04 March, 2010
18 February, 2010
Epic
Our epic unit is coming to a close and it has reminded me why I enjoy epics so much. We have viewed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and PowerPoint presentations paralleling other epics. All of the PowerPoints where arranges and presented nicely; however, my favorites where Justine’s Harry Potter parallel, Reece’s Iron Man parallel, and Chris’s Avatar parallel.
I’ll start with Harry Potter. The hero of the series, Harry Potter himself, closely relates to Frodo, hero of Lord of the Rings Justine points out that in both movies the heroes where the only possibilities for the quest they must complete, destroy Voldemort and the ring respectively. The heroes of these two films are both very selfless. They put themselves in danger to protect another on more then one occasion. I like the way Justine paralleled guides from the two movies. Gandolf and Dumbledore are both old and powerful wizards and guide the hero with their great wisdom. I think putting a picture of a mermaid and ent as the background of her supernatural forces slides was an excellent idea and really added to the presentation. I like how she paralleled the Order of the Phoenix with the Fellowship of the Ring. Both organizations where created with the purpose of eradicating evil from their respective worlds. Justine was also one of the few who has a language parallelism. She showed us Harry Potter’s parseltongue, language of the snakes, as well as magical terms and the elves’ and dwarves’ language from Lord of the Rings.
Reece’s presentation of Iron Man grabbed my attention right away with the picture of Tony Stark’s face next to the Iron Man face. I liked Reece’s parallels between Stane and Gollum. Both characters betrayed the hero of the film they where in; for example, Stane had Stark kidnapped, and Gollum tried to steal the ring from Frodo. Both also died horribly in the film; an arc reactor explosion and plummeting into the depths of a volcano. This shows how a characters in a science fiction film can be similar to those in high fantasy film. Although Iron Man didn’t have any true supernatural forces, Reece used the Iron Man suit. It enhances the abilities of Tony Stark, the hero of the film, by alowing him to fly and fire a pulse cannon. Reece also talked about Jarvis, Stark's sarcastic computer AI.
Finally, Chris’s Avatar presentation had amazing pictures to help focus our attention on the parallelism. He did a great parallel of Jake Sully and Frodo Baggins, the heroes of the two films. Chris focused on the bravery and compassion of the two characters. I like how he did a comparison of creatures and races found in each world like the Na’vi and elves. It's amazing how two difrend races from two very difrent worlds can be so simmilar. This can also be aplied to life to show that although people have difrences, we are also very simmiler. Like Justine, Chris did a parallelism of language in his PowerPoint using the Na’vi and elves’ language.
11 February, 2010
01 February, 2010
25 January, 2010
19 December, 2009
Lord of the Rings Commentary
Watching the commentary of Lord of the Rings has its advantages and disadvantages. We learn a lot about the making of the film such as special effects and camera angle tricks; however, we don’t actually get to experience the full effect of the film. One effect I enjoys was the way the directors produced the small image of the hobbits to normal people. They mostly filmed two background images together, making the hobbits look smaller than normal, and the normal people looking larger than they actually are. Another thing I found particularly interesting was the fact that they didn’t want to put in an introduction, but it was a requirement so they made an introduction that told about the ring’s origin.
17 December, 2009
Epic Final
A vast landscape full of rolling hills, soaring peaks, and enchanted forest. Hero’s pure of heart and full of valor questing to put and end to a great evil. An unknown force granting divine inspiration of a great power just when the characters need it most. These are some of the qualities of an epic, the greatest stories ever written. I will be discussing the above elements in relation to The Lord of the Rings, the trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and based on the novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
I think one of the most important aspects of an epic is the vast world it takes place in. The Lord of the Rings begins in a small peaceful hobbit village called the Shire and we are taken to many exotic locations within the realm of Middle Earth, such as Rivendell, Helm’s Deep, and Isengard. Many establishing shots are used to show landscape. This is a visually appealing way to show just how
vast this landscape is and emphasize the length of the characters journey.
Without a hero and his quest, there is no story, which is why I have chosen to make that my next point. Heroes are a perfect model of the society they come from. They represent all that is good and just. In the beginning of the “Fellowship of the Ring” Bilbo tells Frodo he is the only Baggins that showed true spirit. Frodo also has a purity that no one else has which makes it so that he is the only one who can carry the ring. All others who touch the ring become corrupted by the power it possesses. In Rivendell Frodo says,” I will take the ring, though I do not know the way,” showing his courage and will to do what is right The struggle to maintain his identity represents the struggle of all mankind to hold on to the good in a world full of evil temptations and corruption.
Another important element in an epic is the supernatural. This takes many forms in Lord of the Rings. Of particular interest are the wizards, Gandalf and Sarumon. In the first movie they have a battle using only their magic. This battle also shows that the evil forces are stronger at this point in the film because of Gandalf’s loss; however, in the second film when Gandalf rides over the hill during the battle of Helm’s Deep we see that the forces of good have dramatically increased. A high angle of Gandalf is given to show he is powerful and in control of the battle. The elves are also a strong supernatural figure. They are immortal and most have superhuman grace or agility. In the second movie, The Two Towers, we are introduced to the ents, which are living trees possessing a vast knowledge of the worlds and incredible strength.
The story of Lord of the Rings was intended as a sequel the J.R.R. Tolkiens less complex children’s boo The Hobbit; however, the story developed into much more. Lord of the Rings was written over a twelve year period, and initially intended to be one volume pared with The Silmarillion, but the publisher decided to omit the second volume and publish Lord of the Rings as thee. The writing of such a great story can be and epic quest it’s self.
