Classic Lasts Forever

I recently watched the whole series of The Lord of the Rings. I wonder why there're people who don't like it. Driven by curiosity, I looked up to some of the negative reviews, wanting to see why there are a bunch of people who think the movie is not great enough, but what I see is basically as follows:
 

"It's purely a dry plot! "
"It's not good-looking at all, what the hell is the ending! "
"The plot of the movie is too slow, and the special effects are so-so. It is not worth IMAX at all. It is better to watch domestic films. "
"It's been a while since the series came out, and there are no novel themes yet, it's funny. "
"It's too superficial, and it's an old movie, it's good to pass the time. "
"The drama is procrastinating and makes me uncomfortable.”

These comments made me a little dumbfounded——why as a milestone in the fantasy genre, "Lord of the Rings", from narrative to aesthetics, made the world An amazing masterpiece, in the eyes of some audiences, become so unbearable? The biggest reason is actually a kind of ignorance, neither understanding the connotation of the work, nor understanding its artistic attainments, and not understanding the importance of the trilogy films to the film industry. Not to mention the unshakable status and significance of trilogy novels in the history of Western literature.

01

"The Lord of the Rings" and the fantasy literary sequence behind it

"The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy is adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's novel of the same name “The Lord of Rings”, the original novel is divided into three parts, and the film trilogy corresponds to a novel, which is a complete story, the three are not independent, and the last two are not sequels. Perhaps the domestic simplification of the film title—” "Lord of the Rings 123"—some viewers mistakenly think that this is a series with two sequels. At that time, Peter Jackson was still an unknown director in New Zealand, but he set his ambition to adapt his favourite novel into a movie.
 

Tolkien's original book has a grand narrative, many characters, rigorous logic, and countless details. It is about 1,500 pages long. It is quite difficult to adapt, let alone random Compression, Jackson originally planned to make the content of the three books into a two-episode movie, but he met an investor who also loved "Lord of the Rings" and supported him to make three movies. The "Lord of the Rings" movie The filming was also done in an unusual way, with the whole series being filmed at the same time, which resulted in a rhythmic and visual unity of the film. This re-screening is a trilogy promoted together, although only two have been released so far, a qualified movie viewer still needs to know what he is going to see before watching a movie. The story is not over yet, so how can we talk about the ending?

The original novels of The Lord of the Rings have been published successively since 1954, and another related work is The Hobbit, which was published as early as 1937, together with the book written by his son Christopher Tolkien after his death. The Silmarillion, compiled and published in 1977, constitutes the main body of Tolkien's Middle-earth world. He began to create language and fragments of various legends for this world when he was young and continued to revise those he believed to be in his old age. Imperfect chapters. At the beginning of the 20th century, all kinds of myths, legends, and fairy tales were on the decline under the influence of modernism, but Tolkien's works lead modern readers closer to classical heroes in a unique way of blending ancient and modern Legends, let this kind of romantic myths and legends become a topic that modern readers like to talk about again, Later, many works with the theme of "sword and magic" in the field of Western fantasy literature were also deeply influenced by "The Lord of the Rings", but they were still unable to surpass it.

The Lord of the Rings, Author: [English] J·R·R·Tolkien, Translator: Deng Jiawan/ Stone Song/ Du Yunci, Version: Century Wenjing｜Shanghai People's Publishing House, September 2013

Chinese audiences may be more familiar with the bloody storm of "Game of Thrones", Or the wizarding world of "Harry Potter", but you must know that the original authors of these works grew up in the era when "Lord of the Rings" was widely popular in Europe and America. George R.R. Martin, the original author of "Game of Thrones", has always regarded himself as a Tolkien fan. He was deeply shocked when he read "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time at the age of 12, and later created the "Song of Ice and Fire" series. I also got a lot of inspiration from The Lord of the Rings. Neil Gaiman, the contemporary best-selling fantasy writer with books such as "American Gods", "Good Omens" and "Spider-Boy", mentioned his thirteen-year-old dream was to become A writer who could have written The Lord of the Rings.

"A Song of Ice and Fire" has not yet finished. Each season corresponds to a novel, and the total duration of a season is 10 hours, and each movie of "Harry Potter" is also about two and a half hours. In contrast, each three-hour movie of "The Lord of the Rings" (the third one is longer) has compressed the non-essential content in the movie adaptation to the greatest extent, without redundant plots, and even merged the plots of the two characters in the original book To a character, even so, some viewers still shouted that it was too long. Perhaps the audience is used to contemporary life in which they can quit at any time, eat snacks, and send text messages when they are tired when watching movies online. Total immersion into another world. Or they browse too many short videos of a movie in three to five minutes and mistakenly equate understanding the movie with understanding the plot outline.

