Better Late Than Never

I worked with a young man who loved marijuana.  He smoked it daily, yet it never seemed to effect him.  He spoke a lot about some book called The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Some story about another world within our world.  Sometimes, I would hear a few of the attorneys and paralegals discussing the book and they enjoyed using quotes from the book.


To me, it sounded like a fairy tale of little people.  I thought that pot smokers probably liked to hallucinate while reading the story. Later, The Lord of the Rings, became a popular movie in three parts. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King and all three won academy awards. I was still not interested. 

This year, 2012, a new movie,The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, came out and I skipped over it as I looked to see what other new movies were showing.  Then, I happened to be at Target and saw the trilogy of the Hobbit being sold for $4.95 each.  At 74 years old, I decided I would watch the three DVD's and find out what everyone had seemed to enjoy in my past.

 
After almost ten hours of getting involved with the characters, I knew why awards had been given.  The story is fascinating as it takes you through wars, unusual fighters, heroes, wizards, wild scenery, weird animals, and characters you end up hating and characters you cheer for their success!  Names that become familiar are Bilbo Baggins , Frodo, Aragron, Gollum, Saruman, Gimli, Eowyn, Legolas, Samwise, Pippin, Merry, Elrond, King Theoden, Sauron (eye of fire) and Warmtongue, to name a few of the many characters. Peter Jackson, the director of the movies, kept the suspense going so that I just had to keep watching to see what would happen next in the outrageous tale!

The clerk at Target, an avid Hobbit reader and movie watcher, informed me that the new Hobbit movie is the beginning, the first before the trilogies and he told me it would  give me a better understanding of the three DVD's I had purchased. The story of adventure and fantasy is probably better in book form, but for now I am satisfied with the movie version. Today I will go join other Hobbit fans at the theater!  

Note:  I am so glad I watched the trilogy of the Lord of Rings because I was able to understand the new movie by knowing most of the characters.  The ending was a let down, yet I understand why it ended where it did. The ending is the beginning of the next chapter of the Hobbit!