life without a plot

[Hm. I promise I'll stop criticising the LotR movies... eventually.]

One thing I read in many critical discussions of the movie is that even if it wasn't perfect, no one would have been able to do it better; or even that some of the ideas and concepts of the books were anachronistic and difficult, if not impossible to convey to a modern audience.

After re-watching only one season of Babylon 5 I beg to differ. It has been done better, in spirit, if not in detail or in exact wording.

I believe the comparison is valid enough; IMO there are sufficient similarities to show that Babylon 5 does indeed use and re-work some of the main themes of LotR; in one of the DVD commentaries JMS mentions how he grew up with the LotR books. This isn’t meant to put down the show in any way, because it’s never a direct rip-off and to re-work such a classic book in such an intelligent and effective way is quite a feat in and of itself. Now of course it is true that JMS and the B5 team were able to build their story and develop their characters over a much longer span of time than the nine hours (give or take) of the three LotR movies, but I don't think this changes much about the basic truth that they simply had a much better grasp of the epic scale of their story and of how to tell it.

For one thing, the B5 creators, despite having technical possibilities on a previously unknown scale (the first fully digitally animated space-fights...) at their disposal, never gave in to the temptation to over-use them. To all appearances they were aware of the fact that a good story is about story telling and characters first and foremost and everything else can only be subservient to that. There simply are no show-off self-indulgent animation scenes on B5 like there are all too frequently on LotR.

The interesting thing is that, judging from various reviews, near everyone’s favourite scene in RotK was Faramir riding out to regain Osgiliath at his father’s command, the quiet ride through the city, the doomed attack; inter-cut with Pippin’s song. No gratuitous animations there, only one arrow fired. This really leads me to believe that a more understated and character-driven movie might have worked and would have been appreciated by audiences.

I'd have liked to have see Arwen make her choice with the same gravity and dignity as Delenn. I'd have liked to see in Aragon what you see in Sinclair, glimpses of what he's going to be, a man realising his fate. Something of Londo's tragedy in Denethor. Some of the essential *otherness* of the Minbari in the elves rather than just wigs & fake pointed ears. I could go on.

Now the last B5 episode, 'Sleeping in Light' - that is Arwen and Aragon’s final parting, space ship or royal tombs of Minas Tirith, it makes no difference - what matters is there: the deep love, the grief, balanced against a life fully lived.

And while B5 is maybe a little more ‘modern’ in its ethical complexity, dealing with the subject of the temptation and corruption of power directly, relinquishing the symbol of the ring, it has all the epic themes of LotR, loyalty, honour, willingness to die for a cause or love, and never, ever seems anachronistic.

IMO it’s more important to capture the spirit of a book or play than to faithfully render all the little details, and once the former is achieved, a lot of liberties can be taken with the latter: it makes for better and more interesting art most of the times, too. I’ve had the good fortune to once see an interpretation of Hamlet that has forever spoiled me for all the more conventional renderings. The director had cut the play up and re-arranged it, merged characters and created new ones while totally abandoning others, but to me it perfectly captured what ‘Hamlet’ was about. ‘Velvet Goldmine’ IMO is much more in the spirit of Oscar Wilde than the conventional and – at least to me - quite boring ‘Wilde’ movie. Babylon 5 is in the spirit of J.R.R.Tolkien in ways that Peter Jackson’s movies never even come close to.


[Bad, bad day. If it weren’t for the fact that I need the job, rent & bills need to be paid... I was never so tempted to simply walk out. Just pack up my things and leave. No particular reason, except that it suddenly seemed unbearable to remain, trapped, my life finished. I didn't, of course. And then I come home, turn on the computer and type endless rambling posts no one’s interested in reading about SF shows & what not, because it's such a relief to give my brain something to do after eight hours of mind numbing stupidity and superficial forced politeness, even if it's only a substitute for the real thing. Ersatzbefriedigung. Gives ‘pathetic’ a whole new range of meaning.]