board77

Alatar, that is a perfect example of what I was saying. The thing that sets PJ's use of rhythm apart from the music video analogy that ber made is the way he uses rhythm without the music as well as with. His ability to use silence and pauses is one of the reasons why I feel that he has a much more subtle directing touch then many folks given him credit for.

You make me fall in love with these films all over again.

I always thought they were FABULOUS cinema. Like nothing else I'd ever seen. Just as the book was like nothing else I'd ever read.

Sometimes I couldn't make my Inner Purist shut up though.

Annoying cow.

Actually ... my issues with PJ are NOT purist issues. Pardon my French but I couldn't give a *** if Arwen Undomiel came charging up the Bruinen with the whole host of the Valar at her side. I really couldn't.

Well, OK ... maybe I could.

No, my issues with PJ are about the occasional uneven-ness of his style. Humour is fine - there is plenty of humour in the book! But we ought to keep a consistent, Wagnerian, operatic, sober mood and atmosphere throughout, something that suits the GRAVITAS of Tolkien.

Which is why things like the stupid stew conversation, and the awful skull avalanche, disappointed me so badly. They take me STRAIGHT out of the Middle-earth universe, in a way that Non-Book things don't. By that, I mean Non-Book Things that are in the Spirit of the Books.

It's a shame, because most of the screenplay is really bloody good. I realised that afresh when I read bits of the book again, and listened to some of the BBC LOTR.

But you people could very well make me actually LIKE the Osgiliath scene - crammed as it is with the most dreadful heresies.

I've always thought Osgiliath was absolutely fantastic visually.

But ... no, I'll never love it. There's too much wrong, too much that doesn't make any freaking sense.

It is massively useful though to have a friend who is a Tolkien Virgin. They help one appreciate the films more.