[Esco]

I'm not so sure most people got that "awed" feeling watching the LOTR. Dont get me wrong, I love it to death. But it seems everyone was expecting them to be good. I remember hearing about them before they were made and thinking that they would be awesome. And I wasnt let down! In fact, my expectations were exceeded.
But I can only guess at how awe-inspiring it must have been to have seen the death star for the first time on screen, or the size and scope of all that was happening. Now that stuff was revolutionary.
LOTR was more of a evolution of all the good that had come down the film pipeline, and made into a great collage.

[Just your average movie goer]

I see what you mean. But for me, I wasn't overly impressed by the books. I wasn't a fan. Because of Tolkien's habit of letting himself get carried away with 50 page histories of Bree, the ancestry of every character we come across, the long songs, Sam cooking, stewed rabbit, more singing, history lessons, etc.... when I was reading it, I could never remember the last time something interesting happened. Also, a lot of the names were off-putting. Frodo? What kind of name is that. Hobbits didn't sound like much either when I read the book. I didn't know why we weren't allowed to have a human as our point of reference.

So, when I saw the movie, I really honestly wasn't expecting much. So THAT'S why I was blown away. And I've never got more for my movie-going dollar than I did when I watched The Fellowship of the Ring. As far as how much you get out of a movie, there is nothing that rivals it. It makes the best use of three hours of screen time that I have ever seen.

[Vwing]

It's funny, I have no memory where I HADN'T seen Star Wars. I was born too late to watch them all in the theater, so I probably watched it on this video tape that we had (still have actually) of all the movies that we recorded from TV (except for the last 5 seconds and credits of Empire Strikes Back, which I actually got to see for the first time at the SE). My sister was a huge SW fan, and I must have picked up on it subliminally while she watched it, because I honestly can't remember when I first watched them. It's sad because I can't remember any of the original majesty of the films, I couldn't be surprised by Vader being Luke's father or Leia being his brother. It's like I've known these things since birth. The SE's were the first time I saw these movies in the theater, and I have to tell you, I got goosebumps (even with all the crap they added). When the Death Stars exploded and everyone cheered, it was really an amazing moment, it made me wish I was old enough to have seen these in the theaters when they first came out.

As for LOTR, I liked the books, but he sometimes just got too long-winded for me. In fact, this one quote from the book shows his style. "And he lived happily ever after, till the end of his days." If he lived happily after after, it's implied that it's till the end of his days, and it is not necessary to add that second part in. But that's his style. It's fancy writing, but it's repetitive, as much of the book was.

[Despondent]

"And he lived happily ever after, till the end of his days...

...as was the style of the time."

Yeah, the tolkien songs were certainly abundant in the books. Nice that they included one in ROTK, however.

As for seeing the films in the theatre/yearning,
I've been a big Beatles fan since 1976 and have similar feelings concerning missing the Beatlemania years.

[Just your average movie goer]

I remember a funny thing about the Beatles wanting to make The Lord of The Rings.... and John Lennon was going to play Gollum, if I remember correctly.

[Heccubus]

I see what you mean. But for me, I wasn't overly impressed by the books. I wasn't a fan. Because of Tolkien's habit of letting himself get carried away with 50 page histories of Bree, the ancestry of every character we come across, the long songs, Sam cooking, stewed rabbit, more singing, history lessons, etc.... when I was reading it, I could never remember the last time something interesting happened. Also, a lot of the names were off-putting. Frodo? What kind of name is that. Hobbits didn't sound like much either when I read the book. I didn't know why we weren't allowed to have a human as our point of reference.

So, when I saw the movie, I really honestly wasn't expecting much. So THAT'S why I was blown away. And I've never got more for my movie-going dollar than I did when I watched The Fellowship of the Ring. As far as how much you get out of a movie, there is nothing that rivals it. It makes the best use of three hours of screen time that I have ever seen.

Nice to see someone else who prefers movies to books.
I really cannot read the books all the way through. I've tried, but never have. They just seem to drone on and on endlessly about things that really don't help to push the story forward at all. I spent the good part of a year thinking I'd hate Fellowship, and then I finally saw it and just about died.

[Mike Mac from NYU]

From jyamg.

After watching it a few more times, I wanted to see what happened before and afterwards. So we rented Star Wars. Loved it.

And we rented Return of the Jedi. At the time, I loved it too

.


You heard straight from the horse's mouth. I feel vindicated.

[Mike Mac from NYU]

You guys have to realize that when Star Wars came out, it was a movie unlike any that had appeared on the screen in 1970s. So there was that "great event" nostalgia somehow involved.

As great a series as Lord of the Rings was, it really wasn't ground breaking in terms of movie making. {in terms of technology, production and content}

So I think nothing would ever replace the viewing of the first Star Wars movie.

