The Hobbit

***

Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you helped bring them about? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You’re a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I’m very fond of you, but you’re only quite a little fellow in a wide world, after all.

Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins in Bag Bend, Hobbiton, The Shire, in the 1977 movie The Hobbit.

I never watched this as a kid. Had I seen this I would have had to contend with my nostalgia. Instead, what I am dealing with is having listened to the audiobook recently. I probably noticed every bit the 77 minute animated movie skipped or changed. I love the book, so any changes needed to come from a logical place for me to forgive, or appreciate them. Whether you like the Peter Jackson Hobbits or not, they certainly had far more time dedicated to…well, everything and everyone.

The change that bothered me the most—even more than the exclusion of Beorn—was the body count Gandalf reports to Bilbo after the Battle of the Five Armies. Instead of three sad, dead dwarves, we have seven. The group was called the company of Thorin and his quest lead him to become King under the mountain, so his death, right upon reaching his apex, seems tragic. Kili and Fili are the two youngest dwarves, so their deaths show how war and death can take people too soon. More than doubling that body count, off-screen, lessens the impact of those deaths.

Still, Rankin and Bass deserve credit for this first adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Certainly fan art existed, but they really had the duty and privilege of taking the first crack at all these races. Bilbo looks great. And unlike a dwarf, or elf, or goblin, a hobbit is unique to Middle Earth and thus had no mold. Certain establishing shots made it feel like a camera was capturing the action, instead of just seeing drawn recap. Bilbo’s story is a good one, so even a hurried, fluffier version is enjoyable. Gollum’s menace and how distracted Bilbo would have been by Gollum was captured wonderfully. Also, this had talking birds, which I am glad they kept in. Lastly, they show living things dying, which has an important message for children, and created tension in the story.

Yeah, but…The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Jumping right into it! There is lots and lots more from the book. For someone who loved the book it was great to get almost the full Beorn scene. Getting more of Mirkwood makes the mishaps of Thorin’s Company all the more meaningful and effective. Getting more Lake Town shows a clearer culture. Even more of Dol Guldur means we get to see Gandalf’s encounter with Thrain although it comes chronologically differently from the book. Thrain–Antony Sher–is great. Especially when he delivers a warning against the Dwarves reentering Erebor.  As with An Unexpected Journey, the effect of the extended edition is a universal improvement. Especially before they get to Lake Town, once there the quality plateaus at the theatrical release level (****). Still, Desolation was a better movie than Unexpected Journey and their extended editions hold true to this trend. One benefit to having a smaller screen is that any CGI that was less than 100% convincing looks flawless now. The stunning views look less impressive, but as an equalizer I like it. What a visually arresting film.

Thrain in Dol Guldur, 2013 WB, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

****½

It might be cheating to reference the special features, but they do a great job of making me realize just how much of the film my brain accepted as real. Even in shots where I identify things as impossible, there are artificial elements which fell into the “actually there” column in my brain. The same is true for scenes shot months apart and hundreds of miles distant.

While I touched on this in my original review, the special features explained why Peter Jackson strives for such ugliness in his villains. Well it does not address the problem, but based on what he says and his goals, I can deduce what was going on. Firstly, Peter Jackson likes “cool” things. This mindset comes from his favorite childhood memories and his desire to share those feelings with the world, especially with children. By itself that is a noble sentiment. Secondly, as a child he liked movies with dynamic camera movement and special effects. Those things seemed cool. Thus making movies seems cool so he makes movies and in making them he tries to include the aspects he liked. Thirdly, he started by making horror movies. In traditional cheap horror flicks it is cool to gross out the audience. Ugliness is one way that he can create that gross out. Fourth, he is a short Hobbit-ish man who acknowledges the beauty in elf types. Thus in The Hobbit Thorin Oakenshield and Kili look the least Dwarven. What this leaves us with is a world where the attractive people are all good and the grossest people are all bad. In his defense, not all good people are attractive—and not in the subversive way that a movie uses a less attractive friend merely to highlight how hot the lead is—so I do not think the dichotomy exists in Jackson’s mind. His goals and his method of “more is funnier/grosser” produce a world with the negative message that beautiful people are inherently superior, and that the ugly and deformed are inferior and evil. So I understand how he can create a Middle Earth where this negative message pervades, without meaning or knowing that it exists.

