Thread: Dumbing it down
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Old 02-14-2005, 10:17 PM   #113
Mister Underhill
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Just a quick note on something I've observed all over the Movies forum -- the idea that LotR needs to be "made accessible" to find an audience. Don't 100 million-plus copies and fifty years of enduring popularity prove that LotR is accessible, even without Dwarf-tossing jokes and an ignoble Faramir? I like a mentality that buys a book because of its success and popularity, then decides that it won't be accessible unless lots of changes are made.

There is a certain patronizing attitude in the assumption that modern audiences won't get it or will grow bored without an action sequence every five pages and a few belches here and there to funny it up. Yet I don't get the sense that PJ is often intentionally patronizing; rather, I think some of the changes made by him and his partners reflect their limitations as filmmakers.
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