What did the movies do for you?

[Ellewen]

Corny as this may sound it changed my life... It got me interested in fantasy, it got me into archery where I have met the best friends I could ever ask for. They also got me started on my own "carreer" as an author. It has done more for me than I can put into words, that is all I can really say.

[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

For me, the movies were a completely new experience. I was nearly 14 when the first movie came out, and while I was an avid fantasy reader, LOTR was my first brush with this type of movie (and the only fantasy movie since that I have enjoyed).

I'd already read the books, so it was great to see them put onscreen. I did have a few problems here and there, but over all, I came away pleased from every single one.

There was something more important...At one point, I remember walking up the stairs at school, and just thinking about the movies when it hit me. I remember it so vividly because it was so important. I realized, That's what I want to do! . I wanted to be an actress. Not for fame or anything like that, but because I wanted to make people feel what I felt watching the movie. I'd known that I loved to act, but the realization that it was what I wanted to do with my life is something I attribute strongly to the LOTR movies. I'm 18 now, and still chasing that dream as I head towards college next year.

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

As far as what they did for me on an emotional level, Sam's "There's some good in this world" line totally inspired me. I'm not a person who cries, at movies or at most anything else, but I wanted to cry in ROTK when Aragorn and the Gondorians bow to the hobbits and Howard Shore has the Shire theme going. It was beautiful. For all the complaints we have about the dumb jokes and inappropriate humor in the movies, in the end I think watching them is an emotional experience. It's majestic, it's glorious, it's wrenching, it's epic. It doesn't touch the book, but it's still an unbelievable accomplishment.

That pretty much summed up what I felt, watching the movies (though I do tend to cry more frequently). It really is an achievement. Going into the theater for the first time, I had never felt the kind of sheer power that these movies have. Since then, I have seen precious few movies that have that special something. There is so much power and beauty and emotional truth in these movies that I think some people overlook because they focus on all the little things that might not be so perfect. I'm just incredibly happy with what we got: a truth to the spirit, if not to the letter, of the books.

[Nogrod]

As I have been aquinted with LotR something like 25 years, I surely had quite clear views & opinions about the whole stuff. So I was watching the films more from the perspective of "how have they seen it" or "what kind of choises have they made".

Even though I admit liking the films, I must regret, that for me, they were mainly visualizations of the story. Kind of illustrating certain parts of the whole, with some quite unhappy alterations and only a couple of good ones. As the whole LotR is so impossible to turn into a movie, I would have hoped for a little more daring or artistically more ambitious rendering of the story to a pic. But that would not have selled as well, and would not have been financed at all to begin with...

But what a visualization it was!!! I do think that PJ is right in saying, that New Zealand really is Middle Earth! And that truly has affected me, kind of taken over my mind and the visual imagination of the ME. Of course one can pick up particular cases of protest, and some casting, including a couple of very central roles, can be criticized. But really: my understanding about how the ME looks like and how it feels, has been heavily influenced by the films.

[Glirdan]

Ahh, the movies. I was first introduced to Tolkien through the books, so, you might say that it did quite a lot for me.

I was about ( I think) twelve years old, my great grandmother passed away and my aunt, uncle and cousins were up for the wake from Toronto. I don't remember why or how they were doing it, but, when we went to visit them at their hotel when they first arrived, my cousins were watching FotR and it was close to the end (when Frodo had the flash-back of the conversation with Gandalf in Moria) and I was suddenly deeply immersed in the moive. I watched with fascination at all that unfolded (even though it wasn't a lot) and I loved it. So, I have the movies to thank for my obsession of LotR and Tolkien.

As for the movies themselves, considering I watched LotR and TTT first, it didn't really do anything for me. After I read the books, however, it really made me think about everything that was added and taken out and what they changed. The Elves at Helm's Deep for instance. I must say that it was a good battle scene, but after I read the books, I was all "That didn't happen!! What the heck did they do that for!?"

So, I guess for the first two, you could say that it was purely for entertainment, until I read the books which was shortly before RotK came out. After I read RotK, I really wanted to watch the movie to see the difference. So, I guess the last movie was purely to see the content and difference of betweent the book and the movie.

Wow, I never knew that my interest started that bizzarely!! Oh well. Anyway, I guess you could say that the movies did a variety of things for me.