Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars

[Ranger REG]

Nah, they went into the bottled water business.

(Ahhh, cultural in-jokes. )

Well, that explains the fishy taste.

 

[Mystery Man]

I paid to see Street Fighter and the D&D movie in theaters. Nothing will ever top (bottom?) those travesties.

Oh, that on is easy..

Wing Commander

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I went on a blind date once to see the movie "Salsa". After I saw my date I wished I had been blind. But the movie was even worse.

 

[Shadowdancer]

But you don't hear that many people outside of Tolkien fans saying, "One ring to rule them all" just yet.

No, but there are/have been plenty of "my precioussss!" references in pop culture.

 

[Merlion]

This is an interesting topic and I'm really not quite sure what my take on it is. I'm a little older than the original poster, but not a whole lot. I did not see any of the Star Wars movies in their original release, however Star Wars was always pretty big in my family, so I could be said to have grown up with it.

I've also been watching the Rank and Bass animated Hobbit and Return of the King for as long as I can remember, and I read the books when I was 10.

So for me, they are both stories that I am greatly fond of, although I enjoy Lord of the Rings/the Silmarillion etc more overall, simply because there is more too them.

In some ways the issue of it being a new Star Wars in terms of people attachment to it is so personal and so much a matter of circumstance and perspective, its hard to really discuss. However I think it is safe to say that many many people will develop a happy-childhood carryover connection to the movies, and in terms of the number of people with that reaction it will probably equal or exceed Star Wars just because as has been mentioned LOTR recieved a much wider release much faster.

But I don't think it's come anywhere close to having the cultural impact that Star Wars did. A part of that, I think, has to do with the fact that LotR didn't really give us anything new. It gave us better fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless. With the exception of the balrog (which is really just a fire demon like the one seen in End of Days,) everything in LotR can be found in Willow. Not exactly groundbreaking.

But the funny thing about it is, the LOTR books are one of the major foundation stones of fantasy as a genre for both books and movies, and so Willow still owes a bit to the LOTR story, just not the movie.

I was hoping LotR would usher in a new age of fantasy on film but so far it hasn't happened like it did with Star Wars. We have Narnia coming up, and others, but it's been a slow, slow process. Maybe studios didn't want to over commit? But since when has that been a problem for them? I dunno.

This is something I have thought much about as well, because it has been proved time and again that sci fi and even fantasy can be profitable and popular, and now with LOTR its even been shown that such a film can recieve high awards from the filmaking industry.

When you think about it, excluding titanic, most of the highest grossing films have been or at least had strong elements of sci fi/fantasy etc. E.T. the Jurrasic Park movies, Harry Potter, LOTR etc

I think Harry Potter has contributed quite a bit as well, and as you said Narnia is coming up. But one still wonders at the reasons behind moviemakers reluctance in this area. Of course, its going to vary from director to director and producer to producer and whatever.

I think many see fantasy as fairytales for young kids...as Disney stuff. I think some are afraid of the themes that tend to get touched on...religion and spirituality, free will, the price of power, racism and elitism etc.


But I think LOTR has had an impact, and I think we will see it more and more. Theres probably also a lot of fear of seeming to simply be a copycat, trying to cash in on LOTR's popularity. I think once that passes the floodgates will really open.


As far as cultural impact well again it must be remembered that LOTR has impacted the culture twice...as literature and as movies. The literature was one of the major things responsible for creating the fantasy genre we know. Its impact on our culture was slow and subtle, and its been the same with the movies. Even though many many people saw them, a lesser percetage really took to them enough to adopt quotes from the movie and such like. But that will only increase with time.

 

[David Howery]

hmmm.... I was 17 or so when Star Wars came out. I don't think LOTR had quite the same impact that SW did on filmmaking in general. SW basically created the whole summer blockbuster action flick idea, by driving home the idea that you could really make a simple themed good vs. evil action flick and make it fun. IMO, 'fun' was severely lacking in a lot of movies in the 70's before SW came along. I love the whole LOTR trilogy, but it wasn't so much groundbreaking as it was the end result of a lot of years of special effects work and action ideas that began with SW....

 

[Ranger REG]

But I don't think it's come anywhere close to having the cultural impact that Star Wars did. A part of that, I think, has to do with the fact that LotR didn't really give us anything new. It gave us better fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless. With the exception of the balrog (which is really just a fire demon like the one seen in End of Days,) everything in LotR can be found in Willow. Not exactly groundbreaking.

Well, to me it's groundbreaking when shooting all three films at once and to release them just one year apart. It's groundbreaking that of all the the science-fiction and fantasy films, this was finally recognized, even by the folk that award them the Oscar statues.

Sure, there are previous fantasy films, even before Willow, but Peter Jackson's LOTR topped all fantasy films. While I would have been satisfied if genre audience liked the films, the mainstream audience also liked them as well.

OBTW, Star Wars isn't exactly groundbreaking either. Before, there were Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Metropolis and many science-FICTION movies that your [great] grandpa saw when he was a kid.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I think it's a question of art vs. commerce. Star Wars is commerce. LotR is art. It's a lot easier for commerce to have a large, high-profile cultural impact, because that's one of the things it's designed to do. Art usually has a lower-profile impact on culture.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I think it's a question of art vs. commerce. Star Wars is commerce. LotR is art. It's a lot easier for commerce to have a large, high-profile cultural impact, because that's one of the things it's designed to do. Art usually has a lower-profile impact on culture.

Could you explain that. I don't see how they were more art than any other good movie.

 

[Merlion]

Could you explain that. I don't see how they were more art than any other good movie

I think SD is refering more to people's perceptions of them, especially those in the film industry.