This week on “Picture Perfect,” you’ll be spellbound (I hope) by an hour of musical selections from movies about wizards and sorcerers.
Gandalf and Saruman duke it out in Peter Jackson’s frenetic, yet somehow ponderous adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” films so bloated and poorly paced that anyone who did not read the books probably wondered what all the fuss was about. Its abundant defects didn’t keep the screen trilogy from making over a billion dollars and garnering 30 Academy Award nominations. Three of those were bestowed upon composer Howard Shore. We’ll be sampling from his music to “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001).
Made for a fraction of the budget, much less self-serious, and arguably way more fun is “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982), which holds no pretense to be anything beyond what it is: a schlocky B-movie sword and sandal swashbuckler. However, the composer, David Whitaker, aspired for something greater. Against tremendous time pressures, he turned in a marvelous score, which sounds like Erich Wolfgang Korngold on a shoestring. If this film had been made by George Lucas, Whitaker would be world famous.
After creating one of his greatest scores for Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” Alex North had his music for Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” rejected – and not in a nice way. (North didn’t find out about it until the lights went down at the film’s premiere.) Fortunately, the composer was able to salvage the best material for “Dragonslayer” (1981). The plot, about a bumbling sorcerer’s apprentice who faces a seemingly impossible challenge, is serviceable at best, but the dragon may yet be the most amazing committed to film. Also, the score is terrific.
Finally, John Williams kicked off another billion-dollar franchise with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), which in England was released (as was the book) as “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” Who ever heard of a sorcerer’s stone? I guess the publishers were nervous that Americans would be put off by any association with philosophy.
Prepare to be charmed! It’s music for wizards and sorcerers this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT (***now with a repeat Sunday at 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT***)
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
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PHOTO: Saruman vexes Gandalf with the exquisite whiteness of his beard See less
Wizards and Sorcerers on “Picture Perfect”
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6 responses
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6 responses to “Wizards and Sorcerers on “Picture Perfect””
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Love “Dragonslayer”. Still one of the best Dragons on screen ever …
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Lesley Siedt That dragon was indeed something else. I am sorry the movie lacks that last little something that would make it a world-beater. But I enjoy watching it for the dragon, the music, Ralph Richardson, the era of filmmaking, and Caitlin Clarke, who died too young. The casting of Peter MacNicol was a little silly. He was better in “Sophie’s Choice.” But I do have a soft spot for this film. I wish someone had made a live action “Lord of the Rings” before the digital era ruined everything.
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My kids hadn’t read the trilogy before the film came out, and I had read it only twice— we all loved the film! But my brother-in-law, who has read it at least twenty times (no exaggeration), did not— but one thing we all agree on, other than Viggo Mortensen, is the incredibly lush, poignant, stirring music. The Lighting of the Beacons gives me goosebumps just playing it in my head
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Claire Pula For me, the music was one of the only elements that didn’t enrage me. Seriously. That and the Balrog (although the rest of the Moria sequence was a mess). Oh yeah, and Ian McKellen as Gandalf. But everything else, I was pretty much furious.
Granted, I had just reread the trilogy a year or two before “The Fellowship of the Ring” was released. I just didn’t detect any of the “nobility” that made Tolkien’s books so attractive to me. And the heroism, so much of it was just lost in all the noise, CGI, and vertiginous camera work.
Also, I couldn’t believe the pacing. It was terrible. They got to the Prancing Pony in like a minute, and Moria was all fits and starts. That fight with the troll was interminable. And the pallete was just so “dark.” I’m not talking about the tone; I mean the look. I know it’s unreasonable of me, but when was the last time Aragorn took a bath? The Orcs are evil, but do they have to be constantly exuding mucus?
My best friend is a Tolkien fanatic. Like your brother-in-law, he can recite these things chapter and verse. So at least I have someone I can rant with that loathes these movies as much as I do. I’m hoping, now that a quarter century has passed, I can go back to the books and not be thinking of the movies!
I concede that those of us who hate Peter Jackson’s LOTR are in the minority. I am glad that you enjoy them! Peace be with you! 🧙♂️
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Classic Ross Amico and also with you! And of course you’re right about the CGI, and much of the second unit action— and mucus! 🧝🏼♀️
P.S. You would enjoy my brother-in-law’s Rings of Power critique -
Claire Pula Oh good lord, not Rings of Power!
No doubt, part of the problem was having the books too fresh in my head when I saw the movies. That’s happened to me before. I almost never have favorable opinions of movies made from books I read not long before.
Also, I read LOTR for the first time in the early ’80s (I tried even earlier, but I was too young; I loved The Hobbit, though!), and I think it left a strong impression on me then, so I have pretty firm ideas of what the characters and settings should look like and the overall feel of the storytelling. It doesn’t mean my vision would be everyone’s vision any more than Peter Jackson’s is. But it’s especially painful for me, with LOTR, since it’s not likely to be remade any time soon.
And if it is, it’s going to be so far from the ’70s and ’80s style of filmmaking I prefer, I will only be more miserable!
One more thing: since the death of Christopher Tolkien, the integrity of the property has been greatly compromised, so LOTR is likely to suffer the same fate as Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Predator, Dune, The Exorcist, and anything else a studio can run into the ground. It’s now a FRANCHISE.
On the one hand, this increases the work’s exposure, but sadly, it also cheapens it. I’m willing to bet, there are millions of LOTR fans out there who fell in love with something that’s not anything like the books, and many of these folks, I’m sure, will never actually read them. That makes me sad, because the books are very different.
I’m sure Tolkien would have hated the movies, just as Christopher Tolkien did.
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