In 2004, the British Academy of Film Awards, Oscars and Golden Globes awarded the best film to "The Lord of the Rings: The Invincible King". The Great Harvest is actually a compliment to the entire series. Before "The Lord of the Rings", no fantasy film has ever won this honour. In fact, "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" have also been nominated for best picture and director in the previous two Oscars and Golden Globe Awards, and they have also won various awards for visual effects, makeup, costumes and music. The well-informed judges could not refuse the unprecedented spiritual shock and aesthetic experience brought by "Lord of the Rings". Today's audience, however, is forced to accept too many purely commercial action films that lack character creation. Instead, they expect "Lord of the Rings" movies to be similar works. They wish that the main character Frodo would be given a body of magic so that he could single-handedly cut through the thorns and go to Mordor completes his mission and becomes a hero who saves the common people. No, such heroism is not the spirit conveyed by Tolkien's works, so what exactly is conveyed by "Lord of the Rings"?

The original English version of "The Lord of the Rings" Edition book cover

02

What does "The Lord of the Rings" convey?

In the movie "The Fellowship of the Ring", Galadriel, the elf lady of Rose Lorien, said to Frodo when he was most confused: "Even the weakest People can also change the fate of the world. "Frodo and the three hobbits with him have no power, let alone great power, but these few little characters in the story play a vital role in destroying the Lord of the Rings. Role. Frodo knows that he is weak and the end of the journey may be death, but he does not want the Lord of the Rings to bring danger to his partners, and would rather leave alone; Sam accompanied Frodo all the way through life and death, from the big spider and Merry, Pippin, and the Ents joined in the battle against Isengard and defeated the wizard Saruman.

The weak power of ordinary people can also push the wheel of the world this is one of the spirits conveyed by this work. As for the audience who commented on the "weak fighting power" of the hobbit in the film, I think they should I failed to understand the main idea of ​​the work.

After Boromir died in battle and the Fellowship of the Ring parted ways, the dwarf Gimli lamented, "The mission of the Fellowship of the Ring has failed. ’ But Aragorn replied, ‘As long as we are faithful to each other we shall not fail. "The Lord of the Rings is also about friendship and loyalty.

At the end of the "Two Towers" movie, Frodo is almost desperate, but Sam said: " How is it possible for the world to go back to the way it was after so many terrible things? But the shadows will pass, and the darkness will pass, A brand new day will come and the sun will shine brighter. These are unforgettable and meaningful stories, even if you are young and can't understand...these are stories about people who gave up many opportunities and didn't give up. They went forward because they believed in...the world still exists There is goodness and beauty, and it is worth fighting for. "Hope in despair runs through the essence of Tolkien's entire works.

"The Lord of the Rings" is not as grand as most fantasy stories. With a happy ending, Frodo did not become a perfect hero because of the destruction of the Lord of the Rings and lived happily ever after. He encountered unimaginable suffering and pain during the journey of destroying the Lord of the Rings, which could not be healed after all, and finally reconciled with the sitting elves going west and left Middle Earth together. The audience can understand this as he left the mortal world forever with good blessings. Therefore, "The Lord of the Rings" is also a story about death, with sadness and hope Such a story is not convincing to use "routine" and "superficial" to attack.

Still from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

03

How to understand the position of "The Lord of the Rings" in the history of fantasy movies?

In addition to the story and themes, The film also does its best to visually present the world in Tolkien's mind. Tolkien's imagination of Middle-earth geography and landforms comes largely from the English countryside where he lived and what he saw and heard when he traveled in Switzerland, while the magic of New Zealand The landscape is not lacking in the green countryside similar to the English countryside, but also full of towering mountains, vast forests and rushing rivers and waterfalls.

The three screenwriters of the film understand Adapting such a work is very difficult. In addition to the difficulty of rewriting the plot, the biggest problem is how to make the world of Middle-earth look real. Director Peter Jackson made a very weird request to the design team in the early stage: "Our task is to make "Lord of the Rings" into a movie, but from now on I want everyone to imagine "Lord of the Rings" as something that happened in history." Thing... I want you to imagine that you are lucky enough to be able to go and make a film in a historical site where these things happened, those characters existed, their costumes existed... Hobbiton existed, it's just become a piece of We are going to restore the ruins that have been abandoned for three or four hundred years and overgrown with weeds."

Tolkien wrote the entire work The original intention was to create a mythology for England. Therefore, according to Tolkien's wishes, Middle-earth is theoretically not an overhead world, but the previous life of our world. Based on this premise and basis, the scenes, props, and costume design of the movie seek a foothold from the original text and various human histories and cultures and transform and integrate them.
 

For example, the valley designed by art master Alan Lee and the elf buildings of Rose Lorien mainly adopt the art nouveau ) style, which had a wide influence in Europe and the United States from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, advocating the integration of design and natural forms, and the elves in Tolkien’s works happen to be both skilled craftsmen and very close to nature, so The elf building is designed with the Art Nouveau style as the starting point, but it is not a simple replica. Glen Building also incorporates Nordic and Celtic-style decorative patterns, while the details of the building are full of the history and motifs of the Middle-earth world, such as elf statues and animal carvings. The building itself also achieves spatial harmony with nature. The perfect blend of environments. Like elf architecture, the architecture of other ethnic groups also has a unique starting point. For example, the dwarf architecture combines art deco style (art deco). This style pursues geometry, symmetry, and technical beauty, which is very suitable for living in the mountains and loving mining. , Dwarves who process jewellery.

