Lord of the Rings (1978) distributed by United Artists Films

After watching Asylum’s A Woman’s Perspective on ‘Lord of the Rings’, I think it should have been titled “A Non-Fan who Happens to be a Woman Thinks The ‘LotR’ Movies are Stupid.”  It was a half-hearted attempt to make fun of the Peter Jackson series, but there’s a lot more to laugh about in this 55 year old book trilogy than the box art.  To celebrate the end of Tolkien Week, I have reviewed the much reviled 1978 version of The Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi.  Just to make things clear, I am both a fan of the books and the Peter Jackson movies: I’ve read the books, including most of the appendices, and for women who are into romance novels rather than fantasy, the story of Aragorn and Arwen in Appendix A is really touching.  I’ve seen the extended versions of all three movies, all of the extras, and I treasure those gigantic box sets with foldout flow charts that navigate the 4 DVDs per box (yes, I have no life).

First of all, I like Ralph Bakshi, even though he’s about as far from a feminist writer/director/animator as you can get.  Many of his movies feature pornographic scenes and brutal violence against women, so it’s not for feminists who are faint of heart.  Yet I can’t help but admire the crazy, dystopian magic-techno land of Wizards, and the funny, gritty, politically charged 60s that pervade every sense of New York City in Fritz the Cat.  Throughout his career, Mr. Bakshi worked in experimental animation, and is known for his rotoscoping technique ( the process of drawing over live action shots so the character’s movements and expressions look more real).  I wouldn’t have thought he would be a perfect fit for an Anglo-Saxon/Norse mythological epic, but back in those days an animated version of The Lord of the Rings was the best you could get, and Bakshi was the cream of the animation crop.

Lord of the Rings Chorus Line

The movie begins with a monologue describing the history of the One Ring, portrayed by the silhouettes of live-action actors on a red background.  It resembles a high school drama production as people pretend to stab each other onstage, while Smeagol/Gollum dramatically flops around on the fake rocks.  This all looks very low budget and cheesy, which begs the question: why wasn’t this sequence animated?  It’s a question I found myself asking over and over again as the movie continued.  Mixing traditional 2D animation and live-action is a good concept, and I can see Mr. Bakshi’s thought process for using it.  However, it has to be done in the right circumstances, and this movie seems to be suffering from Live-Action Alzheimer’s: every so often it seems to forget what’s going on and does something random before returning to lucidity again.  Characters are animated, then suddenly become live action, then are animated once again.  This doesn’t just happen once, this happens often.  There is no consistency whatsoever, and you have to wonder how much of a production hell it must have been to create such a tangled mess.

Gandalf the Grey

As the story continues, The Lord of the Rings movie runs through exposition and characters like it’s a Tolkien Cliffs Notes acted out by scary puppets.  We meet Bilbo (Norman Bird), Frodo (Christopher Guard), Sam (Michael Scholes) and Gandalf (William Squire).  Gandalf is by far the best of the bunch, reminiscent of a slightly senile though kindly grandfather with a 1000 yard stare.  Frodo kind of sounds like Elijah Wood (you can take that a positive or a negative) but his weird facial expressions are quite distracting at times.  When he is scared by Gandalf, he makes a weird face that looks like he just smelled the wizard pass gas.  His smile is much less impish and much more along the lines of axe-murderer.  Sam is, to put it kindly, really ugly, and the fact that he tends to get giggly makes him even creepier.

Aragorn

Merry (Simon Chandler) and Pippin (Dominic Guard) barely have any lines, and I had no idea who was who by the time I was done watching.  Gimli (David Buck) is way too tall for a dwarf, and along with his elven alter ego Legolas (Anthony Daniels), he has very few lines.  Aragorn (John Hurt) looks like a mixture of Peter Postlewaite and Javier Bardem, and shifts between a state of anger and stoicism throughout the entire movie.  Luckily Arwen has been cut out entirely, saving the viewers from the horror that would have resulted from a romantic relationship between them.  I have to feel pity for the characters who are continually shut out of the movie franchises, like Tom Bombadil and his hippy wife Goldberry, as well as Glorfindel, whose role is replaced by Legolas.  Many of the characters from the second book are considerably pared down because of time constraints. Eomer and Eowyn are practically nonexistent, casualites of the race to the finish line of Helm’s Deep.

Also, Boromir (Michael Graham Cox) is dressed like a Viking.  Let that sink in for a minute.

Boromir

Oddly enough, you get used to the glaring flaws of the characters as you continue watching.  Once the film slows down from its Cliff Notes pace, it becomes much more enjoyable: there are many sweet, quiet  moments between the entire fellowship, though more characterization would have been appreciated in its place.  The hobbits retain a sense of dignity and innocence about them wherever they go, and Frodo and Sam are always resolute in their quest.  One of my favorite scenes, other than the fight on Weathertop, is when Bilbo hums a song as Frodo leaves to keep from bidding his nephew what might be a final farewell.  It’s a subtle and emotional scene, and it greatly endeared me to the old hobbit.

The Orcs

The Ringwraiths are a mixed bag: they are originally animated as slumped, cloaked figures limping through the landscape, more like old men trying to find their dentures than formidable enemies.  However, during their appearance at Weathertop, they suddenly become shadowy, live action menaces, an effect that gives them a superhuman bearing.  This technique is used for the Orcs and the Balrog, but the end result is much less successful.  They just look like people in monster masks and costumes, and don’t have the screen presence to make the audience feel a great amount of fear or tension.  Saruman (Fraser Kerr), sometimes incorrectly named “Aruman,” has a voice that’s a combination of a man who’s been huffing helium and also smoking his entire life, which is both grating and hilarious.  Even Gollum (Peter Woodthorpe) is toothless in this version, compared to the evil, schizophrenic, though sympathetic maniac in the Peter Jackson films.  Sauron himself never makes an appearance except in the opening monologue, and his disembodied Eye is never seen looking for Frodo.

As the movie enters into the second book, it loses all the steam it’s built up, and things only go downhill from there.  The plotline becomes more fragmented as huge swathes of the book are cut for time reasons, and it ends on a lackluster note that’s both incomplete and confusingly happy.

Geek Verdict: I am hesitant to recommend this movie to anyone, but I think fans who are well-versed in The Lord of the Rings mythos could find something to like in this confusing, tangled mess.  Just keep in mind that when the movie gets it right, it gets it right; when it gets it wrong, it’s extremely wrong.  However, if you only had a passing interest in the Peter Jackson films, this movie won’t make you a fan.

(All images from The Lord of the Rings (1978) distributed by United Artist Films)

Tags: lord of the rings, movies, ralph bakshi, reviews, tolkien

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Geek Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.