{"id":4238,"date":"2012-12-22T09:34:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T16:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?p=4238"},"modified":"2012-12-22T09:42:53","modified_gmt":"2012-12-22T16:42:53","slug":"why-the-hobbit-makes-more-sense-than-snarky-critics-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/12\/why-the-hobbit-makes-more-sense-than-snarky-critics-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Hobbit Makes More Sense Than Snarky Critics Say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Really appreciated this Huffington Post piece by a poet named Seth Abramson<\/a>. Abramson gives very helpful backstory to\u00a0The Hobbit<\/em>, which as some know has taken a bit of a critical pounding of late, and shows that there is actually a good deal more history to the matters covered in and around\u00a0The Hobbit<\/em> then originally meets the eye. Making three movies from the book, while tricky, is not necessarily only a money-grab.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Abramson<\/a>\u00a0has to say on the subject. The whole piece is worth reading if you like the film and Tolkien\u2019s work:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s odd about the naysayers is not their opinions\u2013movie-reviewing, like movie-making, is an artform rife with necessary subjectivities\u2013but how they\u2019ve gone about substantiating them. If there\u2019s one biographical fact avid moviegoers have considered sacrosanct these past few years, it\u2019s that Peter Jackson was and is a nerd-king of historic dimensions whose genuine love for all things Tolkien was and is the animating principle behind the\u00a0Lord of the Rings\u00a0trilogy and its now-three-part\u00a0Hobbit\u00a0companion. Not so, say those scions of the movie-reviewing circuit who\u2019ve heaped calumny upon\u00a0The Hobbit; in fact, Jackson\u2019s decision to bloat the 310-page children\u2019s book into a trilogy on par, in length and cinematic scope, to Tolkien\u2019s 1,500-page (in manuscript form, 9,250-page)\u00a0Lord of the Rings\u00a0trilogy was entirely a \u201cmercenary\u201d one,\u00a0according to CNN<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

What these critics don\u2019t know, and what Jackson most certainly does, is the history of\u00a0The Hobbit\u00a0as a text, and of Middle Earth as a holistic construction. While knowledge of the literature behind the film doesn\u2019t necessarily imbue the film with automatic cinematic bona fides, it does suggest that, in the long run, critics of\u00a0The Hobbit\u00a0will be made to feel rather foolish for their circumspection and (in many instances) their open hostility toward both Jackson and his creation. If there\u2019s a reason most critics panning the film don\u2019t also encourage moviegoers to avoid it, it\u2019s likely that they sense\u2013as they ought to\u2013that future generations will view the effort considerably more kindly, and that therefore\u00a0The Hobbit\u00a0is worth seeing now, whatever its infelicities.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019re considering whether or not to see the film, I would strongly encourage you to go see it. It\u2019s not perfect, it\u2019s younger than the LOTR trilogy, but it\u2019s also a powerful cinematic experience and full of good things. It celebrates heroism, fighting evil sacrificially, the old ways, courage, the underdog, supernatural power exercised for the good of humanity, and much more. It\u2019s very fun, and very cool. Don\u2019t believe the snarky critics (on this or other films). They so often celebrate evil, murkiness, deconstruction of good things. Meanwhile, hope, virtue, moral excellence, purity, and truth are considered outmoded. Phooey.<\/p>\n

Nothing, in my view, can top\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em>, the first movie of the original trilogy. The way that Jackson smashes whimsy and horror together is nothing less than masterful. The first two hours are just stunning and in my opinion rival any film I can think of in terms of drama and suspense.<\/p>\n

What do you think? What is the best LOTR movie? Did you like the Hobbit? What are your favorite themes from the films?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Really appreciated this Huffington Post piece by a poet named Seth Abramson. Abramson gives very helpful backstory to\u00a0The Hobbit, which as some know has taken a bit of a critical pounding of late, and shows that there is actually a good deal more history to the matters covered in and around\u00a0The Hobbit then originally meets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[3240,3241,3239,2832],"class_list":["post-4238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","tag-huffington-post","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-seth-abramson","tag-the-hobbit"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy The Hobbit Makes More Sense Than Snarky Critics Say<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Really appreciated this Huffington Post piece by a poet named Seth Abramson. 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