Yeah, but what about Bombur and Radgast!  They are unattractive and even a bit gross. Bombur has that monk’s balk spot and is super fat. He is always eating. But he is a good guy. And Radagast is one of the three (five whatever) wizards! But his face has caked on bird poop. And not just a little bit either. To that I say, but where is the handsome villain? Thranduil–Lee Pace–is quite handsome and he imprisons the dwarves, which is a bit villainous. But he is no spider or orc. No there may be progress in the unattractive heroes, but without a dashing Alan Rickman type, or Charlize Theron, the message still stinks.

 

 

Yeah, but…The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Extended Edition)

I gave the theatrical version an above average grade of ***½. Now I tackle the extended edition. As for the original trilogy¹, Fellowship went from an amazing movie a full 5 stars; Two Towers went from crappy and arbitrary to quite good; and Return of the King held steady with some improvements and some worse dialog. Without further ado…

Hobbiton gets a little more time and that is a true delight. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) spends so much time defying the stereotypes of Hobbits that it is pleasant to see him indulging in his natural ways, at least for a little bit longer. The pre-cap of events leading to Smaug’s conquest of the Dwarf mountain kingdom of Erebor adds little bits that add depth to the characters. A mere 15 second extension showing King Thranduil being taunted with diamonds by King Thror helps explain how they went from allies to ones who might not aid each other in dragon attack. I am really trying not to go full-blown dork here, but that might be a futile endeavor.

From a visual standpoint the image quality on my tv is vastly inferior to the big screen experiences, regardless of the frame rate and number of dimensions. The audio may not surround me, but I do appreciate having control over its volume. Aurally the biggest disappointment for me was the limited number of songs—which comes crashing down on me whenever I hear “Misty Mountains Cold”. It might sound melodramatic, but part of me hurts inside when I do not get more of them. So when Bofur hopped up on a table in Rivendell I loved it. The song, The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late, was written by Bilbo Baggins, and premiered in “The Lord of the Rings”, but conceivably he could have taught it to Thorin’s Company before arriving in Rivendell. The full version of “Down in Goblin Town” is in this version too!

Something that has bothered me forever is how Stone Giants seem unreasonably overpowered in Middle Earth. They are definitely the “eh, kids will like this stuff and it’s not like there will be many more books so who cares about potential continuity issues” factor in The Hobbit. I have thought about this phenomenon in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but that is a post for another time and perhaps on another blog.

Freeman, Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher and Graham McTavish as Bilbo, Bofur, Bombur, Bifur and Dwalin, in Rivendell in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 2012.

Bofur is my favorite dwarf. James Nesbitt plays him with wit and feeling. If it were not for John Rhys-Davies and his defining performance as Gimli, he might be my favorite dwarf ever.² The whole Company of Thorin is great, and quite the mishmash of actors, but I am most grateful for Nesbitt’s Bofur. His character also comes with the mining ax in Lego: The Hobbit, so that helped me figure out which one was Bofur.

In conclusion, compared to the theatrical release the added material helps tie the story together better while providing more wonderful songs. I am upgrading the film to ****. As with Fellowship and Two Towers I will only watch the extended edition of this film henceforth.

 

¹ I own three copies of the Star Wars trilogy, so I can refer to LOTR as the trilogy without blaspheming, nerds, or my name is not Dash Thrawn.
² Except for my late pet rabbit Vivace, who was a Netherlander Dwarf.

Ten Great Scores: Part 2

For soundtracks 10-6, click here. While there were some polarizing choices therein, these ones are universally loved by all (of me).

5. Vertigo — Bernard Hermann had several candidates for this list but I could not leave this one off. Here is the opening theme. The violins catch me every time, in a way that none of 10-6 could. The music is so good it makes me wonder if people think this is a better film than Rear Window merely because of the power of its music. In my review I compared this to Requiem For a Dream, which somehow did not make my top 10—it was #11.

