I think even the biggest movie/pj critics will agree the score is 10/10

MuckRaker96 said:

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Brian, and other big movie fans, I will now have your best 5 tracks from the entire LOTR trilogy. I know it's not enough, I know Brian's going to give me at least 8, maybe even 12, but I challenge you to pick the best 5. Just Howard Shore's stuff, not anything with sung words by Enya or the like.


I will start - not any particular order

Concerning Hobbits
Minas Tirith
The King of the Golden Hall
Forth Eorlingas
The Ride of the Rohirrim

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Those are great, but I'd also add the Uruk Hai theme to the mix. It is a fantastic blend of barbaric savagery and industrialization at the same time. Fits Saruman to a "T".

MuckRaker96 said:

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Brian, and other big movie fans, I will now have your best 5 tracks from the entire LOTR trilogy. I know it's not enough, I know Brian's going to give me at least 8, maybe even 12, but I challenge you to pick the best 5. Just Howard Shore's stuff, not anything with sung words by Enya or the like.

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1. The Breaking of the Fellowship


Gets me emotional every time. To this day, as soon as the track starts, I get a bout of nostalgia. Favorite part is the swelling strings at 2:36 when Frodo pulls Sam out of the water.


2. The Bridge of Khazad Dum


This track is one of the reasons this remains one of my favorite movie scenes ever. From the moment Gandalf yells "To the bridge of Khazam Dum", which immediately kicks into the Fellowship theme, to the moment Gandalf falls off the bridge, the entire track is perfection. The guttural chanting (done by a NZ rugby team) when they start running from the Balrog gives me chills every time. And the vocals when Gandalf is falling... amazing.


3. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields


Doubt this needs any explanation. Specific favorite moments: The swelling, orchestrated "Nature's Reclamation" theme at 2:25, with the wide shot of the Rohirrim with the rising sun at their back, and of course the solo violin playing Rohan's Theme at 2:40. If that doesn't give you goosebumps, you simply don't like movies.


4. The Lighting of the Beacons


Again, doubt this could possibly require explanation. One quick note: I love how the Gondor Theme is ever so slightly introduced in FOTR, by a single French horn, when Boromir is speaking during the Council of Elrond. We don't hear it again until Gandalf arrives at Minis Tirith in ROTK.


5. Concerning Hobbits


If you could somehow extract the feeling of hearth, home, and nostalgia into a single piece of music, it would be this. This gets the feels every time for me.


As has already been said on this thread, the collective score for this trilogy is the greatest film score of all time. I could probably list another 10, but I'll respect your rules.

The Isengard Theme would be my #6, fwiw.

Concerning Hobbits
The Breaking of the Fellowship
King of the Golden Hall
The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
Samwise the Brave

bonfarr said:

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Not sure but if she peels that thong down a bit I believe we will see the eye of Sauron staring back at us

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She has a stormtrooper helmet on the inner of her left thigh

Thanks. Great information.

bonfarr said:

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Not sure but if she peels that thong down a bit I believe we will see the eye of Sauron staring back at us

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So funny story.

My old roommate and I are eating dinner and drinking beers at the bar at Maple & Motor (a burger joint near UTSouthwestern in Dallas) and the owner of the restaurant is on the other side on his computer talking with us. We'd been there for a solid 1.5 hours talking when he asks us randomly if we're LOTR fans. Totally unconnected. We said sure and he asks if we want to see a picture of an awesome tattoo. We said ok and he tells us to come behind the bar so other patrons can't see his computer screen and we do.

The tattoo was some pretty damn hot chick had tattooed the One Ring inscription around her back door.

I've never been so shocked in my life.

Man that brings back memories

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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One of the first things I googled after my recent rewatch was any writings about the rule of Aragon II Elessar, and of his son Eldarion after him.

There's a bit on Aragorn's rule, but virtually nothing on Eldarion's.

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Aragorn_II_Elessar

Quote:

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Upon Sauron's defeat, Aragorn was crowned as King Elessar, a name given to him by Galadriel. He became the twenty-sixth King of Arnor, thirty-fifth King of Gondor and the first High King of the Reunited Kingdom, though it would be several years before his authority was firmly reestablished in Arnor. His line was referred to as the House of Telcontar (Telcontar being Quenya for "Strider"). Aragorn married Arwen shortly afterwards, and ruled the Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor until 120 of the Fourth Age. His reign was marked by great harmony and prosperity within Gondor and Arnor, and by a great renewal of cooperation and communication among Men, Elves, and Dwarves, fostered by his vigorous rebuilding campaign following the war. Aragorn led the forces of the Reunited Kingdom on military campaigns against some Easterlings and Haradrim, re-establishing rule over much territory that Gondor had lost in previous centuries.

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https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Eldarion

I think a series picking up during the rule of Eldarion would be pretty awesome. (With Merry and Pippin still around as really old Hobbits spending their last few years in Gondor before they are buried next to Aragorn.)

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I know this dates from the first page, but I have to go with a HELL NO on this.

Tolkien wrote nothing about Eldarions reign. Attempting to pick up this thread would go so far beyond the realm of fan-fiction (which we'ere already getting to some extent with a show set in the Second Age - more on that later) that a producer is better off simply creating their own IP in the process. The only reason to tie this into LOTR would be to simply cash in on an existing brand.

Besides, what is there to write? The elves, who were already few in number, pretty much left in bulk following the destruction of the Ring. The few lingerers, along with the dwarves, would fade into the background as the fourth age marks the beginning of the Dominion of Men: the time when magic fades from the world completely.

By contrast, we know what they can do in the Second Age. We know the settings, key events, key characters, and their motivations. We just need to fill in the gaps with dialogue and minor events to get to those key events.

Has anyone seen the Hunt for Gollum?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_for_Gollum?wprov=sfti1

Supposedly fantastic fanfilm.