Elf building

The image, living and speaking habits of the hobbit in Tolkien's works are more like the British in the Victorian period. A means for modern readers to empathize and empathize. The film fully complies with Tolkien's intentions when presenting the image of the Hobbit. The clothing style is a variant of Victorian clothing, with small long coats and short coats. In order to highlight the difference between the protagonist and Frodo, the costume designer used velvet to make his clothes, making Frodo look more like a young gentleman. The number of costumes in the whole film is astonishing. The designer Angela Dixon and 40 tailors made a total of about 19,000 costumes for the film, of which 40 costumes are needed for a single Hobbit to suit the leading role, Different needs for a stand-in, scale stand-in, and action stand-in.

Hobbit people clothing

In the first few years of the 21st century, a large number of fantasy adventure movies emerged. These movies have a lot of fictional scenes, but at that time Movie digital special effects are not as versatile as they are today. For realistic effects and more convenient control of camera movement, The "Lord of the Rings" crew made a large number of miniature models of scenes and buildings. The Isengard, Glen, Moria, Lothlórien, and the Colossus of Agonus that you see in the film are all combined with large-scale miniature models and real-scale local scenery, while the natural scenery in the background, is drawn from the beautiful landscape of New Zealand. Taking Yougu as an example, they made a 1:24 model with astonishing details for shooting, and at the same time meeting the needs of long-range and close-up shots. Simulate the lighting in place, shoot along the corresponding movement trajectory, and finally stitch together the two sets of pictures through post-production. Today's movie shooting does not need to spend a lot of energy to make physical miniature models, but 20 years ago, this solution not only solved the technical shortcomings of digital special effects, but also saved costs, and brought lifelike to movies. Visual experience.

In order to present the Shire with green hills and rolling hills, Peter Jackson travelled all over New Zealand to find a suitable location. When he saw Alexander in Waikato, North Island The farm, he firmly believed that was the place where Hobbiton could be recreated, and took great pains to persuade the farmer to lend him the farm for the film. He hoped that Hobbiton would look real and have traces of life when shooting, so the team began to renovate the farm and build caves more than a year in advance. Planting various flowers, plants and shrubs, after a year of wind and sun and natural growth, When filming began, Hobbiton looked like a laid-back village that has always been inhabited.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Stills from The Messenger. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson

If you've seen The Hobbit, you may remember Gollum's Smart eyes, he is an important role in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". The crew began to plan the image and realization of Gollum as early as 1998 and initially planned to use keyframe animation to realize this all-digital character. Play Gollum The famous British actor Andy Serkis put on white tights and vividly interpreted Gollum with his body and voice, and his movements were also recorded as a reference for keyframe animation. Then, Peter found that this method was not enough Efficiency will also cause loss of motion details, so I decided to switch to motion capture technology, but this technology was immature at the time, and it had never been used for such a complex digital character, and it had its flaws, such as the inability to capture fingers and faces motion.

Ultimately, motion capture does most of the motion, and keyframe animation enriches the facial and detailed movements, regardless of the technology, all referenced to Andy Serkis' performance, thus creating the first all-digital motion-capture character in film history.

In the following years, "The Lord of the Rings" undoubtedly promoted the wide application of motion capture technology in the field of fantasy and science fiction movies, and Andy Serkis became an expert in the field of motion capture, starring in many movies relying on this technology. Movies such as King Kong, The Adventures of Tintin, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

04

"Too long, boring" bad review

Is it a manifestation of aesthetic diversity?

As time goes by, we should thank movies like "Lord of the Rings".

With the joint efforts of thousands of people, after a long period of time from 1995 to 2003, the grandeur of Tolkien's world was finally brought to the screen. The emergence of this has made countless impossible possible. It created a precedent for a fantasy epic masterpiece, which not only inherited the literature and ideological depth of the original work, but also provided a matching sensory experience, and the shaping of this sensory experience It cannot exist independently from the historical weight of the story itself.

Still from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring".

The original intention of "The Lord of the Rings" was not for the entertainment of the public, it just happened to find a balance between business and art. Just like Tolkien created "The Hobbit" and "Magic" The original intention of "The Silmarillion" and "The Silmarillion" is by no means to please readers or any honour. These stories about faith, hope, loyalty, and parting are the source of empathy for readers and audiences.

So, when we evaluate a movie, is it sloppy to use simple "too long" and "boring" to match its huge volume and information? If you never love Fantasy movies and historical stories, then "The Lord of the Rings" is hard to your taste, but the individual feelings brought about by this difference in aesthetic taste are not the evaluation the movie itself deserves.

Evaluating a movie, although it is very subjective, the evaluation given after understanding and analysis is objective and fair. Criticism can also have many different angles, from the shortcomings of the adaptation, and the editing of the shots to different concepts... These are the collisions of ideas that should appear in film reviews.

The diversity of aesthetics does not mean that all movies are required to be suitable for eating popcorn while watching.