4. Blade Runner – One benefit from living in 2015 is that all of these scores are available online. What brings this to mind is that fact that the primary composer, Vangelis, refused to license the soundtrack for 12 years! Even then it was incomplete. Unlike Vertigo, Blade Runner could stand on its own with an average James Horner score. But when you take this score and and Ridley Scott’s visuals you have one of the greatest films of all-time.

3. For a Few Dollars More – Everyone knows the third movie in the Man with No Name trilogy, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Well this is part two and it has the best of the music. It is the The Empire Strikes Back of scores. I like the twangy-ness of the Jew’s harp.

2. The Lord of the Rings – If Howard Shore never made another score his life would still be a stunning success. When I heard he was doing the score I was concerned. I had no idea who he was, but in my defense I was 19 and had not seen Philadelphia or Se7en yet.  My favorite theme within the series is probably the Fellowship theme. It sounds like optimism, camaraderie, and heroism. But I can understand someone picking any one besides Arwen’s.

1. Star Wars – It is the Star Wars Trilogy of scores. Everything wonderful I say about Lord of the Rings, I will say about Star Wars, but with a bonus. Maybe it is simply that those movies and this music have been with me for longer. Maybe it feels appropriate to have the greatest film composer, John Williams, with the best score of all-time. Maybe it is the opening overture. Maybe it is the Imperial March. Pick a reason, for me the conclusion is the same.

With only one appearance on the list does John Williams’ #1 outshine Ennio Morricone’s 2 movies? Maybe some day I can scientifically determine who are the greatest film composers of all-time.

Best Trilogies, or Film Series, of All-time

I decided that film series do not need to be taken as a whole. For instance, I only looked at Police Academies 1, 2 and 4. That is a lie, despite my young love of Mahoney, Jones and Hightower, those movies do not hold up, so I did not consider them. I did consider the Naked Gun movies, but the original is the only classic among them. Thus, literally every single movie that I put on my list is at least a good movie as part of a great trilogy, and yes that includes The Godfather Part III.

In my selection process I tried to be as expansive as possible, including thematic trilogies as well as numerical ones. Movies that exist in the same universe counted. Not even all of the trilogies had the same directors or actors. Yet the films had to be taken together. Did the third/final chapter wrap things up? Was it something that could be watched on loop? Did it have a lasting impact on cinema? Weighty questions, to be sure, now, here are my ten:

10. The Jackass Trilogy (Jackass the Movie, Jackass 2, Jackass 3-D). I hesitated to do my list in reverse order because the Jackass movies are incredibly polarizing. They are not traditional fictional films. But neither are they traditional documentaries either. They are a series of stunts, pranks, and skits. They are bound together and packaged for as many laughs and shudders as possible. Based on a tv show, the first movie tried to rekindle the magic of a league of less than professional daredevils looking to put 90 minutes of material together. By the third movie, these haggard men were no longer as young, spry or dumb as they once were. It is with a sense of reunion and nostalgia that they team up for one last go at that magic. They know that this is probably their last public appearances that will not be both pathetic and depressing. They make the most of their team and show how far they have come. And there are a lot of penis gags.

9. The moody films of Wong Kar Wai (Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In The Mood For Love, 2046). For those of you familiar with his films, it is easy to look at Chungking Express and Fallen Angels as a pair and In The Mood For Love and its “sequel” 2046 as one as well, but I think that they all fit together under the umbrella of his films ruminating on people “in the mood for love.” When I say “mood,” I mean the situations tend to interfere with anything more than that mood. I find that to be an interesting distinction that he has drawn from general romance films.

8. The original James Bond trilogy (Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger). These three movies are: the first three of the entire set, the best starting three, and the best three in a row. These films birthed an extremely successful, long running franchise that has alternately led the way for or reflected contemporary cinema. Sean Connery’s James Bond made spies cool. He helped make gadgets cool, so who knows what Jason Bourne and Batman would look like in a world without James Bond.

