December 21, 2003

A Requiem for What Might Have Been
jaws

I have had 2 days to consider The Movie and I don't know whether I should celebrate the movie that was or mourn the movie that could have been. To be fair I will start by saying that this is definetly the best movie of the year and the series is the best epic ever. The actors made the book come alive. Sean Astin was and will always be Sam, Elijah Woods was and will always be Frodo etc.
That said, I believe the script writers let their talent and audience down. It is hard to complain about a 10 out of 10 script except when one realizes that this script could easily have been a 15. Why do I say this first, because of the endings, one of the critics major complaints we have at least 3 poorly spliced endings on a brilliant film either the editor or the script wirtiter should remember two key words, transition and savor. Would it have hurt them for instance to show Frodos physical pain and illness before he left for the undying lands 2 minutes of screen time would have sufficed. Could they have shown 5 minutes more of the Hobbits trying to adjust to thier return. And how about a little parting scene where the fellowship goes their seperate ways 1 -2 scenes adding at most 2 minutes.
With these slight additions what seems like 3 disjointed endings would become 1.
So much for transition as to savor 10 minutes of Frodos struggles in mordor would not have been too much to ask the writers have spent 2 1/2 movies to get Sam and Frodo there. With all of the material in the book certainly 10 minutes could and should have spent showing us that litteral hell hole.