Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Victor Khomenko (M) on January 29, 2004 at 06:11:46

In Reply to: LOTR has so much merit as.... posted by patrickU on January 29, 2004 at 00:12:12:

I am in full agreement with you - I have no problem when people enjoy whatever they do, and we all have our guilty pleasures - remember the darling Clueless? He-he...

My hair goes up when people start calling something "Best film ever" or something along those lines simply because they love it.

But the torture continues....

Last night it was on the cable again, and Anya said: "I must try to understand with open eyes and ears what people love about it, I owe it to myself".

So she turned it on again. As I was sitting near, reading - of all authors, Tom Clancy... oh-ho... don't ask me why, but at least that wasn't his wooden prose (can't imagine anyone actually reading his books, really), it was the non-fiction account of Airborne... one of my guys gave it to me, as I am considered a military expert, so I felt obligated if not to read it, at least skim through it.

Anyway... here I am sitting, reading, and then I realized that Anya really put her finger on what is perhaps the MOST irritating about the LOTR - it is its NOISE TRACK.

The noise is constant, irritating, empty and frankly idiotic.

It was interesting to watch the action and listen to the noise. In most scenes there is no tension at all, the plot is shallow and the acting non-existant, so the only thing that hinted at some "strong emotions" the viewer is supposed to experience, was the NOISE.

So it became the modern days equivalent of the Scratch and Sniff routine.

The problem was the noise was always the same, not changing one bit, just as "climatic" every second along the way.

Dumb.

In 1766 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote a critical work called Laokoon, where he in essence covered just that sort of "art" and method.

Too bad the makers of this elephant never read his work... they would know that in some forms of art the constant climax has no place, and is the sign of ultimate weakness and ineptitude.

Anyway... to make it short... Anya lasted for about 30 minutes, then said something along the lines of not being able to take it any longer, and I can't express to you the sense of relief that I experienced when my ears were finally relieved of that horrible, lame and ineffective NOISE.

I presume all her attempts at delving deeper into that work ended last night. I know mine had for sure.