Everybody Loved Them; I Cringed

I think Tolkien was accused of that, Nimh, partly because of the idea of different races, some of the evil, inherent in the book, and also that the Nazis of Germany apparently believed literally in some of the Scandinavian mythology from which Tolkien read and on which he may have loosely based his work. (His fellow lecturer at Oxford, C.S. Lewis, was also very interested in those mythologies.)

Anyway, I found this quote, purportedly from Tolkien, which seems to answer those accusations:

Many have said that LOTR is a parable of World War II and Sauron was Hitler. Not so says Tolkien although the thematic material of The Shire was derived from his living in the country and watching industry incur on the landscape (The Scouring of the Shire). Wagner also derived his operas from some of the same mythology and perhaps the connection of Hitler enjoying Wagner rather blurred impressions of Tolkien's books and his personal politics.

I think that people have missed the point with Tolkien and his mythical world. It is replete with references to Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology and literature. He was an Anglo-Saxon scholar, and lead a largely sheltered life, until he went off to the Great War. Of his university class, he was one of only four members who survived that war. He wrote the Hobbit not long thereafter, and began the private notes which eventually lead to the creation of "middle earth." The ring triology grew out of stories he wrote for his son when that son was recovering from wounds in hospital in the second world war. I think that it might be appropriate to see the ring series as metaphor for the First World War. His last preface to an edition of the series, in which he denies the Hitler analogy, in no way contravenes such a supposition on my part. That he would deny the WWII analogy without mentioning the very painful, the personally devastating experience of WWI seems quite natural to me.

Ah, Bruce Willis -- good in "Die Hard" which was milked by two subsequent inferior sequels. I liked his performance as the boxer in "Pulp Fiction" and his rather campy outing in "The Fifth Element" but in "The Sixth Sense" was maudlin and unappealing. The performance in "Unbreakable," his performance was simply fractured (sic).

Since he is right wing politically and was also involved in the Planet Hollywood debacle, can it be far off that he runs for an office? He's now a little long in the tooth for action flicks and not many are accepting him as a serious actor.

Just a little note: I usually like to comment on the responses to threads that I start. This thread developed a life of its own and left me in its wake. Sorry I haven't been more responsive.

I tried to get it back on track with the IMDb ten best viewer poll. I guess it's now the upcoming anticipation of the last LOTR film sparking the commentary. I agree with Setanta that the horrors of WWI would have naturally found their way into the narrative of LOTR. Tolkien desired, and expressed this to C. S. Lewis, to create a mythology more unique to Britain as it lacked a cohesive and comprehensive mythology of its own.

It was my desire to point out the the few who have taken some pretty wicked pot shots at LOTR do take it too literally and wouldn't know well thought out, imaginative fantasy if it smacked them in the face. The fantasy deficiency syndrome? FDS

Chocolat. I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes of this one. Way too chick flick for me.

Depends on your definition of a "chick flick." When the Johnny Depp character shows up, the film takes off and Alfred Molina's delicious villain who succumbs to the wiles of chocolate is really priceless. I think the movie rose above the label.

Direct us back to the main discussion, Roberta! On the other hand, I was always told (when I gave one of my first adult parties and was ignored by everyone because they were having such a good time with each other) that the mark of a great hostess is that the party is so good everyone forgets where they area!!

chjsa got us back on topic and looking back through the interactions, it hasn't veered all that far -- just some debate about some of the films. Now if we were off into the party arguing about who makes the best chocolate martini, that would be heading towards left field. Especially if one has had three or four.

I wasn't suggesting that you were off topic. I'm usually a bit more present in threads that I start. I'm not knowledgeable enough to respond to many of the comments here. And there are far more posts than I anticipated. C'est tout.

Contrary to a lot of my friends, I am not a fan of the film: Bridget Jones' Diary. Didn't really see the charm of it to be honest, lots of smutty cheese if you ask me and rumours of a sequel don't exactly thrilll me either. I think I might have a general aversion to chick-flicks anyway...generally minimal plot and predictable endings.

I just rented "28 Days Later" based on the rave reviews I'd read.

Yeah, okay, alright, it WAS different from the typically zombie flick but really, rave reviews?

Did I miss something?

Yesterday I rented a bunch of movies at Blockbuster including one which I normally wouldn't pick up called "Punch Drunk Love." Why did I pick it? Because somewhere in the back of the old brain was a memory of a good review, or something someone said...

DVD's are fairly new in this household -- new DVD player is a couple of months old. I like DVD's, but I still handle them like fragile glass. At lunchtime I thought I'd watch maybe 15 minutes of Punch Drunk Love and started it. Flashy opening saying that it had won the Mise En Scene award at Cannes. Maybe that's what I'd remembered. Then began the damnedest collage of scenes, quite fascinating. No titles came up, no sound, just bits and pieces of scenes. I love avant garde movies and stuck with it for maybe half an hour. Then, and only then did I notice that the counter on the DVD player was all over the place. Damn -- was this new machine going bad just as I was getting into this weird film? A suspicion dawned. I stuck in another DVD and vaguely remembered someone telling me the DVD's can go bad. The player was fine. The problem was in the DVD and in my dumb, credulous brain! And all that time I thought I was being treated to a fascinating, no-sound-track, avant garde film!!

Did anyone mention Crouching Tiger Hidden dragon?
I thought that this was an overhyped bit of film that abused special effects and had about as dumba story as anything produced by the godzilla Gang

I agree with sailing over to see anything with Steve Buscemi. I would like to add another must see guy Dennis Farina. He , to me, was the best in Get SHorty

I thought of mentioning it, but the only thing I liked about it was the "dancing." Otherwise it was both dumb and violent.

It was too violent. I quit watching so I don't know precisely how dumb Tiger/Dragon was. I remember the costumes were interesting.

I just couldn't buy all of that airborne twirling around fighting in the trees stuff. I knew the movie was supposed to be fantasy but it was asking too much of me with all of that.
Loved Get Shorty. It was a toss-up for me between Dennis Farina and Gene Hackman, who's my personal choice to watch in any movie he may be in. You can count on Mr. Hackman to turn in an A-1 performance. Everytime.

Another movie I never got was "Breakfast at Tiffany's". I adore Audrey Hepburn and have tried to watch this movie numerous times but it just doesn't hold me.

Me neither, Eoe.