Tom Shippey lecture

Tolkien Book to Jackson Script: The Medium and the Message

In this talk, Tom Shippey, the world’s foremost Tolkien scholar, charts the creative reshaping of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings into Peter Jackson’s award-winning trilogy of films. Professor Shippey was the literary consultant to Jackson and the actors as they worked on the films.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/tolkien-book-to-jackson-script-medium-and-message

This was linked over on torn (I couldn't find a date for the lecture, though).

I enjoyed listening to that Bungo,    Ive saved it for later on also.

Listening to it. Extremely entertaining.

Yeah it's a good lecture, even if I had heard some of these things from the LOTR EE special features. I would love to know what Shippey thinks of the hobbit movies.

Giving it a listen now.

It's the only explanation I've heard for why Denethor was so screwed up.  Shippey doesn't seem to think much of this reason, but I've never heard a better one.

(Except for cop-out duffers like GB who seem to think Denethor was exactly how portrayed in the book.    )

The only place I disagree with him (apart from his ridiculous underestimation of the importance of the colour and type of grass in the Shire   ) is in questing if the medium of film meant it would not work without the continual inter-cutting. That you have the sacrifice the sense of not knowing what's going on.
I much prefer, and have had positive feedback for, sticking to the book format of staying with each strand in the purist edits and not inter cutting them.
And it does change the entire feel of those two films to something much more Tolkien I feel, as it restores the uncertainty to the characters and the viewer, as well as giving th viewer more time to become emotionally involved with the characters.

The Purist
I give you now Professor Twist
A conscientious scientist
Trustees exclaimed,"he never bungles!"
and sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride,
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile,
"You mean" he said,"a crocodile"
                                            Ogden Nash.

I love Ogden Nash!

The Eel
I don't mind eels,
Except at meals.
And the way they feels.
                       

{{{shame he never wrote a geoduck poem.}}}

He mentions clams in "seaside Serenade", about as close to those slippery little fokkers as your gonna get   
I like Ogden Nash to !  

I liked that a lot. Its very fair and balanced.

David H wrote:
I love Ogden Nash!
                     
....

{{{shame he never wrote a geoduck poem.}}}

"I've never et a geoduck,
I don't know how to cook'em
But if I find I'm down on luck
I'd rather cook than fook'em."

Ogden Nash.

 brilliant!   

very good Halfy !

"I've never et a geoduck,
I don't know how to cook'em
But if I find I'm down on luck
I'd rather cook than fook'em."

- Halfy


 Brilliant Halfy.

Thanks guys.    Though after writing it I discovered my model was Gillet Burgess rather than Ogden Nash. Damn near indistinguishable, those two.