Quote:

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Tolkien wrote nothing about Eldarions reign. Attempting to pick up this thread would go so far beyond the realm of fan-fiction.

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Correct, and correct. But that's why I think it could be interesting.

Middle Earth is probably the deepest, most richly-developed fictional universe ever created, and that's why it would be a perfect backdrop/setting to set "fan-fiction" stories in. (Just as Star Wars is doing now.)

You're obviously a purist, and I respect that, but I think the endless possibilities for these kinds of stories is actually pretty exciting. Besides, you'll always have the books.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Quote:

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Tolkien wrote nothing about Eldarions reign. Attempting to pick up this thread would go so far beyond the realm of fan-fiction.

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Correct, and correct. But that's why I think it could be interesting.

Middle Earth is probably the deepest, most richly-developed fictional universe ever created, and that's why it would be a perfect backdrop/setting to set "fan-fiction" stories in. (Just as Star Wars is doing now.)

You're obviously a purist, and I respect that, but I think the endless possibilities for these kinds of stories is actually pretty exciting. Besides, you'll always have the books.

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Well, I'm not quite a purist. There are things that irritate me about the LOTR and Hobbit films, but I look at them from a perspective of "does this make sense from a narrative perspective" not from "but, but, Tolkien did it differently!". To be fair, I think that Tolkien did it better, but I recognize how he wrote it won't always translate well to film.

I'm very active in the subreddit for the upcoming Amazon Prime show. Rather than speculate on castings, I have a lot more fun trying to work out the various ways they can create entire plots and narratives out of events that received mere sentences from Tolkien. Here is one I came up with that is one possible way they could show how Sauron is god to his followers and the origins of one of the Nazgul. Let me tell you, this was not well received on the Reddit for the Tolkien Purists (a sub I'm active in).

I just don't see any interesting stories that can be told during Eldarions reign: The elves have left, dwarves are disappearing. magic has faded. That doesn't sound like fantasy, that sounds like standard medieval stories. If you want to tell interesting stories you should go backward in time.

For those of you who are parents, at what age would/did you let your kids watch the movies? I'm thinking 10 at a minimum, but maybe even later.

I saw TTT in theaters when I was 8 or 9 and turned out reasonably okay. But I was already hooked on the books by then, and I am not a parent.

I first read them when I was 12. I was in college when Fellowship hit the theater

Has anyone else read "Bored of the Rings" the Harvard Lampoon parody book that came out in 1969? The lead characters are Frito Bugger and Spam Gangree. It is a good laugh if you are a Tolkien fan. I laughed out loud through much of the book.

bonfarr said:

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Has anyone else read "Bored of the Rings" the Harvard Lampoon parody book that came out in 1969? The lead characters are Frito Bugger and Spam Gangree. It is a good laugh if you are a Tolkien fan. I laughed out loud through much of the book.

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I read it with high hopes.... and was quickly disappointed.

It was probably one of the weakest satire of it I've seen out there. Hell, Benders Game was a better parody of LOTR than that.. and its primary target was Dungeons and Dragons.

Shife said:

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...
I have lost my original paperback copies of LOTR but replaced them. I also begged and begged until I got this one year for my birthday. It is still in really good condition:

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I bought a copy like that, and the Hobbit same style, back in '85 or' 86. They were maybe $25 a pop back then. Still have them. Awesone runs off those books!

My mom bought these at a garage sale for like 3 bucks. I don't know if I have them anymore, but I read the **** out of them.

Anyone else have this?



My copy is falling apart, but it's not something you see very often.

That's the set we had (plus a brown Hobbt). I think my FOTR and TT fell apart but I still have the other two. The last time I reread was in my iPad but I'd like to go back to those old books.

redline248 said:

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For those of you who are parents, at what age would/did you let your kids watch the movies? I'm thinking 10 at a minimum, but maybe even later.

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My kids are all 5 and under, and have each watched the extended edition trilogies with me.

Granted, that's only because my tradition when having a kid is to watch them during the first couple weeks when I'm on the "night shift". My kids will probably be 10+ before they actually get to see the movies. Books they can read as soon as they want.

I was 13 when fellowship came out. My oldest brother was home for winter break and we went to the midnight showing. That winter break was just a constant fight over who could read the single copies of the other books we had. My other older brother started at A&M the next year, and we did the Two Towers midnight showing when he came back.

Somehow I convinced 3 other sets of parents to let their kids see Return of the King at midnight. We felt like such badasses being HS sophomores out until 3 in the morning on what was a school night for most (our HS had final exam exemptions if you had an A and fewer than 3 excused absences). In reality, the parents probably didn't care because they knew we were too nerdy to actually do anything stupid.

I sure am glad my oldest brother took me to fellowship. That turned into 3 of my favorite movie memories. Turned out way better than the other midnight showing I went to with him...the Matrix Reloaded.

redline248 said:

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For those of you who are parents, at what age would/did you let your kids watch the movies? I'm thinking 10 at a minimum, but maybe even later.

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It's not like there is anything bad in them. No bad language, nudity/sex etc.

redline248 said:

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Cstrickland05 said:

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redline248 said:

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For those of you who are parents, at what age would/did you let your kids watch the movies? I'm thinking 10 at a minimum, but maybe even later.

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It's not like there is anything bad in them. No bad language, nudity/sex etc.

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No...just monsters, beheadings, lots of blood and death. Shelob and the orcs could be particularly troubling for my 4 year old.

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My sister was 10-12 when she came into the living room when I was watching. I can't remember if it was Galadriel being tempted by the ring or if it was just a flash of Sauron's eye, but I do remember that she ran out of the room screaming.

MuckRaker96 said:

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I think this might have been the first YouTube video I ever saw.

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