On the subject of LOTR, I am not a HUGE LOTR of the rings fan like some of the people on this site.

Don't get me wrong, the books were classics and the movies were great {though admitedly i have not seen the last chapter}

LOTR never really grabbed me in novel form. I think the problem is that the charcaters have functions and purposes rather than emotions and personal conflicts. To me, LOTR was never about the characters and more about the story behind this quest to destroy this ring.

[Vwing]

From jyamg.

After watching it a few more times, I wanted to see what happened before and afterwards. So we rented Star Wars. Loved it.

And we rented Return of the Jedi. At the time, I loved it too

.


You heard straight from the horse's mouth. I feel vindicated.

We are NOT getting into this again. Everyone has established their points, even Civ said he loved it at first too.

Anyway, I also prefer the movies to the books, which I usually don't. Many of the flaws in the movies are also flaws in the book, and I felt that the story and the emotions were presented better in the movies. But I agree with Mike. The LOTR trilogy was a great job of storytelling, had great effects, etc. But it didn't revolutionize cinema as the Star Wars trilogy did, and it hasn't gotten into pop culture as much as Star Wars trilogy.

[Despondent]

I remember a funny thing about the Beatles wanting to make The Lord of The Rings.... and John Lennon was going to play Gollum, if I remember correctly.

that was covered BJ.

some sw/lotr backwash

I read that in The Love You Make, by Derek Brown I believe.

Nice trivia nugget, (with all respect,) JAMin' G.

[Helena]

The first time I saw a Star Wars film was while travelling by coach to Austria at the age of 15. Someone had brought along a tape of Return of the Jedi and they played it on the coach TV. I don't remember much about it, though, because I couldn't hear it properly and it was hard to concentrate.

I didn't see Star Wars until a couple of years later - I think I rented it from the video library at my sixth-form college. Of course, by that time I already knew exactly who everyone was and recognised most of the dialogue. I thought it was OK but nothing spectacular; it wasn't until later that I began to get more into Star Wars.

[civilian_number_two]

I was nine in 1977, and hadn't seen very many films in the theatre by that time. I was an avid comic book reader, mostly following the silver age marvel stuff and the chessiest cornball DC stuff I could get my hands on. I used to collect the Jimmy Olson and the (far superior, though corny as hell) Lois Lane stuff, as well as Flash and Shazam, of all things. For some reason I had no tolerance for cornball Batman syuff, so steered clear of all the stuff from a decade before; fortunately in the seventies Batman was on his own again and often quite serious.

I encountered STAR WARS first as a comic book series, although of course I knew it was out there. The toy revolution followed long after the films, so it wasn't like the kids at school were running around with the Kenner action figures and generating interest. The closest I came to a pop-culture awareness of the film was seeing C3P0 on the cover of TIME magazine and wishing I had the $2 or whatever it ws to grab a copy to read. No way; all of my money I spent on comic books.

By 1978 I had the screenplay, a year's worth of further adventures from Marvel (including one about a water world that would later figure prominently in the Holiday Special), and the novel. It was high time I saw the damned thing. I told my parents, and they they packed all the kids into the station wagon and we went to the drive-in, where it was playing in a double-bill with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (I shit you not). Of course in those days the drive-in didn't broadcast on AM radio, so you had to grab that little speaker and hook it on to your car window.

It was a gorgeous summer night and I watched the movies from the roof of the car with my younger brother an a friend from his school. They were equally enthralled by the back-up feature, but I had no interest in it. Even at that tender age I knew a lame ripoff when I saw one, and frankly I was also a little scandalized by how blatantly it ripped off the Bible. I knew lazy writing when I saw it, and there I was, looking at it.

It was just getting good and dark when STAR WARS hit the screen; BG had been washed out somewhat (even though it was the new release, they played it first, as a back-up to STAR WARS). The opening text crawl looked just like it had in the comic, and just like the Flash Gordon serials that had been rerunning on a local station in the wake of STAR WARS. I had seen THE LION MEN OF MONGO and was I think well into FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE. It had never occured to me that the opening text in the comic was an homage to Flash Gordon until I saw it on the screen. I was instantly enthralled.

EMPIRE I saw after school when a good friend's maiden aunt rushed us out from the three o'clock bell all the way from the the suburbs to the city. Those of you familiar with Vancouver may know that at that time the Stanley Theatre showed movies, and damn it was a classy joint. Much nicer now, of course, that it is back to being a venue for plays, but as a kid I was impressed by the great architecture and not yet sophisticated enough to know that a stage theatre just doesn't have the acoustics for film. The screen was so big that the movement of the snowspeeder gave a real sense of vertigo. I knew nothing going in, since I had doggedly avoided spoilers (in those days, this was pretty easy to do), and of course this is the formative filmgoing experience of my life. In the months that followed, I bought up all of the non-repetitive EMPIRE literatre I could, including a journalistic piece writen by some guy they invited to document the filming. I was still buying the comics of course, which had matured ever-so-slightly, and I saw the film in the theatre nine times in its initial run.

