A Vision of Middle-earth: Contemporary Views in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Résumé
In The Gods Return to Earth, C.S. Lewis opens his review of LotR by acclaiming the return of Heroic Romance, comparing Tolkien’s work with stories stretching back to Th e Odyssey (and beyond). Indeed he goes on to make the claim that the book also represents a revolution for this genre. Th is point of view in fact refl ects a dialectic argument which has faced artistic creation since ancient times. Should we look backwards taking classical inspiration, “standing on the shoulders of giants”, as Isaac Newton put it, or forwards, always aiming to “make it new” as Ezra Pound proclaimed, with a modern approach? Of course our own reaction probably says more about us than the work in question. Th is artistic opposition is still relevant today however. As far as Tolkien’s works are concerned, it now relates to six movies. Firstly, there is a new version of LotR in Peter Jackson’s original trilogy from 2001 to 2003 and more recently another three based on H, scheduled for annual release between 2012 and 20144. The “right” approach becomes a lot more than just a philosophical or aesthetic argument when you are in charge of major Hollywood productions, particularly ones aiming to adapt two of the most popular books in the world. While many of the aesthetic points we intend to raise here would apply to both the adaptations of LotR and H, we will concentrate our analysis on LotR and consider the implications of approach in three ways. Firstly, we examine the question of fi delity in relation to the original texts. Secondly, we analyse how Peter Jackson responds to some of the major diff erences between text and image. Finally, we take a thematic approach to focus on changes to two important characters. Th e overall aim is to see how far we can fi nd a modernising or “Romantic” spirit running through Jackson’s vision of Middle-earth.
Domaines
Littératures
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