<BR><br><br> Sorry if I misread you somehow, Gwaihir. I happen to agree that a flood of new members with nothing more thoughtful to post than, "The movie sucked!" or, "The movie rocked!" will do nothing to enhance the Downs. I was startled by your characterization of LotR as "impoverished" next to the rest of Tolkien's writing, and your implication that fans (whether movie fans or book fans) who aren't intimately familiar with the finer points of Middle-earth's geography and history are somehow only getting a pale shadow of the real experience. <br> <br> I disagree with the flat statement that people who see the movies won't read the books. Even bad movies will spur people to read the books. Bad movies might even spur <i> more</i> people to read the books. The awful mini-series adaptation of <i> Dune</i> that was on TV recently spurred me to finally go read the book. As a kid, I saw <i> Star Wars</i> dozens of times -- and read the paperback adaptation until the covers were dog-eared and the five or six pages of movie stills in the middle fell out. Not that I care one way or the other whether people read the books or not, or whether they get the "wrong idea" about the books or not from seeing the movie. I'm not out to evangelize the world for Tolkien as some fans seem to be. I don't even really care whether anyone likes them or not -- all three are in the can, and they will be shown. All I care about is whether I enjoy them or not -- and I tell you, they're going to have to be pretty awful to disappoint me. <br> <br> Movies are not books. They just aren't. And these movies will not capture every detail and nuance of Tolkien's prose. But, if PJ and his crew are lucky, the movies will find their own rhythm and their own life, and will be true, if not in every small detail, then at least to the <i> spirit</i> of Tolkien's masterpiece. <br> <br> Why not think of the movies as an artist's (or, in the case of a movie, artists') conception of Tolkien? Why not go in hoping that they will have gotten much of it right, instead of ready to flinch at every omitted line of dialogue or compressed scene? And if you're really not interested in someone else's idea of Tolkien, then why go at all? <p></p>
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