November 13, 2003

Amateurs and Film Makers
Mr. Underhill

First of all, I would like to commend Bob Praz for his highly logical and well-written article about the elimination of Saruman in the Theatrical cut. It's that kind of Pragmatism that will allow us to survive in these trying times. Well done!

However, I cannot applaud certain other individuals in a similar manner. The individuals I am speaking of are Philipa Boyens, Jude Watson, and Brian Sibley. I don't know if you all have heard yet, but on Disc 3 of the Extended Edition, there is a documentary about J.R.R. Tolkien. From what I've heard from a very reliable source who has seen this documentary, they state that JRRT is an amateur Novelist who didn't know how to write a story. These individuals state that because he split the Two Towers into two halves and because he has the characters talking about events instaed of showing them, he is a poor novelist. They say he simply got lucky with LOTR.

This is completely bogus.

Now, let me be the first to admit that JRR had himself admitted that he was inexperienced at writing a story and was learning as he went with LOTR. However, to call JRR an amateur is IMHO rude, insulting, arrogant, and self-centered. I never understood why the Tolkien Society refused to support these movies. Now I know.
Here is a man who spent 14 years of his life working on one of the best books of all time. And these writers have the gall to insult the very source of their primary income these last few years. If not for JRR, Philipa does not write screenplay for the movie, Ms. Watson and Mr. Sibley (bandwagon authors who are capitalizing on the popularity of the movies) do not sell their movie tie-in books. I am heartily disappointed in each of these three individuals' crass remarks.

I'm sorry for the long article, but some of these things needed to be said IMHO. This in no way diminishes my enthusiasm for the ROTK movie or the LOTR series. I just needed to get this off my chest.

Mr... um... Underhill my name's Underhill