Month: November 2016

There and Back Again: A New Viewing Order for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Films

Posted on by filmscore80
How do you solve a problem like viewing order?
How do you solve a problem like viewing order?

By Michael W. Harris

Well, I finally did it. I watched all six Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films back to back to back to back to back to back, and all in their Extended Editions (the only way to watch the films, as will be assumed throughout this post). That’s almost 21 hours of movie, to say nothing of breaks for cooking food, taking periodic walks, let alone sleep and other necessities. But throughout my viewing, the question lingered: what is the right viewing order of these six films? A film series I hereby dub the Tolkien Hexalogy, for lack of a better term.

Back when the final Hobbit film was released, an article on Medium.com was published that gave a number of possible viewing orders outside of the obvious options of story chronology option (Hobbit followed by Lord of the Rings), which is the how I watched them over two days this past week, or the release order (Rings followed by Hobbit). But none of the orders in the Medium article really resonated with me, and I mused if there was a viewing order that solved some of the viewing issues with the Hobbit films (somewhat bloated storyline, spoilers and foreshadowing for Lord of the Rings that might not make sense without seeing those films, etc.) the way that the rightfully famous Machete Order makes the Star Wars prequels watchable.

So what I will present in this post is my Machete inspired Tolkien Hexalogy viewing order, but just as Rod Hilton starts off his Machete Order post with some disclaimers, I feel like I must first tackle the elephant in the room… Continue reading “There and Back Again: A New Viewing Order for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Films” →

Jeff Buckley and Baroque Music

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

N.B. – This was written the Sunday after the election, after Leonard Cohen’s death, and after Saturday Night Live’s masterful blending of so much of the country’s reaction to both. It is going up a week later only due to my writing schedule.

It was just one of those weeks. When it seemed like the universe just knew what was going to happen and have a plan. Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died in November 7th but it was not announced until the 10th. Regardless, it was a double whammy to many coming so close to the American presidential election, and indeed one of Cohen’s most famous songs, the wistful, gospel like “Hallelujah,” seemed to sum up so much of our somber reaction to the news that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States.

So it was that Saturday Night Live opened their post-election episode with Kate McKinnon performing “Hallelujah” as Hillary Clinton, white pantsuit and all. Continue reading “Jeff Buckley and Baroque Music” →

A Wistful Meditation on Mono no aware

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

N.B.—I wrote this post prior to Tuesday, November 8. Look to the end for a post-election postscript.

The sun sets over the Boulder Public Library on a Saturday Evening in November.
The sun sets over the Boulder Public Library on a Saturday Evening in November.

All things considered, this has been a fairly mild autumn in Boulder, CO. We have had scattered days of temperatures in the 80s with most days having been in the 70s or mid to upper 60s and mornings rarely dipping below freezing. Despite this, the green has slowly faded from the world with the exception of the evergreen pines of Colorado, and I can’t help but begin think more about the cycles of life and death and the concept of mono no aware. Continue reading “A Wistful Meditation on Mono no aware” →

Just a Matter of Time: Musings on Arrival

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead. Just go see the movie first and then return to ponder its meaning with me.

arrival-posterTwice now in one week have I not fallen asleep until 2AM or later. The first was Tuesday night while still in shock from both the election and my ill-advised whiskey toast to the end of the American experiment. I should really never drink whiskey. Nothing good comes from whiskey.

The second time was Saturday night after seeing Arrival, the new film from Denis Villeneuve. I had only recently seen any of Villeneuve’s films, having watched Sicario about a month ago, though I had wanted to see Arrival since I had seen the first trailer.

It looked intriguing and most importantly seemed positioned to be a good thinking person’s science fiction film. One that asks big questions, and also asks more than it answers. Continue reading “Just a Matter of Time: Musings on Arrival” →

A Good Trailer Is Hard to Find: Thoughts on Music and Trailers

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

I have written about trailers and music more than once on this blog, though it has been quite a while since last I thought about it. For the most part, trailers are quite unremarkable and meant to be little more than hype reels to sell a film, but that is really missing a golden opportunity to make an audience really excited for a film and drive interest (see the first Force Awakens trailer).

As I wrote in two very (VERY) early posts on this website (so please excuse the weirdness of my earlier writings), part of what can really sell a trailer is a good music choice. Rather than using canned, generic trailer music or reusing tracks from an earlier film (unless it part of a franchise), one of the best decisions can be to find the right pop song that somehow conveys something about the tone or story of the film. Continue reading “A Good Trailer Is Hard to Find: Thoughts on Music and Trailers” →