It's ten years ago now that advertising for the new Lord of the Rings started. Fellowship of the Rings would be the first installment of the three-movie epic. I was dubious. I was skeptical. I wasn't going to go see the movie. How could any movie possibly live up to my expectations of one of my favorite books? I'd read it in junior high school. It was my first "grown up" book. It was the longest book I'd ever read, and I read it twice. Well, almost twice. When I hit the whining of Gollum in The Two Towers, again, I couldn't bear it. Nasty little creature. So, when I started seeing ads and specials, I noticed, but I was determined to not buy into the hype. I was sure they would jack up the title, stuff a new story under it, and call it good.
The movie opened in December 2001, months after 9/11. My sister had also read the books and wanted to see the movie. I agreed to go, when she offered to pay my way. Free movie. No problem. I'd suffer through it.
Surprise!
Ten years later, and life is nothing like it was before the LOTR trilogy, and nothing like I'd imagine it might be. It shook my carefully crafted reality, and dragged me out of my complacency. My world exploded with sights and sounds and experiences and emotions I never dreamed existed. I'm so grateful Tolkien shared his world that everlastingly changed mine for the better.
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Laundry is done. Yay! Enjoyed some reading. Everything else went to the wayside. Life happened. I visited with a friend. It was lovely. ...
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~ Sweet spirited souls who lighten my world simply by being in it. ~ Another editing job done. ~ Cooling weather. ~ Successfully takin...
I missed most of the hype because I was overseas. One tiny bit of information made its way to me somehow early in 2001 that gave me a clue there were to be live-action films, but I couldn't take that information far due to lack of internet and news where we were. I remember thinking, how on earth are they going to do the hobbits?
ReplyDeleteWe returned to the States that July, but I still wasn't paying that much attention -- until we were traveling and happened to stay in a guest house with some friends of ours who happened to know that they were showing a TV special about the making of the film one of the evenings we were there. We flipped the TV on, watched the episode, and I was immediately convinced that this could be a Good Thing.
I think if I'd been given the time and opportunity to be in on the hype from the beginning, I would have also been one of the skeptical ones. Maybe, maybe not. I'm just glad it worked out the way it did! Now, it's fun to be in on the beginning of the hype for the Hobbit; gives me a chance to experience the long run to the movie that I didn't get with FotR. ;-)
LOL! I'm so glad you found it! Not to mention were able to become involved with it, so we met, online. And one of these days we will meet in person. :-)
ReplyDeleteAgree, I just "knew" that they would totally mess "my" books up ... right up until they showed Hobbiton and I saw Gandalf ... at that point I began to hope!!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to the movies, I know have friends from all over that I would never have had the chance to meet. Some I have yet to meet in person, but some I have been blessed to spend time with ... including you!!!
~Sharon
The Shire took my breath away, but I wasn't sure it would be fine until I saw what they did with the water flooding the ford, and then I knew!
ReplyDelete((Sharon))