A Critique of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

[Agenda]

I thought this was fricking hilarious, especially this part:

20. An Interesting Look.
Once Frodo recovers from the wound of the Morgul-knife, there's a scene where he lies in bed while Gandalf tells him of his escape from Isengard. At the very end of the scene, Gandalf leans over Frodo and tells him to rest. Intriguingly, Frodo turns away from Gandalf and looks directly into the camera, his eyes curiously tortured and beseeching. It's almost as if he's saying to the audience: "Please, please find a way to get me out of this ludicrous movie."

So true.

 

[Admiral2]

I thought this was fricking hilarious, especially this part:

20. An Interesting Look.
Once Frodo recovers from the wound of the Morgul-knife, there's a scene where he lies in bed while Gandalf tells him of his escape from Isengard. At the very end of the scene, Gandalf leans over Frodo and tells him to rest. Intriguingly, Frodo turns away from Gandalf and looks directly into the camera, his eyes curiously tortured and beseeching. It's almost as if he's saying to the audience: "Please, please find a way to get me out of this ludicrous movie."

So true.

I'll still take it over that over long, boring, Peter Jackson crapfest.

 

[InklingStar]

That is an Internet classic. It was one of the first things I found when I first went online back in the 90s.

 

[Disruptor]

John Hurt as Aragorn is one of the worst voice casting choices ever.

Rankin Bass's Return of the King is better...in terms of animation over Bakshi's roto-scoping acid trip...but RotK has all the singing, some okay but some so gratingly wistful you want to beat up the next folk singer you see...that is, more so than usual.

 

[cml898]

I'm a big fan of the Jackson trilogy, but seeing the Nostalgia Critic's comparative video made me want to see this as well and I wasn't disappointed. I think it was quite well done for it's time and it's a real shame he wasn't able to finish the story. I was pretty pleased with myself when I correctly guessed the composer was the same guy who did Star Trek IV, though it's not really much of an accomplishment since the piece of music in question is hard not to identify by the similarity.

 

[JaxsBrokenHeart]

Bakshi's movie is wacky enough, but I'm tempted to weep at John Boorman's LOTR from the early 70s script never being filmed. The whole story being edited down to one three hour film with loads of settings, plots, characters cut, a quickened pace, shortened distances; that would have been interesting enough, but its specific story changes that are most bizarrely fascinating.

Frodo sleeping with Galadriel, an Aragorn/Boromir kiss as brought about by 13 year old Arwen, a kabuki theatre style telling of Middle Earth's history in Rivendell, Gimli having ancient dwarf knowledge literally beaten out of him, Nazgul riding skinless horses, magic word battle between Gandalf/Saruman, and Aragorn healing Eowyn via essentially dry hump. All of that on top of Boorman possibly wanting children to play the hobbits.

Gritty fantasy of Exalibur applied to Tolkien from the man who made Zardoz. Would have been amazing to watch if nothing else.

 

[InklingStar]

Bakshi's movie is wacky enough, but I'm tempted to weep at John Boorman's LOTR from the early 70s script never being filmed. The whole story being edited down to one three hour film with loads of settings, plots, characters cut, a quickened pace, shortened distances; that would have been interesting enough, but its specific story changes that are most bizarrely fascinating.

Frodo sleeping with Galadriel, an Aragorn/Boromir kiss as brought about by 13 year old Arwen, a kabuki theatre style telling of Middle Earth's history in Rivendell, Gimli having ancient dwarf knowledge literally beaten out of him, Nazgul riding skinless horses, magic word battle between Gandalf/Saruman, and Aragorn healing Eowyn via essentially dry hump. All of that on top of Boorman possibly wanting children to play the hobbits.

Gritty fantasy of Exalibur applied to Tolkien from the man who made Zardoz. Would have been amazing to watch if nothing else.

That's... disturbing.

The Beatles' idea of a LotR movie might have been pretty wacky.

 

[Klaus]

I have a poster from the Bakshi version on the wall at my right elbow, but it's this one:

...there are many horrific things about it [Boromir's Viking horns, Treebeard the giant broccoli stalk, etc.] but Gollum was cool and it had its moments. As far as Bakshi, Wizards is a far superior fantasy film imho.

 

[Silvercrest]

Frodo sleeping with Galadriel, an Aragorn/Boromir kiss as brought about by 13 year old Arwen, a kabuki theatre style telling of Middle Earth's history in Rivendell, Gimli having ancient dwarf knowledge literally beaten out of him, Nazgul riding skinless horses, magic word battle between Gandalf/Saruman, and Aragorn healing Eowyn via essentially dry hump. All of that on top of Boorman possibly wanting children to play the hobbits.

Um.

No.

Just no.

Well, maybe the magic word battle and the skinless horses. Otherwise... no.


And I've loved that Tolkien Sarcasm review for years. What was Sam doing down by the stream in the middle of the night, anyway?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Peter Lorre was the definitive Gollum in the 1944 version of TLOTR.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUf8reRSImk[/yt]

 

[Tiberius]

That's hilarious!

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Frodo sleeping with Galadriel, an Aragorn/Boromir kiss as brought about by 13 year old Arwen, a kabuki theatre style telling of Middle Earth's history in Rivendell, Gimli having ancient dwarf knowledge literally beaten out of him, Nazgul riding skinless horses, magic word battle between Gandalf/Saruman, and Aragorn healing Eowyn via essentially dry hump. All of that on top of Boorman possibly wanting children to play the hobbits.

