Re: TTT

[Don Smith <dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu>]

John Paul Davis wrote:
> given that Elrond is himself a son of an elf and a human,

Well, technically he was the *grandson* of elves and humans, on one side, and
the *great*-grandson of elves and humans on the other side.  His mother,
Elwing, was the daughter of Dior and Nimloth (an Elf).  Dior was the son of
Beren (Human) and Luthien (Elf), who was in turn of mixed race herself, being
the daughter of Thingol (Elf) and Melian (Maiar).  Elrond's father, Earendil,
was the son of Tuor (Human) and Idril (Elf).  All of which does not disagree
with your point; if anything, it strengthens it: Elrond, of *all* people,
should not be harshing on mixed marriages.

However...

> it makes no sense for him to berate Arwen as he does.

Well, yes and no.  I see your point, but I don't think it's terribly hard to
retcon.  First of all, the other two human/elf pairings were back in the First
Age, when the Valar still got directly involved in Middle Earth.  There is no
way that Arwen and Aragorn are going to get cut the same kind of breaks that
the others did.  Secondly, and related, those pairings took place when there
was still two-way traffic to Valinor.  The Elves were at the peak of their
civilization.  *Now*, the Elves are packing up and leaving.  After Aragorn
dies, there won't even be any one-way trips left.  She's stuck here.

All of which is to say that Elrond *might* not have argued the way he did if
the story were set 6000 years before, but the world has changed since then, and
I think his reaction makes sense in the Third/Fourth Age context.  Of course,
ultimately, it's Jackson/Walsh&co.'s guess, anyway, because it isn't in the
book.  But it's not a bad guess, and I think heightens the epic quality of
their relationship, especially for viewers who haven't read the book and might
not get all the ramifications of that relationship.

> The whole thing had a Hollywood feel to it, and it bothered me. 

Would you explain that further?  What gives it a "Hollywood" feel?  Given that
it was made in New Zealand, with the majority of the crew having no connection
to Hollywood, I'm curious why you picked that particular epithet.

> Plus it was badly written.

Now, there I have to disagree with you.  I was delighted at how much of
Tolkien's original dialogue survived into the film, and while they moved a few
bits around to make it work as a film, I think it did work.  I found it
gripping, exciting, moving, enchanting, and funny.  The lines, even the new
ones, captured the quality of Tolkien's writing, and were well-delivered by the
cast.  The pacing was excellent, and the characters well-defined.  I don't know
by what other standard to judge the quality of the writing, but by any standard
I could think of, it was at least adequate if not excellent.  So I'm curious
as to what you thought was badly written.

My only complaints are the way they only portrayed one side of Faramir's
character (and distorted it at that), and that they sent Elves to Helm's Deep.
Beyond that I can live with all the changes they made, and I was thrilled with
the 80% of it that they got spot-on.

Yours sincerely,
-- 
Don Smith                           Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                                 http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

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