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AinurOlorin
Half-elven
Aug 25 2012, 9:26pm
Post #276 of 282
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Is Gandalf really a bit part in The Hobbit?
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I've heard people saying he is barely there etc. etc., but actually he plays a co-starring role for the entire first half to two thirds of the novel, and shows up again at the end.
Elrond, to me, is a bit part in The Hobbit. Bard, Thranduil and Dain even moreso. But Gandalf? He is easily one of the most recognizable figures in the story, even if you have never heard of The Lord of The Rings. I agree that The Hobbit is more likely to get remade than Lord of the Rings, which, like The Wizard of Oz, I've predicted won't see a true remake within 75 years.
A remake of The Hobbit would do very well to not follow a remake of The Lord of the Rings by the same production team for at least one simple reason: the actor who portrays Gandalf could be as much a bit part as in the book without the public demand for a to-be-beloved actor to be included as much as possible if it were to follow The Lord of the Rings, thereby demanding a Dol Guldur story to follow him. If he is popular in The Hobbit first, then folks will happily get more of him in The Lord of the Rings remake and still be happy with The Hobbit. The reverse would not be true, and that's why Peter is right by me to follow Gandalf in The Hobbit and all the consequences that entails.l
"Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"
"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."
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JWPlatt
Grey Havens
Aug 25 2012, 9:32pm
Post #277 of 282
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As You Said In A Very Recent Post
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Really? Are you going to quibble on this? If you must ignore the rest of the thesis, I will just point out that my choice of words is a subjective comparison between the books.
AinurOlorin: "True enough, though you take my meaning."
(This post was edited by JWPlatt on Aug 25 2012, 9:33pm)
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AinurOlorin
Half-elven
Aug 25 2012, 9:35pm
Post #278 of 282
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Touche`. And still, you take my meaning. lol
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"Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"
"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."
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lyndomiel
Rivendell
Aug 25 2012, 10:21pm
Post #279 of 282
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Not at all. I appreciate your encyclopedic brain.
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geordie
Tol Eressea
Aug 27 2012, 8:59am
Post #280 of 282
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- though I didn't find the mag. I was looking for, I did manage to find a book which I'd lost - or rather, had most prob. been misplaced ( I suspect mrs geordie popped it in a box of other books, during one of her 'tidy-up' sessions in the geordie library. I can never find anything afterwards).
The book is a copy of a 16th c. play called 'Gammer Gurton's Needle'. It has a couple of tenuous connections to Tolkien; firstly, this edition is edited by a friend and colleague of JRR, called H.F.B. Brett-Smith; or Herbert Francis Brett Brett-Smith, to give the gentleman his full name. Between-the-wars Oxford seems to have been full of men with long and distinguished-sounding names; a bit like Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham, whose full name was Aegidius Ahenobarbus Agricola de Hammo (that was off the top of my head; I wonder if I got it right?) Anyway; another of Tolkien's friends was of course Hugo Dyson or, to give him his full name, Henry Victor Dyson Dyson. *note; I did not stammer there, nor when typing out Brett-Smith's name - both these men really did have a family surname, or part of, as a Christian name, too.
The Tolkiens and the Brett-Smiths were family friends; I remember reading of one time, at a children's party at the Brett-Smiths, JRR put on a hearthrug and pretended to be a polar bear, just to amuse the children. Well, they had no telly in those days. 
The other, and poss. more important connection, is that the play - Gammer Gurton's Needle - was played at the Oxford Playhouse on Wed. 3rd August 1938, as part of the 'Oxford Summer Diversions'. And Tolkien's recital of Chaucer's 'The Nonnes Preestes Tale' preceded it! Here's a clip from the Oxford Mail of the following day -
"Let it be made clear, Prof. Tolkien, wearing a beard and the resplendent robes of the 14th century and speaking into a 20th century microphone was a spectacle in itself."
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geordie
Tol Eressea
Aug 27 2012, 11:06am
Post #281 of 282
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- but, encyclopedic? I don't know about that.
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thirdeblue
The Shire
Aug 28 2012, 1:55pm
Post #282 of 282
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It's been over ten years since I read the trilogy so I apologize in advance if my memory has failed me.
I remember Denethor in the novel as having seen Gondor's destruction in the Palantir and despaired, not knowing that the Palantir has a tendency for people to draw the wrong conclusions from what they've seen.
The novel Denthor is a great man...but over his head. He's fit to rule, but not the best man for the job.
The movie version, however, has Denethor as clutched in madness. Denethor is no longer great man, he is a little man, unfit to rule. The shot in the movie with Denethor slumped forward in his little chair at the foot of the King's throne. That one imagine says everything you need to know about Denethor.
They're different characters, Without the Palantir, it is doubtful that Denthor of the book would despair and kill himself. Denethor of the movie however...
I went into the movie Return of the King and at first thought that PJ had emasculated Denethor from this noble, tragic character to this farcical little goon. I was quickly won over though, so much so that I prefer this version of the character.
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