And Now It's Time to Say Good-bye... - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
Some day, somewhere, someone is going to stand up in front of an audience and tell the story of The Hobbit without looking at the book and the audience -- adults and children alike -- will listen with rapt devotion, hanging on every word, every scene. And no one will notice that it's not J.R.R. Tolkien's story.
It took twenty years for someone to work up the nerve to attempt Tolkien on film again. The Ralph Bakshi animated film has its admirers but it's generally regarded as a disaster. Bakshi came out this year and claimed that it was all United Artists' fault (and that his film was better than Jackson's will be). I don't hesitate to point out that it probably wasn't United Artists who insisted on rotoscoping the movie into a dreadful mess which is perilous to watch (but the soundtrack is great, and is still selling very well). I took my brother to see that movie when it first came out. He'd never read any fantasy or science fiction. He hasn't read any since then.
I think the chief difference between Peter Jackson's story and Ralph Bakshi's story (besides the fact that Glorfindel got rolled into different characters by the twain) is that Jackson's movies will probably inspire more people to look into the books than Bakshi's movie did. Jackson's portrayal of Middle-earth, no matter what it looks like, will feel so real to so many people, their imaginations will be sparked. I can't help but believe that, because so many Tolkien fans who understand movie making have come back from New Zealand and said, "You will not believe this. What they are doing is incredible!"
You know, if Tolkien can start out with iron dragons that are machines and end up with Smaug, and if Beren can be a man and then an elf and then a man, and if Bingo...er, Frodo is met in Bree by a hobbit ranger named Trotter who emerges as the tall man of Numenorean descent actually named Aragorn....well, if we can accept these changes in the story from Tolkien, then we can accept the changes in the story from ourselves.
The film rights should be available again in about seven years. You know what? No matter how good "The Lord of the Rings" turns out to be, I hope we don't have to wait another twenty years to see the next adaptation.
Hollywood, I'm ready to live the adventure again when you are.
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