Posted on 01/27/2002 6:18:35 PM PST by John Farson
New Zealander builds Hobbit hole A New Zealand man has built a Hobbit house. Carl Gifford, a stonemason from Wellington, says he used a 10-tonne digger to make the hole. He's put rocks either side of the front door and plans to install a chimney and lantern on top. He told the Evening Post he was embarrassed as he was constructing the home. He said: "I must admit I was hiding as the cars were driving past. I thought, 'These people think I'm an idiot'." The house is part of a series of stonework mounds, designs and sculptures dotted around his land. "I'm just having a bit of fun. Things that were built by those ancient people like caves have always fascinated me." |
Are you kidding? I've been ready to go for a very long time, lol....is it 3 o'clock yet????
BTW, does the news about TTT trailer mean that you and I will be catching another show at the Cinerama in a few weeks? I hope....?
-penny
[imagine beautiful Enya voice crooning:] "Believe....and you-oo-oo will find a way...."
/Enya impersonation
...sorry, getting a little ditzy now--2 hours and 45 mins till I can blow this popsicle-stand!
-penny
I was going to see FotR for the third time Saturday but the afternoon and evening shows were sold out, to my amazement (I had gotten in w/o difficulty in December, twice). So I went on Monday. I wish (Oh, heavens, I do WISH) the theaters would turn down the volume, as the screeching neighing of the Black Riders' horses, and about half of the movie noises, give me migraines, but I saw and understood so much more on this viewing (and being almost through the book now), than the first two times. There are so many names and places unfamiliar to a novice that it's easy to miss important things at the first or second viewing.
I love Legolas. Always watchful, there with his arrows just when needed ... Legolas, the snow walker. However, that elf who confronts Gimli in the woods is a bit too ... elf-ish, if you get my meaning.
It's easy to think Frodo isn't taking things all that seriously in the first viewing, until you begin to really watch his quietness as it starts to sink in what evil he is dealing with. I expect to see Elijah Wood and his character mature significantly by the end of the third film.
Keep that link handy for whenever anyone teases you about your obsession--we can always say at least we're not as pathetic as those guys. ;)
Legolas is awesome. I liked him okay at the start, and have liked him better each time.
I agree with you about the Lothlorien elf, as he is in the movie. He's just a snot. (That's the nicest word I have for how he comes off.) His name is Haldir; he's one who just had to be hacked down to keep the movie ONLY three hours. When you read that segment in the book, you'll see there's a lot more to him, though bottom-line he was there to guard the forest and enforce the rules.
For me, it all connects for Frodo when he tries to get Gandalf to take the ring, and Gandalf backpedals like a scalded cat. Then with a wan and worried face, in a dry, cracking voice, Frodo says, "What must I do, Gandalf?" He's pretty serious then, it seems to me.
But I agree, if he's serious then, then by the end of the film, he's DEAD serious, as he stands alone on the river-bank, looking at the Ring and steeling himself for his next move.
I just think that virtually every person in this cast marvelously EMBODIES his character. Even my least-favorite Kate Blanchett as Galadriel embodies what I think she was called to do. (And I do love her voice and voice-over.)
No doubt; it's a marvel of a movie. I've never been able to answer without a truck-full of qualifications, when someone asks me what my favorite movie is. Now I have an answer. (At least until Two Towers comes out... and Return of the King!)
Dan
I love the growing dread and almost sick look Frodo gets throughout that conversation with Gandalf. There's a particular camera shot where he won't even look directly at the ring, the most he can do is look at it out of the corner of his eyes. I always felt that was a key moment in Frodo realizing the gravity of the situation surrounding the ring--he didn't see its inherent evil yet, though. I like your interpretation, that when Gandalf refuses to take the ring...and Frodo sees his fear...that really puts it into focus for him.
There is a wonderful symmetry between that scene between Frodo and Gandalf and the later one between Frodo and Galadriel. In the former, Frodo realizes a measure of the evil contained in the ring when Gandalf refuses to take it, and his response is to ask Gandalf "what must I do?" In the scene with Galadriel, she shows him why Gandalf refused to take it, and Frodo's response is..."I know what I must do." The parallel between those two scenes is just to strong to have been a coincidence...
-penny
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