Word: tolkien
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...DARKNESS bind them. J.R.R. Tolkien could not have known when he wrote that verse that one day, The Ring, his ring, would lure thousands to the Darkness of a movie house, bind them with the fetters that a $4.00 admission fee lashes to its victims and force them to watch a cinematic travesty. He could not have known that his epic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of The Rings, would one day become a sloppy animated cartoon billed as the triumph of the imagination in movies. He could not have known...or he might not ever have written the books...
...these books. Not everyone feels this way about Lord of The Rings, but those who criticize the books for being a dull, silly tale or simply nothing special have always been an enigma to me. I simply could not understand why anyone could fail to be as enchanted by Tolkien's world...
...longtime Tolkien addict himself, Director Ralph Bakshi knew these dangers; he also knew that the task of translating this ring-cycle to the screen had stymied some of the most formidable names in Hollywood, including Walt Disney, and still he plunged ahead. Bakshi brought to this project none of the brass and sass that animated his earlier cartoon features including the X-rated Fritz the Cat and the jive-talking Heavy Traffic. If reverence had wings, his new picture would fly. The fact that it hobbles simply proves again that the road to Mordor is paved with good intentions...
...amplitude, the Tolkien story embraces both pipe and slippers and Armageddon. Hence the saga's surge in popularity during the 1960s, when so many people craved the conviction that the Apocalypse rested in their hands. The hobbit Frodo Baggins is an ordinary creature with hairy toes suddenly charged with a task that will decide the battle between good and evil in his world. This elemental quest is what the whole fantasy boils down to and percolates up from. Bakshi tries to strike the same balance between the personal and universal, but in a fraction of the time at Tolkien...
Lacking a firm center in Frodo's story, the film plays itself out as a bewildering parade of elves, dwarves, ores, trolls and talking trees. Exposition flies by in jabberwockian confusion. Even the most dedicated students of Tolkien may not recall instantly what Edoras and Isengard are, and nonreaders are likely to lose their way early in the journey. At the end, Frodo has still not reached the fire mountain in Mordor where his destiny lies, and the prospect of a sequel echoes during the closing credits. That might not be a bad idea. But if Frodo picks...