should there be a narrator?

For this movie, I don't think it would work well to have Sam as the narrator because Sean Astin's voice would not work well at all. I imagine they'll have Gandalf talk over the history of the rings of power and the Last Alliance and how it came to Frodo.

Maybe they'll have multiple narrator...I know that the movie starts with Bilbo saying something about darkness, So maybe he's the narrator for the first part (If one there is...)

Well.. i'm pretty stubborn with the idea that if there's a narrator, that should be Bilbo and no one else.

He started the Red Books and all and was writing Frodo's story at Rivendell... and ...and...

No more arguing... I won't change my ideas about that

From an audience point of view, long and frequent narratives are distracting. In theatre as well, it is difficult enough to maintain the "suspension of disbelief" that allows the audience to "get into" the story.

A narrative at the beginning of each movie will be indispensible. After that, it's best to rely on the presentation to unfold the tale as it does to the characters themselves.

Bilbo would be my sentimental favorite, but Frodo (or Sam reading to the next generation) would be the most accurate. But, for sheer presence, among the cast, they would most likely use Gandalf. In the HOBBIT play (in Australia?), Gandalf himself narrates. In the book, the text imposes itself as a storyteller/narrator.

In LOTR, we have a more removed, omniscient third person narrator. This makes the movie more true to the feeling of Tolkien's work if shot without narrative intrusion.

Yeah... you're probably right all the way... that would be the best way to do it.

Personally the best narrative I ever saw in a movie was in "The Princess Bride" Though the narrative went on throughout the movie, and even though there was a lot of it, at no point did it ever detract from what was going on but rather added immensly to it. Sometimes a long and continuous narrative can be good, its just hard to get it right.

Narrative is only useful when you skip parts of the story than would be too hard or too long to be shown on screen or too hard to understand for the public. If you use too much narration, you missed the point somewhere as much can be shown by scenes without resorting to narration.

Unless you decided to do it that way cause otherwise it would be impossible as I just mentionned, you're a bad director...

Gandalf or Bilbo would be my vote for narrator. Sam telling the story to his children would be cool but it would spoil the ending a little. Many people going to see the movie would already have read the books, but it does still serve as a reminder that they get out all right in the end if you see Sam with his children comfortably at home. Hmm...It would be funny, though, if one of Sam's children kept interrupting like the kid in The Princess Bride.:lol: Bilbo would be the logical choice for narrator, since he did supposedly write the books, and he mostly serves as an advisor to Frodo, and is never in a position where having him as narrator would be awkword. Gandalf would also be good, as he would have more of a "presence" than Bilbo, even though there might be less of a reason for him to tell the story.
Just my two cents

For an example of BAD narration, watch Dune... which by the way is a horrible movie and should not be taken as any kind of a representation of Frank Heberts books which are great.
But in addition to your normal narration they also have the type of narration where you hear what everyone is thinking.... only they do it constantly throughout the whole movie... it becomes extremely idiotic about 10 minutes in and by the end you want to shoot yourself.

Dune is horrible in every sense of the word. The books are great, but the movie, it just doesn't measure up. The narration in it didn't work(not much did).

A narrator for LotR would be interesting, if done correctly. Not too intrusive, but in the right places, at the right time. Bilbo would probably be the best for it, too. Or Gandalf.

last month i began to see Dune on TV. first i heard a narrator spoiling something of the plot (sorry, i cannot remember now what was the point), then i saw a great mouth speaking to the Emperor, then i switched off the TV.

i'm SURE i didn't miss anything good

First time I saw Dune, I woke up with the end credits.

I'd say turning LOTR into a good movie is almost as challenging as turning Dune into a good movie... and you all clearly have seen how that went. If Jackson pulls this off, I think we should start a new religion and worship him like those Scientoliigist worship L.Ron Hubbard.... only with more parties and cavorting.

That's ok for me... and I'm sure it will be good.

whether or not PJ does a good job on LotR, we should have parties & cavorting. if LotR turns out to be the best movie made in the history of the world, we could try the whole worship-Peter-Jackson thing; if not, we could go pillaging & destroying (or at least hunting...)

aryne *

Hummm party, pillaging, destroying... sounds nice to me

Sounds good to me! When the movie comes out, I'm waiting for someone else to see it first, then I can have some idea what to expect. If it turns out terrible, I'll still go simply to make fun of it. If it does turn out rotten, I hope they go all-out and make it REALLY awful, so that it will by the type of movie people will go and see simply to make fun of.

I hope it doesn't turn bad. If it turns out awful, I think I'll buy the bakshi version