May 16, 2003

Of Elves and Skateboards
Niphredil

I recently discovered this site and have been reading with interest the many articles posted after the release of TTT. I see that I was not the only one unhappy with the portrayal of Faramir, but I think enough has been said on that subject. One article that particularly struck a chord with me though was that by Judy Ann RE Leogolas' skateboarding down the stairs at Helm's Deep.

I was totally immeresed in the film until that scene as you said so well Judy Ann, "jarred" me back into reality. It wasn't helped by the young boys seated in front of me whooping and carrying on at the site, and became quite annoying when one of them turned to his mate and said "Dude, didn't that guy die in the first film?" to which his mate responded "No stupid, that was his father!" As if this wasn't bad enough, I also had to endure the cackling of children who couldn't have been much older than 8 during the Smeagol/Gollum tortured soul speech. Which leads me to ask, is PG an appropriate rating for this film. I think 8 is a little young for this type of film but other parents obviously don't think so.

I'm all for exposing Tolkien to a wider audience, but I think the material is a little too sophisticated for 8 year olds. Maybe it's just my bad cinema experience, but I think that an M rating would be more appropriate. Maybe that way PJ would be allowed to have his odd spurt of blood when someone loses a limb or a head. But I guess it's the 8 year olds who are going to rush out and buy the Frodo lunchboxes.