Hair Club for Men with Clubs

Rating: 1/10 (15 December 2012)

Two things are remarkable about this film. First, and not terribly damaging, are the hairstyles. Vidal Sassoon on acid. It will probably take a PH.D. thesis akin to "The light imagery in Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying'" to explain the deeper meaning of hair in Jackson's films; I suspect it's more than just a homage to "Hairspray", something more profound is going on. The second remarkable thing, and it is damaging, is the violence. It all starts quietly in the Shire, and then takes off, a la "The Wanderers", only more bloody. If you remember "The Wanderers", it's about gangs delivering nonstop mayhem as they run through the streets of New York in the sixties. Same thing here, only with gangs of orcs, and much more bloodshed. It's perverse that Jackson has taken ownership of such truly wonderful stories and then tells them so badly. The dialog is ridiculous and really doesn't matter, only the fighting matters: It's all just running, fighting, huddling in dark places, more running, more fighting, more huddling in dark places, hair combed, uncombed, and combed again. All unbecombing of such a great series of books.