bland into a fucking superhero was a bit stupid (although, yeah, the takedown of one of the Mumakil was pretty entertaining at the cinema) and as for the chatter around a potential adaptation of The Silmarillon, still a remote possibility in my book, my ideal version is a full 24 episode HBO series (post Game Of Thrones it could work financially with the apparent appetite for small screen, adult fantasy) with maybe some independent specials similar to those Battlestar Galactica one-offs that could overcome some of the sparse Second Age developments, I don’t think you could chisel out a full season from the establishment and fall of Numenor.
I dunno, just watching those blogs really gave me a warm glow, to see all the same talent back working together on a project they are clearly deeply committed to make as well as they can, it is filmmaking on an increasingly rare and genuinely epic scale with those glorious New Zealand locations (thank god Jackson hasn’t gone 100% green screen yet, even post Tintin and Avatar), the prospect of seeing those Arda vistas in IMAX 3D – I’m not throughly sold on the whole 48fps debate yet given the initial negative reactions – is a mouth-watering prospect regardless of the source material, so roll on December. Nice to see they’re keeping Smaug under severe secrecy as well, one hopes that cinema will finally get a decent representation of a dragon for the first time ever, as quite frankly Reign Of Fire, Dragonslayer, Dragonheart et al. just don’t ignite the imagination. Finally here is a fan trailer for The Silmarillion which has a scent of brie around it, but it made me laugh when it gets going;
Oh, I suppose I should link the trailer again, just to whet your appetite. That blink and you’ll miss it footage of Gandalf is him entering Dol Guldur, discovering Thráin II and getting the key and map to the Lonely Mountain by the way, nice;
Minty's Menagerie 
Recent Comments