Tag: Peter Jackson

Movies vs Books

Why am I in such a Tolkien phase right now? It’s probably due to the second season of Rings of Power, but I read The Silmarillion and I am rereading Lord of the Rings and I am watching Rings of Power and I am (finally) watching the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. I’m about 15 minutes away from finishing the second movie. It is requiring more suspending of disbelief than I am really willing to give. I’m in a weirdly completist mode now and have to get through all three movies (even though it is laughable that Jackson took a 400 page book and adapted it into a nine hour movie).

What’s the point of this post though? The point of this post is a spoiler free comment on Rings of Power season two episode four. I saw the first two Lord of the Rings movies before I read the books. When I was done with everything I was able to look back and consider if the books were better or worse than the movies. I think they are pretty even. There are a couple of things about the movies that I prefer to the books though. First, there is a whole lot less singing in the movies. In Fellowship, especially, people are singing all over the place and it just gets tedious.

The other thing that I like better about the movies eventually became my absolute favorite thing about the movies. Literally the thing I like best. Simply, they left Tom Bombadil out. I mean… The Hobbit was a kids book. Lord of the Rings was not. Somehow it seems that Tolkien must have tried to make Fellowship a little more kid-friendly by throwing this insufferably boring, painful character named Tom Bombadil into the story. In my current re-read of the books I am in the middle of the Tom Bombadil arc right now and I cannot get out of it fast enough. It’s just awful. Jackson left him out of the movies and it makes me love the movies that much more.

I just finished this week’s new episode of Rings of Power. Season two, episode four. Without giving out any spoilers, mostly because the news has been out since we saw a trailer months ago, Tom Bombadil is in the episode.

Why? Why, Amazon Prime Video? Why are you torturing me like this? I will say that he’s nowhere near as awful in the episode as he was in the books, but all the same… why would you do this to me?

Get Back

I’ve seen The Beatles Let it Be movie. I’ve listened to the Twickenham bootleg. I’ve listened to the 30 Days bootleg. There is nothing in the new documentary that is a surprise to me.

Having said that, the new Get Back documentary is utterly riveting. We watched the second episode today and oh my god it was fascinating. I could not stop myself from smiling all the way through.

It demonstrates that when you carve away the fame and the fandom and the hype, they were just a band. Just like every basement or bar band. They had all of the same conflicts and problems that literally all of us have had. Seeing that on the screen was absolutely amazing.

No spoilers, of course, but the conversation between John and Paul in the Twickenham cafeteria when they didn’t know they were being recorded was just incredible. I mean, I have had that conversation with band mates before!!! Granted for me the stakes were reduced by about 99.99999999%, but I seriously have been there myself.

Outside of all of the political stuff, the second episode also demonstrates that they were just a killer live band. In the first episode they are aimless and distracted and playing pretty poorly. In the second episode they have a direction and a purpose and they are firing on all cylinders and they are starting to sound great.

The running time for the first two episodes is about 5.5 hours combined. Episode three is out tomorrow and I can’t wait to watch it.

The Next Day

Hey Rob and Jen, what are you having for lunch on this festive day after Thanksgiving?

Left overs, babie. Left overs.

Also, episode two of the new Beatles documentary. I find watching the Get Back rehearsal footage amazing, purely from a gear perspective. George playing Lucy the Les Paul. John playing the Epiphone Casino. Both of them playing through silver face Twins. Then there’s Paul playing that shitty Hofner through that frigging amazing Bassman stack. Drooool, babie. Drool.