I've said enough of my opening-day JEDI experience: suffice to say I was pleased and yet simultaneously underwhelmed. Luke/Leia left me cold, the die-hards actually booed Kenobi's "certain point of view" line, and it was really just another movie, since by that time I was more intrigued by the idea of a RAIDERS follow-up than by a ho-hum STAR WARS finale. I can say, however, that I saw an opening-day film in the days when that meant something: playing in only one theatre at that time of day, that was the screening that ALL the die-hards went to. these days opening day is such a big deal that the first-screening crowd is dispersed in different rooms all over town. I saw Tim Burton's BATMAN in a JEDI-style opening-day experience as well: there is nothing like all that concentrated fanaticism to make the experience memorable.

[Jordan]

Civillian, you should write for a paper. I'm sure we went over this before, but do you have a degree in Journalism? My pal just went to London for his masters in the field.

the Stanley Theatre showed movies, and damn it was a classy joint

I saw fantaisa and Startrek in the stanley. Balcony seating baby. I can't recall which ST movie it was. But I do remember a scene when the crew sang row row row your boat.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 19 June 2004 - 01:03 AM

[CowboyCurtis]

It was 1977, and I was 8, but I remember my first Star Wars experience. We were going to see another movie (hell, if I can remember what it was), but the preview poster for Star Wars was there. It was that tall, dark Hildebrandt poster with Luke thrusting that flaring lightsaber over his head. It said it all. It was the movie I wanted to see, I had to see. Every time the disco version of Star Wars would come on the radio, I'd run to it and turn it up, much to my mother's chagrin.

I didn't get to see it until a year later. My parents thought it would be "too scary" for me! Grrr! But, I finally got to see it in the basement of the old community hall, projected on a large wall. The kids were noisy, there were no seats, but I was enrapt from beginning to end. I endlessly drew Star Wars pictures from that point on. All the kids at school would ask me to draw pictures of Darth Vader and C3P0 and Artoo-Detoo and so on. One kid even asked me to draw what I thought Vader looked like under his helmet. Hahaha-- I wish I had that picture.

I got to see ESB at a drive-thru theatre, but we left early because the lightsaber effects "hurt" my dad's eyes. So, I never heard the revelation of Vader being Luke's father. A friend told me at school, but I never believed it.

When ROTJ was released, it wouldn't come to our town for a few weeks, so I wasn't surprised to see the comic adaptation in our local grocery store. I bought it. I was so disappointed. That's IT!? I asked myself. Leia is Luke's sister!?? I was rather upset. It was like I was looking at an early version of EU.

I still wanted to go see the movie, to see if the comic was wrong. The day I was going to see ROTJ in the theatres, I got stung by a bee, and my foot puffed up to twice its size, so I was laid up and depressed about missing the movie, but my cousin, who was a big SW fan, gave me a ROTJ movie book and a poster. It was cool, but my spirit and enthusiasm dropped for the film. I never went to see it in the theatre. It wasn't until two or three years later that a friend of mine had video copies of all the movies, invited me over to watch them.

It was a thrill to actually sit through ESB, but not-as-good through ROTJ. Well... now... here we are.

[civilian_number_two]

Civillian, you should write for a paper. I'm sure we went over this before, but do you have a degree in Journalism? My pal just went to London for his masters in the field.

the Stanley Theatre showed movies, and damn it was a classy joint

I saw fantaisa and Startrek in the stanley. Balcony seating baby. I can't recall which ST movie it was. But I do remember a scene when the crew sang row row row your boat.

Ha! I'm sure I'd have to invest in a spellchecker if i wasnted to pursue such a lofty ideal as that. No, I don't write for anyone but you Jordan. Well, and anyone else who's reading this shit.

I forgot to mention that the first two STAR WARS films were released in 70mm, and the Stanley had that capacity. As everyone knows, the picture isn't significantly better than a good 35mm print, but all that extra room really makes for a hella great soundtrack. I am sure that compensated for the otherwise only-average sound of the Stanley, since the other theatres it played at only had the 35mm, and I noticed the difference (I assumed that it had something to do with the architecture). I'm sure it had something to do with seeing it for the first time, but I was never so enthralled and taken in by a movie. To paraphrase Ms Kael, I lost it at that movie.

PS: That would have been THE FINAL FRONTIER, where Spock has a brother and they go looking for God. Very memorable.