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  Does any other Fan feel the Bakshi Film was Darker than Jackson Trilogy?

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Author Topic:   Does any other Fan feel the Bakshi Film was Darker than Jackson Trilogy?
NeedSpeed
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posted September 12, 2013 10:46 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I just watched earlier the much maligned 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings adapted by Ralph Bakshi. While it has glaring flaws, I enjoyed the movie to the point I say I LOVED it. If only Bakshi had a bigger budget, we can only imagine what the MASTERPIECE it would be.......


I still LOVE the Peter Jackson Trilogy more by a long shot. I will bluntly state its been years since I watched Jackson's Trilogy from start to end so I am recounting my memory but one area where I felt Jackson totally failed in adapting the book (and I just finished reading Tolkien's work in 1 volume compilation this weekend) was that it did not have the dark atmosphere of terror and hopelessness conveyed throughout the story (especially in the major battles like Moria and Hornberg).

I always felt with the way the heroes were massacring hordes of Orcs in Jackson's trilogy, it felt nothing but hopeless and even the Siege of Minas Tirith (which portrayed the terror Gondorian soldiers felt quite accurately to an extent) did not match the dark gloomy atmosphere of the book.

Not taking into account how seemingly superhuman the heroes were portrayed in Jackson's trilogy, I also felt Jackson's artwork was rather very bright and anything but gloomy. Don't get me wrong I just LOVE the Designs and Artworks of Jackson's vision of Middle Earth, they are just GORGEOUS but after reading the books when I look at them, esp. the Orcish designs I never get the feeling of doom and darkness the books portrayed Middle Earth as being during the War of the Rings.

This is were Ralph Bakshi's animated film reigns superior to Jackson's Trilogy. I won't deny the designs are rather crappy compared to Jackson but so the film as a whole felt dark and gloomy. Despite the bad designs, so many scenes were rather unnerving and had I watched the movie as a child I would have felt they were frightening. The sequence where the Dark Riders chased Frodo on horseback? Oh if the animation was much better, I would say it'd be absolutely terrifying. Even with the limits Bakshi had, I still felt the scene was scary and of impending doom.

While Bakshi does not capture just how terrifying Moria was in the book, he did a much better job of portraying how evil and dark the mines were than Jackson did. Minus his portrayal of Balrog (which Jackson really did a great job in his version) I felt the heroes were really in a Diabloesque style Dungeon trapped by hordes of demons and were desperately fighting their way out.

While Jackson's portrayal of the Battle of the Hornburg was much better (though Bakshi was more faithful to the book's descriptions), I felt Bakshi's version really did make the Orcs look really like creatures of the dark and so monstrous. I will admit I don't like the rotscoping the Bakshi's version used but nonetheless the way the movie portrayed the Siege felt like savage demons from darker Fantasy stories like Diablo were truly besieging the fortress.

I still LOVE Peter Jackson's Trilogy by the far more, but I really felt Peter Jackson created a much lighter more optimistic Middle Earth (despite creating such GORGEOUS artwork and architecture) and his version downplayed how dark and gloomy the book's world was like during this point of Middle Earth's history. I mean while Jackson's Dark Riders had the far better designs, I felt the way Bakshi portrayed them were scarier than Jackson's version (especially at the scene were Frodo was stabbed and later their chasing of him to Rivendell).

What do you think?Any Tolkien fan agree or disagree?

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