7. Chan-wook Park’s Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance). Oldboy was the first Korean film I ever saw. I listed it as the best film of 2003, yet I have seen X2 and Return of the King many more times than Oldboy. So Oldboy made me want to see the rest of the trilogy, but it took me six years to watch the other two. That is because these are challenging, disturbing films that generally have a powerful warning—be careful seeking vengeance. If you think that you have nothing left to lose, or that you are back in control of your life, be grateful and take what you can get. If you want to see people try to get the perfect revenge, these realistic “horror” movies are must views. It is worth noting that these films have different ground rules, which differentiate these from most trilogies.

6. The Man With No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly). These are the seminal spaghetti westerns. They featured the talents of Sergio Leone’s direction, Clint Eastwood and Gian Maria Volonté’s acting, and Ennio Morricone’s music. My favorite of these is For a Few Dollars More. Most people seem to like The Good etc… most and I can see why. It has a grandeur that the others lack as well as the dynamic addition of Eli Wallach as the Ugly. And I cannot think of three better film endings than these showdowns. Each one raising the stakes and the tension from the previous.

5. The Godfather Trilogy (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III). Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are great actors and their best performances are in these films. Everyone accepts the first two, but likes to trash on the third. Maybe it has Andy Garcia’s best performance, I do not remember. As a positive, you can learn what happened to the Corleone family after Part II, about how the family adapted over time. People are watching Dallas now because they are curious what happened after that soap opera. Francis Ford Coppola made two of the best operatic dramas ever, so finding out what happens is a bonus, despite its alleged failure to live up to the name Godfather.

4. Dark Knight Trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises). I think that this version of Batman has received such a positive reaction for the same reason this works as a trilogy—Christopher Nolan’s singular vision. None of the characters are original, but he certainly makes them all his. By having that vision and those takes on characters the last chapter tied it all up and added greater meaning to the earlier films, as well as the trilogy as a whole. Of the already mentioned series, only Lady Vengeance, and to a lesser extent Jackass 3-D, can make the same claim.

3. Bourne (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy). The best way to discuss the Bourne Saga—in one sentence—is by starting with the development to its booming crescendo and then addressing its downfall. Identity broke the mold allowing the even greater Supremacy to pave the way for the high stakes Ultimatum, before the okay Legacy kind of undermined the importance and permanence of the trilogy. This series has had  Doug Liman direct Identity, Paul Greengrass direct the Supremacy and Ultimatum, and Tony Gilroy direct Legacy. The key to their continuity was Gilroy, but Greengrass took Identity, a film that changed action/spy movies, and forced audiences to deal with a more uncomfortable action. It was not until Casino Royale and Dark Knight that audiences caught up to his documentary style of “shaky cam.” The last thing that helped distinguish these films were the scores, combining traditional orchestral music with electronica, for which John Powell deserves credit.

2. The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King). I could watch this trilogy probably six times a year. And when I say this trilogy, I mean The Lord of the Rings in its full extended edition format. I love the style, the music, the costumes, the quests, the characters, the dialogue, the actors, the fights and the melancholy.  I could write a post as long as this one with all the problems in the series—particularly with the theatrical release of The Two Towers—but this is the second best film trilogy of all-time and that is because there is so much to analyze, to critique. I find it interesting that like The Dark Knight Trilogy, one man, Peter Jackson, directed them all, but unlike it, two women wrote the screenplays. So there was a unity in each department, but not of one vision. Interesting particularly in light of the best trilogy of all-time…

1. The Original Star Wars Trilogy (Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi). This trilogy had three different directors, with George Lucas only directing Star Wars. Yet it was his vision that permeates this unlikely best trilogy. It might seem obvious now, but look at all the trouble he had in 1977 with a cast of one known—Alec Guinness, who asked for Lucas to kill off his character—no special effects help, three different directors, changing villains, and a love of little people dressed up in fuzzy costumes. I would like to add that my favorite version of this trilogy was my THX remastered VHS set. So in spite of Lucas’s insistence on futzing and messing with this saga, it endures with both its original trilogy and its lasting impact. Cue the John Williams score!