THE HOBBIT (2012/2013): News, Rumors, Pics Till Release

Not a problem in the slightest. I can watch Band if Brothers for example and not be moan the lack of women characters that are prominent in their quest, why should I here.

I for one wouldn't complain about reading say a long wonder women story set back during the two thousand years of isolation from both man's world and their gods, and not be bothered by the lack of men in that story.

Why would I apply modern sensibilities to materials that were drawn for a different age. It's like reading Tom Sawyer and not having race be an issue. And it's not like that in both film versions they didn't expand female roles that weren't a part of the original work.

 

Were Balrogs and magic invisibility rings possible in Europe circa 7,000 BCE?

How can Merry's theory not work in-universe, as a theory of where pipe-weed comes from? To put it another way, given all the other changes in understanding that would be required in order to interpret the past of Arda as actual prehistory, wouldn't the true origin of tobacco be relatively minor by comparison?

 

Production video #5. On location shooting, Hobbiton, more.

 

Tobacco existed in ancient Europe, but the hobbits smoked it all.

 

Then something smoked all the Hobbits.

 

Would explain why Merry and Pippin have the munchies in that one scene in the extended edition of The Two Towers.

 

They're hobbits. They always have the munchies.

 

Band of Brothers is about an army unit in the Second World War. The screaming inconsistency would have been if there had been any women. Had it been about wartime France as a whole, however, and but one woman played a pivotal role, you have to wonder about the blinkers the writer was wearing.

 

Woot! Thanks for the heads-up!

ETA: So now Hobbiton will be a permanent tour-site after the movies?
I wanna ride the Smaugcoaster.

They should just rename Wellington as Hobbitwood.

 

Further in-depth frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer by folks at TORN.

I have to admit I never noticed the differences in Gandalf's staff but I like the suggestion that its actually alive and is slowly "blooming."

 

Those production videos always seem to do a great job of conveying just how special this production is for everyone involved. That dedication worked for the LOTR films - there's a great chance that it'll work for the Hobbit films, too.

Also, from that frame-by-frame analysis:

"1:48 – 2:01 : heroic version of the melody used for the song (just sung) – this indicates to me the melody will be a theme, probably a major one, in the vein of the Shire Theme and the Fellowship Theme in LOTR"
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I really hope that this will be a primary theme in the score. It sounds incredible. Is there yet any confirmation that the cue was composed by Howard Shore?

 

More than likely considering he, like so many others from the Lord of the Rings production, has returned for The Hobbit.

 

We know Howard Shore is back for the films, and that theme definitely does sound like his work. It sounds like it could have come right out of LOTR.

I think it will be one of the main themes, yeah. Probably akin to the Fellowship's theme in LOTR.

 

Good thing the Hobbit isn't about Wartime France then.

 

I'm not really going to be hung up on potatoes and tobacco. Just show me a really good movie.

 

And that's where you completely miss the boat (and why I specifically used Band of Brothers as an example).

Of course (like you mentioned) if that story was a general telling of war time France, then women would have all sorts of roles. But its not its a story set with a combat force made of males (who only run into women a few times in their travels and none for any real significant exchanges).

But LOTR is also a war time story, but not a general one, one that is told of a band (ie fellowship) and not the general overall war time effort. IE the story only follows the members of the fellowship. Even in the Hobbit it's basically routed force going back into battle, one using subterfuge, instead of open war fare. All the cultures used are based on cultures that had a strict demarcation (at that time) of what roles women would have in society as a whole).

Just as in Band of Brothers int eh US, women's roles would not allow them in combat military. Women had very set roles in the military.

I mean the fact that Tolkien even included one women who went against the rules of society in getting into combat, shows greater latitude then the military of World War I or II.

So the fact that you have no problems with Band of Brothers yet do with LOTR and the Hobbit really seems rather odd and inconsistent.

 

Indeed, some of Tolkien's inspiration for Fellowship came from his own experiences in World War I, Frodo's perspective especially: He left his idyllic home and trudged through a war-torn hell in order to save his home and his friends. He succeeded, but upon his return he found that things had changed, or more accurately he had changed, and he no longer fit in the home he struggled so hard to save. A great illustration of the young soldier returning from war.

 

I actually thought that wasn't referring to Thingol, on account of the fact that it says "the elf-king" (Thranduil) and not Thingol.

Particularly because the version in The Hobbit implies its really the "Elf-King's" fault and a squabble over due payment for the Dwarves....while the Silmarillion makes it clear that the Dwarves were really just trying to steal the Silmaril.

Though its obviously a repeated trope.