crap

Rating: 2/10 (23 March 2006)

This morning I was sitting in Japanese literature class, while Murakami's Novel "A Wild Sheep Chase" was being discussed, and a student so boldly suggested a number of parallels between it and "The Lord of The Rings." To my dismay a majority of the students in the class started to giggle, thinking this comment was almost a joke. What's sad about it, is that his points were valid and made perfect sense. He was comparing the Murakami novel's narrative, characters, and moral messages to LOR, and it was a most convincing comparison. Literally everything from how the characters are similar to how the plot concludes is very similar.
Based on the class reaction, I have to ask, when did Lord of the Rings cease to be literature and become another Hollywood movie? 15 years ago, if the same comparison were made, people would value it and even consider it. Before LOR became a movie it was one of the most read books in the 20th century and its readership and importance in a country like Japan was present. So why couldn't this parallel exist? After all Murakami was and is heavily influenced by Western literature.
Before this class, I only criticized LOR as a film in itself, and gave it credit for exposing people to a classic story. In fact, I'm pretty sure these movies will introduce millions more to the books. But now I feel differently. The lack of integrity these movies possess will pollute the books and therefore reduce their real cultural importance. When I watch these movies, I see Hollywood on a grand scale. I see little of what is in the novels and instead see an inverse effect from what I expected. Now when I consider the novel I can only picture the dumb-wit characters, so shallow and bland following the plot line like a trail of breadcrumbs. If I could go back and reverse the money and time I wasted watching these films I would. In fact, I wouldn't suggest them to anyone, because they in no way enhance the original work. I'm not critical of film adaptations of novels in many cases. Don't get me wrong. A great filmmaker can take a great novel and show you things about it that you could have never thought of yourself. He or she can interpret a work of literature as the original author originally interpreted reality itself. Italian and Japanese cinema seem to have a good track record of adaptations, but American cinema Its %@#$! Please don't butcher anymore great works.Please.... Leave something for those who actually care about art.