Gritty fantasy of Exalibur applied to Tolkien from the man who made Zardoz. Would have been amazing to watch if nothing else.

Sounds like a very bizarre fan fiction. And the kiss brought about by Arwen... did he make her a yaoi fangirl or something?

 

[JaxsBrokenHeart]

Frodo sleeping with Galadriel, an Aragorn/Boromir kiss as brought about by 13 year old Arwen, a kabuki theatre style telling of Middle Earth's history in Rivendell, Gimli having ancient dwarf knowledge literally beaten out of him, Nazgul riding skinless horses, magic word battle between Gandalf/Saruman, and Aragorn healing Eowyn via essentially dry hump. All of that on top of Boorman possibly wanting children to play the hobbits.

Gritty fantasy of Exalibur applied to Tolkien from the man who made Zardoz. Would have been amazing to watch if nothing else.

Sounds like a very bizarre fan fiction. And the kiss brought about by Arwen... did he make her a yaoi fangirl or something?

Even stranger than that actually. From a description of the script:

"One night Boromir asks Aragorn for the Sword-That-Was-Broken. Aragorn refuses, saying he cannot give it to any but the rightful King. So Boromir snatches one half of the sword and challenges Aragorn to fight. But then Arwen appears to them. They stop fighting and bow their swords to her. She declares that each shall bear one half of the sword.

Arwen then kisses each half of the sword, bloodying her lips. She kisses first Aragorn and then Boromir on the lips, leaving her blood thereon: "I bind you in brotherhood with my blood." Then the two men kiss the thighs of her dress, and then the two men kiss each other on the mouth. Arwen vanishes."

 

[Set Harth]

John Hurt as Aragorn is one of the best voice casting choices ever.

Fixed.

I'll still take it over that over long, boring, Peter Jackson crapfest.

It's truer to the books, with the exception of totally misunderstanding "fire out of Isengard", and is no more ludicrous than they are.

 

[cml898]

Thanks for bringing the 1944 version of LotR to my attention. Nice to see a version where they cut out all the extra baggins...er...baggage and tell the essentials of the story in less than ten minutes.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I'll still take it over that over long, boring, Peter Jackson crapfest.

It's truer to the books, with the exception of totally misunderstanding "fire out of Isengard", and is no more ludicrous than they are.

Debatable. And even if true, it matters little if small scenes are accurate to the book when there are wholesale changes and cuts to the rest. I like to think of "Bakshi's LOTR" as "LOTR greatest hits". Individual scenes are nice, but there just isn't any connecting plot worthy of the name. Unless you are well versed in LOTR, you simply have no idea what is going on. And of course the end speaks for itself.

So more accurate? Hah, Not really, when examining the overall film.

 

[Set Harth]

It does change Glorfindel to Legolas ( the only time I've ever seen Anthony Daniels play anything other than a gay robot ).
Glorfindel never gets any movie love.

I'm not saying it works as a standalone given that it's essentially unfinished, and doesn't continue the story after Helm's Deep. It was supposed to be released as "Part 1". It basically gets you to the same place you're at by the end of Jackson's second film, but with the Faramir material completely left out. It's not just a collection of scenes. It has a connecting plot, it's just that it doesn't finish it. Frodo never gets to Mount Doom, and unfortunately the ending voiceover makes it sound like the defeat of Isengard's army has rid Middle-earth of the forces of darkness. If a similar "Part 2" had ever been made, it would be fine.

It's generally more accurate to the books in the sense of not adding things like the cave troll fight, the warg attack in Rohan, Arwen at the ford, etc.

 

[Disruptor]

John Hurt as Aragorn is one of the WORST voice casting choices ever.

Fixed back.

Hurt is a fine actor, but I wonder if he has sounded like an old man his entire life.

 

[Set Harth]

Aragorn is 87 in LOTR.

 

[Silvercrest]

It does change Glorfindel to Legolas ( the only time I've ever seen Anthony Daniels play anything other than a gay robot ).
Glorfindel never gets any movie love.

I'm not saying it works as a standalone given that it's essentially unfinished, and doesn't continue the story after Helm's Deep. It was supposed to be released as "Part 1". It basically gets you to the same place you're at by the end of Jackson's second film, but with the Faramir material completely left out. It's not just a collection of scenes. It has a connecting plot, it's just that it doesn't finish it. Frodo never gets to Mount Doom, and unfortunately the ending voiceover makes it sound like the defeat of Isengard's army has rid Middle-earth of the forces of darkness. If a similar "Part 2" had ever been made, it would be fine.

It's generally more accurate to the books in the sense of not adding things like the cave troll fight, the warg attack in Rohan, Arwen at the ford, etc.

All true, but it also leaves out enough detail that the story gets pretty choppy in places. The aforementioned business with Sam in the middle of the night, for example. (Maybe he had a date with Rosie?) Not looking for the inscription on the Ring after throwing it in the fire. Explaining who Isildur is but not Elendil, so that Aragorn's claim of being Elendil's heir has no point. Ditto the lack of explanation about Aragorn carrying around a broken sword (which is suddenly whole again).

And this has no bearing on the plot, but Aragorn's description of Beren/Luthien is about the clumsiest I've ever heard.

Yeah, poor Glorfindel, cut from two different adaptations (and not even replaced by the same character!). But if you're going to tighten up the script, I guess that's a good way to do it.

That scene of the hobbits hiding under the tree root was almost identical between movies. Did Jackson intentionally copy it?

Aragorn is 87 in LOTR.

"I am older than I look.

"Now, as far as how old I sound, yeah, that's about right."