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Old 08-10-2012, 10:54 PM   #280
Draugohtar
Pile O'Bones
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 23
Draugohtar has just left Hobbiton.
As my first post, I wanted to comment on the BBC Radio Adaptation.

My Grandmother bought me the boxed set of audio cassettes back in the late 80s (I had already read the hobbit and the 3 books of the trilogy.)

I instantly found that the characterisations and voices were absolutely as I have imagined them prior, it was (and remains) uncanny.

The music is splendid, obviously Bill Nighy's lay of Gil-Galad is remarkable, however for me the musical interpretation of the battle for the Pelennor fields and Theoden's last ride to battle was, and is an utter highlight for me.

You always feel that everyone involved with the production 'gets' Tolkien and his masterwork. It's so thrilling to be part of as the listener.

Whilst it's all too easy to berate PJ, the way this audio adaptation embraced the poetic and implied musical content of the Lord of the Rings books truly demonstrates the blandness and mundanity of the movie work.

I wish to say that I actually enjoy the PJ Lord of the Rings films, but on their own terms, not as adaptations.

--

I read earlier in the thread, from years past, comments regarding the 'realism' that PJ had gone for in comparison to what is possible in an audio adaptation.

I actually feel that Tolkien created a totally coherent, 'real' world in which characters such as Tom Bombadil and an ancient but happy, friendly Elrond can exist. (I enjoyed the Tales from the Perilous realms adaptation of the stay with Tom Bombadil.)

I think the BBC Audio adaptation truly expresses this.

Rather than being limited by an acted realisation of the books, this adaptation shows that it can compliment and add without redaction.

No adaptation with any ambition to show rather than tell the story can convey every word of Tolkien's genius, but then neither can the book sing to us.

The BBC Radio adaptation only loses what it must and gives everything it can. If only PJ could have done the same in 'celluloid.'

I await Hobbit Hyenas with fear, but always have this splendid work to reassure me and fall back upon when in need!

P.S. Robert Stephens is Aragorn to me, and always shall be. I actually think Viggo Mortensen could have been a great Aragorn and is still very good in spite of the strange, and entirely optional changes made to him in that adaptation.

'All that is gold does not glitter ...' rings totally true of Robert Stephens and is wonderful interpretation.

Apologies if I rambled or went off topic at all in my first post!
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