Christopher Tolkien is kind of a dick

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Silent Bob

Silent Bob

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/183005091.html

into a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time. The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away."


I think the dude's kinda got his head up a little too far in his ass to realize that the original work his father created is still there for all to enjoy. I love the films. I think they've done Tolkien's work fair justice in their epic scale.


Because he's constantly mentioned as JRR Tolkien's son, I keep forgetting that this guy is 87 some years old. Crusty old curmudgeon...
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

His head is way way too far up his own ass. He's acting like P.Jackson pulled a G.Lucas on LotR/Hobbit. If anything, he simply and beautifully translated a very very old story into a medium that can be enjoyed today without really destroying the source material. Pretty much the opposite of what Lucas did to his own creation.
 
Silent Bob

Silent Bob

Gilgamesh said:
His head is way way too far up his own ass. He's acting like P.Jackson pulled a G.Lucas on LotR/Hobbit. If anything, he simply and beautifully translated a very very old story into a medium that can be enjoyed today without really destroying the source material. Pretty much the opposite of what Lucas did to his own creation.
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Don't get me wrong I love Lord of the Rings (both book and movie). But holy shit would a literal translation of the books be a snore fest of a movie. That's why I have to constantly tell myself that C. Tolkien is an late 80's old man who has no concept of current trends. A movie has to absolutely take in a certain zeitgeist of the time of its production.

His biggest beef is that the overall tone of LotR's was never transferred over properly. I disagree. Take Aragorn for example. In the book, he knows he's king, and he's fully willing to accept that responsibility. In the film, he's very hesitant to take on that sort of power - that's exactly the kind of hero modern audiences want to see. I personally think the books' Aragorn would come over as a pompous dickhead to a general audience.

Hell, Frodo and Sam's relationship is almost spot on as in the book. How many Frodo and Sam are gay jokes are around the internet? Or jokes about how Sam takes so much crap from Frodo?
 
Silent Bob

Silent Bob

Frank said:
Didn't the family all but disown an actor descendant for appearing in Lord of the Rings?
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I think C. Tolkien got super pissed because New Line didn't pay up on certain royalties. I know the estate wants nothing to do with any sort of Hollywood media (other than cashing those fat checks I suppose)
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Seems a little out of touch. Hell, the article said it's his first interview in forty years. I can see being upset about the estate not getting a cut right away and having to sue, I guess, but the work isn't just his or his father's anymore. It transcended that decades ago, spawning a whole genre and influencing any and every type of medieval fantasy that followed. Of all the various adaptations I've seen, I think overall Jackson's done amazing work. Granted there's things missing, and sure there's liberties, but like Bob said the movies would be very hard to stomach if they followed the books to the letter.
 
Shakey

Shakey

The guy spent his life dedicated to preserving his fathers legacy. Of course he's going to be a little crazy. He's been pouring over his father notes and journals trying to recreate the world he created to the best of his ability. He set a bar for himself that he was probably expecting Jackson to live up to. The movies did stray quite a bit from the real meaning of the books, but in the end that was probably good. You can't easily transfer them to movie, and Jackson did the best he could. That doesn't mean he can't be upset about it. He just wanted something Hollywood can't deliver.
 
Frank

Frank

Frank said:
Didn't the family all but disown an actor descendant for appearing in Lord of the Rings?
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He wasn't an actor, but Christopher Tolkien has utterly disowned his son and grandsons for his son's support of Peter Jackson.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...andson-cut-off-from-literary-inheritance.html

What a fucking asshole. At first, I was kind of on his side, he has so much invested in the whole thing that he's bound to be cranky about anything changing from his father's work but to disown your son because he didn't side with you on one fucking matter. To want nothing to do with your grandkids over it? Would your fucking dad want that Christopher? You piece of shit. Fuck you.

I have no tolerance for shitty dads.
 
Shakey

Shakey

Frank said:
He wasn't an actor, but Christopher Tolkien has utterly disowned his son and grandsons for his son's support of Peter Jackson.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...andson-cut-off-from-literary-inheritance.html

What a fucking asshole. At first, I was kind of on his side, he has so much invested in the whole thing that he's bound to be cranky about anything changing from his father's work but to disown your son because he didn't side with you on one fucking matter. To want nothing to do with your grandkids over it? Would your fucking dad want that Christopher? You piece of shit. Fuck you.

I have no tolerance for shitty dads.
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I have a feeling it's one side of the story. You can talk all the shit you want when you know the other side won't respond.
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Wow, I mean after thinking on it a bit I can see why C. Tolkein is upset about the films. Like shakey said, he's spent so long working to preserve and deal with the universe and such. But to cut off your family because of something like that? Just plain wrong.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

If you read the "Unfinished Tales" you can literally tell where Christopher was finishing off his father's work because the writing becomes marginally worse.
 
Silent Bob

Silent Bob

I guess I'd be a crankpot if I dedicated my life to patching together someone else's opus without actually creating something of my own in all that time.

What a mook - disown your family over something so trite. To me it only proves that he's lived in an ivory tower all his life.
 
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