Här följer en recension på engelska av "The Two Towers", den andra filmen baserad på
J R R Tolkiens trilogi om kampen mellan gott och ont i fantasilandet Midgård.
Last Sunday at 13pm I went down to the local cinema, right here in Västervik, in order to see the matinee. The film that they were showing was one that I had waited eagerly to see for quite some time. It was matter of fact part two of J R R Tolkiens fantastic epic about the battle between good and evil, in the imaginary land of Middle- Earth. I have been a big fan of Tolkien’s books, ever since I had the fortune to read them for the first time. There aren’t many authors that have written books that you just can read over and over again, but Tolkien is a member of that small elite. I surely must have read the books some ten to fifteen times since I first laid my hands on them during my adolescence, both in English as in Swedish, and they only seem to get better and better.
I must confess that I was a little bit sceptic at first when I heard that they were planning an attempt to make a film out of these books. They had tried it once before and that time the result was neither satisfying to watch nor did it do justice to the books. At that time (in the seventies) they didn’t have enough computer power, or the skills to use it if they had, to make this movie. If I remember it correctly I think it was a mixture with both live actors and cartoon animations, and that just didn’t do the trick. With this failure in mind, and also the fact that it was to be produced by splash-film director Peter Jackson, made it hard to believe that it would be a regal occurrence to watch these films. But at the same time I crossed my fingers in hope for their favourable outcome. And when the first film came up on the silver screen in December of last year, I wasn’t disappointed. It had everything that one could hope for. Of course they had been forced to make some changes in the story, bit that didn’t bother me. On the contrary actually, because they had left out the one and only passage in the book that I find unnecessary and offensive. It is the part where the Hobbits (some of the main characters) have just left their natural environment, the Shire, and are on their way to meet up with Gandalf (an other main character, a wizard), when they encounter with a dreadful character that goes by the name Tom Bombadil. I am not entirely sure why I find that particular character so repulsing, but I think that it has something to do with the quasi- religious undertones that I associate with him. Unfortunately for me I read somewhere that this character was in fact Tolkien’s absolute favourite, so maybe I don’t really understand the books as the author intended. But on the other hand, who cares, I am allowed to make my own interpretations, and even a sunny day can get clouded, so maybe Tolkien made a poor judgement. As you can understand, thinking of my reaction to the first film, my expectations for the sequel was even higher, but this time I wasn’t as pleased as I was with the first one. Of course, the film had everything that made the first one so enjoyable, the fantastic landscapes, the characters and the fact that they had been able to build up every single environment so believable, but they made, according to my own humble opinion, some hideous mistakes. I can’t point out exactly what it was that made me feel like this, it is more of a combination of things that they either left out or altered past recognition. I just have to hope that the next part, that is due to arrive to the cinemas in December of this year, will be better.
It would be impossible for me to retell the whole story without putting to much work into it. So instead I have chosen a small part of the prologue from the first book, which contains the story about the Hobbits. It is a brief summary about their history, interests, skills, looks, and their taste. There are also made some references to other sources where you can read about the Hobbits, but that is only the author's references to his own imaginary universe where all of his stories take place. It is also an example of the author’s large imaginary skills as a writer. I would hope that everyone who hasn’t yet read these books would get the opportunity, because they are really great literature.