Lord of the Rings

The film trilogy The Lord of the Rings was directed by Peter Jackson, also known for directing King Kong. It was based on a trilogy of novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1954. The story features many epic qualities, including a vast geographic setting, supernatural forces, and an epic hero. This isn’t the only story with those qualities, as Star Wars and Brutal Legend have shown, but Lord of the Rings was one of the first novels with such characteristics.

The Lord of the Rings features an epic hero in the form of Aragorn. An epic hero is someone who represents the ideals of their people, is capable of almost superhuman feats, and most important, they go on a quest. In this case, Aragorn goes on a quest to destroy the ring. Sure, Frodo winds up being the one who winds up going into the Crack of Doom and destroying the ring, but Frodo, to me at least, isn’t really the hero, simply the protagonist. Some people don’t feel that there’s a distinction, but I do. Aragorn, in my opinion, is the actual hero of the story. In his part of the story, he travels the road, searching for the young hobbits, who were kidnapped at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring. In terms of superhuman feats, Aragorn manages to survive being thrown off a cliff by a Warg, which has a really sweet eye level angle shot, as well as being blown up with gunpowder in the battle against the Uruk-hai at Helms Deep. He also ages unbelievably slowly, being eighty-three at the time of the story.

In terms of supernatural aid, Aragorn is aided on the journey by Gandalf the wizard. Through the story, Gandalf offers Aragorn aid and advice. On the fifth day of the battle of Helms Deep, Gandalf came riding down the almost 90 degree angle hill leading a huge army, with an epic long shot, and helped push back the Uruk-hai. It was a lot like at the end of Star Wars, where Han Solo comes riding out of the sun, shooting at Darth Vader. It gave the hero, in this case Aragorn, the opportunity they needed to defeat the villains and be heroes.

However, there are also supernatural threats to our heroes. A prime example is Saruman, who uses magic to create the horrible Uruk-hai. He also used his magic to create an avalanche on the mountain (I don’t remember what it was called), forcing the Fellowship into the Mines of Moria. Then, there’s Sauron, the giant eye and ruler of Mordor. He uses his horrible influence to send out Orcs to challenge the Fellowship, as well as forging the ring that caused the whole story in the first place. There’s also the Balrog in Moria, which manages to kill Gandalf. But, like any good super being, Gandalf refused to stay dead.

Then, there’s the shear geographical distance of Middle Earth. The world is divided into multiple different nations, just like our own. There are all the nations we see, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, Rivendell, and the land that Galadriel rules, but there are also nations we never see. This is supported when we see the long shot of the army from the south, marching to aid Mordor. We never see the lands in the south, and we can only guess about how many there are. So, the world they inhabit is expansive, and populated by all kinds of people and creatures.

The Lord of the Rings is an epic in all senses of the word. It has a brave hero, supernatural occurrences, and a vast geographical distance. The quest for the Ring is indeed one of great difficulty, which would test any man to their absolute breaking point.

Sneak Attack

All right, the movie I was supposed to upload didn't want to work, so I decided to use this movie I made for Media last year for Mrs. Adams. I had help from Keene Sharp, Glen Chess, and Adam Engleken.

Lord of the Rings

In our Media Communications class the other day, we watched the director's commentary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Peter Jackson (director), Fran Walsh (producer), and Phillipa Boyens (writer) talked about how they did all the special effects for the film. They talked about using a tall person for the scenes of Gandalf's back with the hobbits, and a short person with the scenes of the Hobbits with regular sized people. They also told us about another technique they used called Forced Perspective. They had two people in the same room, but far away from each other. The stuff on one side of the room was bigger than the stuff on the other end. Then they would take the two scenes, and squish them together to make it seem like the two actors are next to each other. I personally thought that was cool.

The picture is of Musta-Krakish, the lake troll from Metalocalypse.

Rocky: Paper and Scissors

The movie Rocky, Paper, and Scissors, made by Weston Allen and Tony Thompson of Lawrence High School, is a straight up parody of the classic movie Rocky. In this version, though, Rocky plays rock, paper, scissors instead of boxing.

Really, this movie wasn't too bad. I mean, it's not going to be a summer blockbuster or anything, but it's not bad. The actors did their best to make the characters believable, and there were some seriously funny moments in it. One of my favorite parts was, when Rocky drifts off into a flashback, he actually says "I think I'm having a flashback." The final match with "Mr. TJ" was pretty funny, too. Overall, I give the movie a 3.5 out of 4.

Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls is one of the cheesiest movies in the history of film. Written in 1962 by Herk Harvey and John Clifford over the coarse of 2 weeks, the film was filmed in Lawrence, Kansas and Salt Lake City, Utah. Candace Hilligoss plays the main character, who is in fact dead from the very beginning, like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. The film had a crew of 5, and filmed with a budget of $30,000, but only used $17,000.

Really, this movie is very cheesy, which is part of it's appeal. There's no real explanation for how she comes back from the dead, or why the dead people are chasing her. The only movies I can think of that are cheesier than this are Manos: The Hands of Fate, and Plan 9 From Outer Space. If Herk Harvey and Ed Wood got together for a movie, they would destroy the world with the sheer amount of cheese it would produce.

Enders Game

This is my Podcast for Ender's Game.

My Podcast

This is my Podcast on the nature of good and evil.

Pulitzer Prize Photographs

The first photograph is called the Boston Fire. The photograph shows a woman and her child falling from a burning building. The woman is tumbling under the child, whose face you can see. The image is pretty gruesome. Both suspended in id-air, looks of horror etched on their faces. At least we know that the child survived. This picture led to stronger fire safety laws throughout the United States.

The second photograph shows a family rushing to greet a soldier from war. He had been detained in a Vietcong Prison Camp for six years. When he finally got home, his family was happy to see him. This picture made me feel happy. It's nice to see soldiers in a positive light for a change.

Associated Press Publishes Controversial Photograph

On Friday, September 4, the Associated Press ran a story about an assault in Afghanistan. A squad of Marines was caught in an ambush staged by the Taliban. One soldier had his leg blown off, and died on the operating table. The Associated Press had an image of the Marine, leg missing, covered in blood, and used it in their media, against the wishes of the family.
Personally, I feel that the AP was in the wrong in this one. The family of the dead soldier has the final say in whether an image of their son can or cannot be used. If they say that an image should not be used, it should not be used. The Associated Press hides behind the First Amendment, claiming that it gives them the right to publish pictures, even if the grieving family of a dead man asks them not to. One of my favorite quotes is “My right to swing my fist ends at the other man’s nose.” I think that the Associated Press should keep that in mind.

Photo Manipulation

Adnan Hajj took a picture of Beirut, Lebanon after an Israeli strike force assaulted the city during the 2006 crisis. He took his original photograph, and Photoshopped it, badly. He took one of the plumes of smoke, and cloned it. He also cloned several of the buildings, making the Beirut skyline almost unrecognizable. He even darkened the skies of the city. His only defense was that he hadn't Photoshopped it, and had only enhanced it to remove dust. Eveyone suspects that he did it because he is Lebanese, and therefore wanted to show Israel in a negative light. In doing this, however, he took the journalistic integrity of Rueters, and tore it apart. This wasn't the first time he did this, but it was the last.

Enders Game

Most of the questions raised in my previous post have been answered. Third does, in fact, mean third child. The voices are actually the administrators at the military school Ender goes to, plotting against him. The monitor existed to see if he was indeed the "chosen one". the brilliant military leader that they needed. Ender is a quiet, intelligent little kid, who is more tactically brilliant than any of the other cadets. He always wins his battles against other students. He teaches a bunch of the other younger students the things that he learns in training, giving them a leg up on the older kids.
One thing of particular interest is the "Back Home" sequence with his brother Peter, and his sister Valentine. I only intend to say that Peter appears to have megalomania and delusions of grandeur, and I think he's going to become a serial killer.

Enders Game

So far, Ender seems like a fairly normal child. Maybe a little more violent than others, but mostl normal. There are a few things in the book that haven't been explained yet. One example is the word Third, which may mean that he's a third child. The monitor that had been in his neck has also not been explained. The voices at the beginning of the chapters not only seem odd, but also completely out of place. Hopefully, more information will be revealed in time.

Youtube.com

Whenever I want to listen to a new song, or see an ad for a movie, or any other thing, I look at Youtube.com.

Wikipedia.org

Sometimes, when I'm bored, I like to look up pages on Wikipedia.org. They have all kinds of information on any subject a person can think of.

Metallica.com

I really love Metallica.com. They have all kinds of things on one of the best bands in the world, METALLICA! My three favorite songs by them are Master of Puppets, Sad But True, and Enter Sandman. One, Turn the Page and The Thing that Should Not Be are all pretty good, too.